At various stages of his long and very active creative life, Apollon Borisovich Davidson always adheres to the rule that all those who work with him, his numerous students, readers of his books and articles have well learned. As a true historian, he always seeks to justify his judgment, assessment, forecast with the help of a document, a reliable source, materials that have their own fate and character.

Recently, he greatly facilitated the task of his colleagues and biographers by "introducing into scientific circulation", as it is commonly defined officially, a new document - "pages of life" (Davidson, 2008). The publisher's abstract says that " the book is richly populated with the most interesting people." Apollo Borisovich himself is not so much among these people, we have not so much a "portrait against the background of an epoch" as a portrait of the epoch itself, through which the author's character appears. That is why we, his colleagues and students, wanted to say a few words about him in the 80th anniversary autumn.

Apollon Borisovich was born on August 23, 1929 in the Siberian village of Ermakovo. When the mother was able to get to the nearest village council, the record book for August was already closed, and the birth of her son had to be registered on September 1. His childhood was not easy: from 1928 to 1956, his father was intermittently exiled or deprived of the right to live in large cities, both grandfathers died during the famine in the Volga region in 1921, and most of his relatives died during the blockade in 1941 and 1942. Apollo Borisovich himself miraculously survived the terrible winter of the siege, was taken out on the Road of Life, was evacuated in Sverdlovsk, and briefly studied in Moscow. To support herself and her son, the mother went through dozens of jobs, always low-paying: she had a high school education, but did not have a specialty. As a schoolboy, Apollon Borisovich began to earn a living-he became a bookbinder. He graduated from one of the best schools after the war in Leningrad. In 1948, he entered the History Department of Leningrad University with a specialization in the history of international relations. Explaining why he became involved in Africa, Apollon Borisovich recalls the books of his childhood-R. Haggard, L. Kropotkin. Boussenard, Main Rida, who went to the lists of Gumilyov's African poems. But most likely, the main reason was that the African continent was not in the center of attention at that time, and there was more freedom for independent assessments when studying it. The head of Davidson's work was a teacher of the Faculty of History, but the faculty did not really deal with Africa, so the real head, and then a friend for many years, was then the head of the Department of African Studies at the Faculty of Oriental Studies, D. A. Olderogge.

Shortly before graduating from Leningrad State University in 1953, Apollon Borisovich began sending job requests all over the country, but even from the most remote corners there were refusals: there was a struggle with cosmopolitanism, a graduate with the surname "Davidson" had no chance of getting a job. After Stalin's death, I managed to enter the postgraduate program of the Moscow Institute of History in the sector of modern History, where such outstanding scientists as A. Z. Manfred, B. F. Porshnev, A. S. Yerusalimsky, F. V. Potemkin worked. They did not study Africa here either, but the school they completed determined the level of professionalism with which Apollon Borisovich later approached the study of African problems. He specialized in the colonial policy of Great Britain under the guidance of the English scholar N. A. Yerofeyev, with whom he had a long-term friendship. In 1956, he defended his PhD thesis "The Conquest of Rhodesia", but the Institute of History did not leave him.

The famous phrase from Mikoyan's speech at the XX Party Congress "The East has woken up, but Soviet Oriental studies are still asleep" determined the scientific fate of Apollo Borisovich. In Soviet foreign policy, there was a turn to the East, and later to Africa, and the first center of the Soviet Union was created.-

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University of African Studies at the Institute of Oriental Studies. I. I. Potekhin, who headed the Africa Department, was one of the first to hire Davidson.

Monograph of a young scientist " Matabele and Mashona in the struggle against English colonization. 1888-1897 " was published in 1958. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the beginning of decolonization attracted the attention of researchers all over the world, but only two domestic books of the 1950s-"The Peoples of Africa" edited by D. A. Olderogge and I. I. Potekhin and "Matabele and Mashona..." - aroused real interest in world African studies [Contact. 21.03.1959].

The organizers of the first international conference on the history of Africa (Dar es Salaam, 1965) allocated Apollo Borisovich a whole day to report and conduct a discussion on the problems of African resistance to colonial conquest. Such a proposal was, in essence, a recognition of the contribution of the young Soviet African studies to the study of the continent's history. But Davidson was not allowed to go abroad, and his report was read out at the conference and published in Africa and America [Davidson, 1968; 1970].

"The Modern History of Africa", which Apollon Borisovich prepared together with S. R. Smirnov and G. A. Nersesov, became one of the first generalizing works on the history of Africa in world historiography. Its two editions in Russian (1964, 1967) and English (1968) took several years to complete. In the 1970s and early 1980s, Apollon Borisovich wrote chapters on the history of Tropical and Southern Africa for the XI, XII and XIII volumes of World History, chapters on South Africa for the History of Africa in the XIX-early XX centuries and the two-volume National Liberation Struggle of the Peoples of Africa. and one of the few Soviet authors of the Universal History of Africa, published under the auspices of UNESCO.

At the turn of the 1950s and 1960s, African departments were established in many government agencies and public organizations, in publishing houses, magazines, and on the radio. The first embassies and offices were opened in African countries. However, universities were just beginning to train specialists in Africa, and there were not enough of them. Therefore, the Institute of Africa of the USSR Academy of Sciences, established in 1959, received numerous "tasks" from "above": employees compiled information on topical events on the continent, gave public lectures, etc. In the summer of 1964, shortly before his death, I. I. Potekhin, the first director of the Institute of Africa, advised Davidson not to waste time on rather, write a doctoral dissertation.

His doctoral dissertation was defended in early 1971 and immediately published in the book "South Africa-the Formation of Protest Forces, 1870-1924 "(Moscow, 1972). It analyzed new forms of anti-colonialism that emerged after the suppression of" traditional " resistance. A huge amount of material was collected about the early forms of organization and protest of the black urban population, about the origin and activities of the socialist and communist parties. The work was based on unique sources. Veterans of the anti-apartheid movement gave the author the opportunity to use their rich personal archives. The Hoover Institution of America sent microfilms of its vast collection of South African documents for 1902-1963. A. B. Davidson also got the rare opportunity to work with the documents of the Comintern archive, although they were not allowed to refer to them. This study has become a major contribution to the development of not only Russian African studies, but also historiography in general, enriching it with a new theme and approach.

At the same time, A. B. Davidson studied the history of relations between Russia and Africa, and in 1965 organized the conference "Historical Relations between Russia and the Peoples of Africa", the materials of which were published in English and French. : Russia and Africa, 1966]. Then, under his editorship, the collections "Africa through the eyes of our compatriots" (Moscow, 1974) and "Studying Africa in Russia. The pre-revolutionary Period "(Moscow, 1977), as well as two books on the history of relations between Russia and Africa in the XVIII and XIX centuries: "The Image of a Distant Country" and "The Call of Distant Seas" (Davidson, Makrushin, 1975; 1979). In these works, A. B. Davidson was interested not so much in the political relations between a particular region of the world and Russia, but in the mutual representations of Russia and Africa - an approach that did not fit well into the framework and style of Marxist historiography of the 1970s. They were read not only by professional historians, but also by the general public.

Apollon Borisovich always strives to analyze historical events and phenomena through the destinies of people. Most likely, this is a reaction to the primitive sociologization of history that was imposed on his generation during his studies. In 1984, his book "Cecil Rohde and his time" was published, and in 1988 it was published in English. The book is devoted to a greater degree of reinterpretation

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rather than the details of Rhodes ' biography, as English authors usually write in this genre. In England, however, it was highly praised in a review by T. Ranger, a Rhodes professor at Oxford. [South African Review..., 1989, October - November]. In the 1990s, interest in the imperial theme increased. At the request of the Olympus Publishing house, Davidson wrote a new book about Rhodes, Cecil Rode-The Empire Builder. It was published in 1998 in a large circulation for those years (15 thousand copies) and quickly sold out. Its English edition appeared in Pretoria in 2003.

In the 1990s, A. B. Davidson devoted many of his works to the topic "Africa in the history of Russia" - how the image of the distant continent changed in the public consciousness of Russians, what place it occupied in the socio-political life of the country in different years, and why this happened. In 1992, a long-planned book about Gumilyov's African travels was published (Davidson, 1992). He collected materials for it for several decades: Back in the early 1960s, he interviewed Anna Akhmatova, later Irina Odoyevtseva and Lev Nikolaevich Gumilev, asked those who still remembered the atmosphere of the Silver Age, and searched for unpublished memoirs and diaries. Only an unusual combination of the author's interests and the encyclopedic nature of his knowledge allowed us to recreate a broad and vivid picture of the poet's African travels. In 2001, Apollon Borisovich published a new book about Gumilev, the main theme of which was the personality of the poet, as well as the enthusiasm of Russian literary circles in the early XX century. eastern and African exotics (Davidson, 2001).

A. B. Davidson's book "The Russians and the Boer War", co-authored with I. I. Filatova, was published in Cape Town in 1998 (Davidson and Filatova, 1998). The uniqueness of the information collected in it, the "personal" approach to the topic that is unusual for English-language historiography, and the lively manner of presentation caused numerous responses: about three dozen reviews in newspapers and magazines in South Africa, England, and Russia. Reviewers noted that the book is essentially written about Russia, about the perception of the Anglo-Boer War and related problems in Russian society.

One of the most important research interests of Apollon Borisovich is the history of Russian African studies. With his publications about D. A. Olderogge, N. A. Yerofeyev, I. I. Potekhin, E. Schick, A. Z. Zusmanovich, I. L. Snegirev, M. B. Rabinovich, G. A. Nersesov, V. Ya. Golanta, O. K. Dreyer and many others, Apollon Borisovich pays tribute to his teachers and senior colleagues and conveys the best of their traditions new generations. He also writes about the origins of Russian African studies: about those who studied Africa in the Comintern and its schools, and about those who studied in these schools. He summarized his publications on these topics in two books published in 2003: "Moscow Africa "and" The Formation of Russian African Studies. 1920s-early 1960s" [Davidson, Ivanova, 2003; Formation..., 2003].

No matter what team Apollon Borisovich works in, he invariably becomes the initiator of new scientific directions. In 1971. he organized the Africa sector at the Institute of Universal History, and in a short time the staff of the sector and other well-known Africanists prepared collective monographs "Source Studies of African History" (Moscow, 1977) and "Historical Science in African countries" (Moscow, 1979). The work on source studies was among the first studies published in world African studies on this topic; the study of African historiography was the first. They are still used by African students.

At the end of 1979, the sector was abolished, and Apollon Borisovich headed the group for the study of national problems at the Institute of Oriental Studies. In February 1984, the Africa Sector at the Institute of International Relations of the Russian Academy of Sciences (now the Center for African Studies) resumed its work under the leadership of Davidson. With the expansion of the possibilities of working in foreign archives, and then the opening of domestic archives, the collection, analysis and publication of new historical documents became an important area of the center's work. In 2001, under the editorship of A. B. Davidson, two volumes of documents " Russia and Africa. Documents and materials. XVIII century-1960"; in 2002, in collaboration with colleagues S. V. Mazov and G. V. Tsypkin - the book " The USSR and Africa. 1918-1960. The documented history of mutual relations"; in 2003-a volume of documents "Comintern and Africa". In 2003, a two-volume book of documents "South Africa and the Communist International" was published in London in English [South Africa..., vols. I, II, 2003]. In 2005-2007 he published a three-volume book entitled "The History of Africa in Documents" [History of Africa..., vol. 1-3, 2005-2007], which received high reviews from specialists.

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A born teacher, Apollon Borisovich is a bright lecturer, always able to captivate and convince. He has lectured at the Higher Diplomatic School (now the Diplomatic Academy of the Russian Foreign Ministry), the Peoples ' Friendship University, and the Institute of Social Sciences for African Politicians. Among its former students are Russian and foreign journalists, diplomats, scientists, teachers, politicians, parliamentarians, ministers, public and state figures. Apollon Borisovich has trained more than 40 candidates of science; some of his former students and postgraduates have defended their doctoral theses. In the 1990s, he taught in America and at many universities in South Africa, since 2004-at the Higher School of Economics,and in recent years - at the State University of Humanities. And yet, his main and favorite university is Moscow State University. He has been lecturing at the Institute of Asian and African Countries and at the Faculty of History since 1962. For the first time at Moscow State University, he developed courses on modern and contemporary African history, source studies and historiography of African history. He wrote chapters for textbooks on the recent history of Asian and African countries (1989), "The History of Tropical and Tropical Africa". South Africa, 1918-1988 " was published under his editorship.

The breadth of Apollon Borisovich's research interests can be judged by the courses of lectures that he gives today at the Higher School of Economics: "History of the XX century", "Afro-Asianization of the modern world", "Silver Age of Russian Literature", "Culture of the Soviet era". Some of these courses are electives, but students come to them from year to year. Their friends from other universities also come.

In 1977-1992. Apollon Borisovich was repeatedly invited to participate in the Dartmouth conferences, which were then the most important non-governmental channel in the Soviet-American dialogue. A. B. Davidson was assigned to conduct negotiations on African issues in discussions that were attended by American and Soviet politicians and scientists, diplomats and representatives of the business world (D. Rockefeller, E. M. Primakov, G. A. Arbatov, etc.).

For decades, Apollon Borisovich introduced the Russian reading public to the cultural and social life of Africa, and Africans to the history and culture of Russia. This is especially important in relations between South Africa and Russia, since there have been no official ties between them since the mid-1950s. Since the late 1980s, contact opportunities have expanded significantly. The role of Apollon Borisovich in this process cannot be overestimated. In 1988, together with African scholars from many countries around the world, he participated for several months in the South African Program at Yale University; in 1989, he became the head of the first delegation of Russian scientists invited to South Africa. This was followed by numerous invitations to universities in this country, and as a result, in 1994, the Center for Russian Studies at the University of Cape Town was established, headed by A. B. Davidson.

South African President Nelson Mandela said at the opening ceremony of the center: "We appreciate the fact that Professor Apollo Davidson and his colleagues are well aware of the true scale of ties between our two countries. They have personal experience of these long-term relationships... " [Speechby President..., 1995, p. 6]. During the four years of the center's existence, Apollon Borisovich and his colleagues gave lectures on the history and culture of Russia, published articles about Russia in South Africa and about South Africa in Russia, held several conferences with the participation of prominent scientists and public figures from both countries, organized (for the first time in Cape Town) training in the Russian language, and published the collection "Russia in the Modern World "(Cape Town, 1995).

Along with African studies, Apollon Borisovich has been paying considerable attention to English studies for many years. Since 2000, he has been President of the Russian Association for British Studies, and has edited three collections of Russia and Britain [Russia and Britain, 2002; 2006; 2009], annual joint Anglo-Russian conferences were organized.

The recently published memoirs of Apollon Borisovich are an honest testimony of a historian whose life fell on very difficult and often tragic years of our history. For all its thoroughness and documentariness, the memoirs are jokingly called "memoires" by the author and are full of such optimism that when you finish reading them, you don't want to put them aside. The kindness and generosity of the author conquer. Friends, colleagues, and students of Apollon Borisovich once again receive a boost of cheerfulness from him, make sure that he is ready to support, help, and understand. Such readiness is born from the breadth of the soul.

Polish poet and satirical philosopher Stanislaw Jerzy Lez, regularly quoted by Apollon Borisovich, argued that the length of life is measured by its width. A historian by vocation and way of life, a fan of poetry and ironic philosophy, a deep connoisseur of distant countries and nepotism. -

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Apollo Borisovich Davidson, an educator and teacher, convinces us all of the validity of this statement.

COLLEAGUES AND FRIENDS

list of literature

Davidson A. B. Muse of Nikolai Gumilyov's travels.
Davidson A. B. Nikolai Gumilev. Poet, traveler, warrior. Smolensk, 2001.

Davidson A. B. I love you: pages of life. Moscow: MIK Publ., 2008.

Davidson A. B., Ivanova L. V. Moscow Africa. Moscow, 2003.

Davidson A. B., Makrushin V. A. The image of a distant country.
Davidson A. B., Makrushin V. A. The call of distant seas. Moscow, 1979.

History of Africa in documents, 1870-2000 Ed. by A. B. Davidson, Vol. 1-3, Moscow, 2005-2007.

New and recent history. 1999. N 2.

Russia and Britain. Issue 3. In the world of English History. In memory of Academician V. G. Trukhanovsky, Moscow, 2002; Russia and Britain. Issue 4. Connections and mutual representations of the XIX-XX centuries. Moscow, 2006; Russia and Britain. Issue 5. On the way to mutual understanding.
Formation of Russian African studies, 1920s-early 1960s / Edited by A. B. Davidson, Moscow, 2003.

Contact. 21.03.1959 (Cape Town).

Davidson A. B. African Resistance and Rebellion Against the Imposition of Colonial Rule // Emerging Themes of African History / Ed. by T. Ranger. Nairobi, 1968.

Davidson A. B. African Resistance and Rebellion Against the Imposition of Colonial Rule // Problems in the History of Colonial Africa, 1860-1960 / Ed. By R. O'Collins. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1970.

Davidson A. B., Filatova I. I. The Russians and the Anglo-Boer War. Cape Town, 1998. See the review of this book: New and recent history. 1998. N 6.

Russia and Africa / Ed. by A. B. Davidson, D. A. Olderogge, V. G. Solodovnikov. M., 1966.

South Africa and the Communist International. A Documentary History / Ed. By A. Davidson, I. Filatova, V. Gorodnov, S. Johns. Vols. I, II. L., 2003.

South African Review of Books. 1989. October - November.

Speech by President Nelson Mandela at the opening of the Centre for Russian Studies of the University of Cape Town. Delivered by Cabinet Minister Pallo Jordan. Wednesday, 17 August 1994. // Russia in the Contemporary World. Proceedings of the First Symposium in South Africa, Centre for Russian Studies, University of Cape Town, 17-19 August 1994 / Ed. by A. B. Davidson, I. I. Filatova. Cape Town, 1995.

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