“History is a Trap that is Hard to Escape”. Memoirs of V. I. Kosik in the Form of an Interview
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31168/2412-6446.2024.19.3-4.14Keywords:
History of Bulgaria, history of Yugoslavia, Russian post-revolutionary emigration in the Balkans, culture of Russian diaspora, cultural ties between Russia and Slavic peoples, interethnic relations in the Balkans, history of Russian social thought, history of inter-church ties in modern timesAbstract
A prominent Russian expert in Balkan history Doctor of Historical Sciences Viktor Ivanovich Kosik (born in 1944) talks about his life and career at the request of the editors of the magazine “Slavic World in the Third Millennium”. Graduate of the Department of History of Southern and Western Slavs, Viktor I. Kosik initially specialized in problems of the modern history of Bulgaria. Later, in the 1970s, he worked for several years at the House of Soviet Culture in Belgrade and this experience contributed to the expansion of his horizons as a researcher. After completing his postgraduate studies at the Institute of Slavic and Balkan Studies of the Academy of Sciences of USSR, Viktor I. Kosik, a disciple of academician Yury A. Pisarev, became an employee of the Institute in 1982, and all his further professional activities are closely connected with Inslav. The subject of his earlier major works were the problems of the diplomatic history of the Balkans after the Berlin Congress of 1878 and, above all, Russian policy towards Bulgaria in the 1880s – 1890s. In the early 1990s, when the possibilities of studying the history of Russian post-revolutionary emigration on a broader documentary basis were expanding, Viktor Kosik was among the first historians who decided to devote themselves this field, not only in Russian archives, but also abroad. His numerous works on the history of Russian emigration in Yugoslavia and Bulgaria show the comprehensive contribution of immigrants from Russia to the culture, science, and social life of the countries that adopted them. These works brought Viktor I. Kosik recognition among the colleagues, historians. His deep knowledge of the history of Russian diaspora at the Balkans combines with interest in Russian social thought; he is the author of one of the first monographs on the system of views of Konstantin Leontyev in modern Russia. Viktor I. Kosik also addressed in a number of works the problems of church history of the Balkans in the 20th century. In the book “Mined Culture,” which was the result of many years of archival research and reflection on broad Balkan material about the difficult paths of the history of this region, Viktor Ivanovich tries to identify the origins of national intolerance, which poses a serious threat to the mutual understanding of neighboring peoples. He shared his thoughts about the fate of the Balkans with our readers. Viktor I. Kosik, who grew up in post-war Moscow, talks about his childhood, youth, student and graduate years, remembers teachers and senior colleagues, shares his impressions of trips to Bulgaria and Yugoslavia, talks about his communication with prominent historians (domestic and foreign), as well as with members of Russian diaspora in the Balkan countries.
Received 9 July 2024
Revised 4 October 2024
Accepted 5 December 2024
How to cite: Kosik, V. I., 2024. “History is a Trap that is Hard to Escape”. Memoirs of V. I. Kosik in the Form of an Interview. Slavic World in the Third Millennium, 19 (3–4), pp. 252–297. https://doi.org/10.31168/2412-6446.2024.19.3-4.14
