«I AM AT VARIANCE WITH ALMOST EVERYONE»: LETTERS OF M.JA. SJUZJUMOV TO A.I. NEUSYKHIN

The author of the publication acquaints the reader with the letters of the Byzantinist M.Ja. Sjuzjumov to a medievalist, researcher of barbaric codes A.I. Neusykhin. These letters are from the personal archival collection of A.I. Neusykhin had never been published before, although they were once cited in the scientific literature. The significance of this source is great both for scientific discussions about feudalism in general and the proper use of this term, and for the history of science, especially considering the fact that the response letters of A.I. Neusykhin to M.Ja. Sjuzjumov was not preserved in the personal archival collection of the latter. The introductory article discusses a brief biography of M.Ja. Sjuzjumov and his relationship with A.I. Neusykhin, features of his scientific discussions about feudalism with colleagues – researchers of the Western Middle Ages and Byzantine Middle Ages (E.V. Gutnova, Z.V. Udal’cova, A.I. Neusykhin, A.P. Kazhdan, etc.). In Soviet times, the views of M.Ja. Sjuzjumov on feudalism in Byzantium were criticized by the leading researchers of Western Europe in USSR, and the answers of M.Ja. Sjuzjumov to the objections of his colleagues were either not allowed in the press, or were published with significant revisions, which sometimes changed the meaning of his views. M.Ja. Sjuzjumov criticizes also the fundamentals of the humanities of that time, proposed by I.V. Stalin’s definition of the feudal system. In the surviving letters, it is possible to read the point of view and argumentation of the outstanding researcher without cuts and corrections, which he expresses quite vividly and emotionally in a private conversation. Being confident in his rightness, the scientist quite consciously writes: “I have many disagreements with almost everyone, and I am absolutely not inclined to concede in almost anything.”

M.Ja. Sjuzjumov, byzantinists, history of science, feudalism, scholar discussions, A.I. Neusykhin, Soviet science, barbarian codes, Byzantium, personal archival collections of the Archive of the Russian Academy of Sciences