Roundtable: What Is a School? Is There a Fitzpatrick School of Soviet History
Roundtable: What Is a School? Is There a Fitzpatrick School of Soviet History

Summary/Abstract: Roundtables are exciting because of the multiple perspectives. To add a comparative perspective, I will try to frame the core sentiments and activities of the only two “schools” I know about in any detail. Despite vast differences, Fitzpatrick is certainly in good scholarly company with Vasil’ev and Zelnik. The appendix to my book To the Harbin Station analyzes the evolution of Russian sinology in the nineteenth century. The key figure, was V.P. Vasil’ev, who died in 1900 after fifty years of professorial duties in Kazan and then St. Petersburg. His students, everyone who mattered in Russian sinology at the time, venerated him for his high standards, his love of China and his commitment to finding them good jobs. This feeling comes across nicely in the letter penned by A.M. Pozdneev, Russia’s leading Mongolist, to P.S. Popov of the Foreign Ministry [...]

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