An Unpublished Monograph by S. K. Bogoyavlensky on Russian-Serbian Relations in the 18th Century

Abstract

In the academic biography of the outstanding historian, archeographer, and archaeologist Sergey Konstantinovich Bogoyavlensky (1871–1947), despite his well-deserved fame, there are still a number of unclear aspects. The scholar earned recognition among his colleagues primarily as a researcher of Russian history in the 16th–17th centuries; he was considered an exceptional expert on archives and historical sources, especially the administrative documentation of that period. Thanks to his scientific work in these areas, S.K. Bogoyavlensky was elected a corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences (1929). However, in his later years, at the age of almost 70, he unexpectedly broadened the scope of his historical research, paying close attention to the study of the past of Serbia and Montenegro, including Russian-Serbian and Russian-Montenegrin relations in the 18th century. The events of World War II partly hindered S. K. Bogoyavlensky's research in the field of Slavic studies, but also stimulated it. The scholar managed to publish only two articles on this subject. However, the amount of archival materials he collected and the works he wrote on the history of the South Slavs, which he mainly created between 1941 and 1945, are much larger in volume and broader in chronological scope than the two published works. Therefore, this article focuses on S. K. Bogoyavlensky's unfinished work, which remains in manuscript form. This is one of his last historical works — a book on the history of Russian-Serbian and Russian-Montenegrin relations in the 18th century. It has been preserved in two versions, both of which are kept in the Archive of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow. A comparative study of both versions made it possible to characterize the content features of this unpublished book and conclude that its timely publication, had it taken place, would have had a significant impact on historical research in the field of Slavic studies in the second half of the 20^th century.

Acknowledgments

I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Andrei V. Melnikov for his useful discussions regarding the concept of this article and his help in working with sources from the Scientific Archive of the Institute of Russian History of the Russian Academy of Sciences. I would also like to thank Jamilia N. Ramazanova for her valuable advice and comments, which inspired me to write this article.

Received 25 September 2025

Revised 29 October 2025

Accepted 21 November 2025 

For citation: Polonski, D. G., 2025. An Unpublished Monograph by S. K. Bogoyavlensky on Russian-Serbian Relations in the 18^th Century. Slavic World in the Third Millennium, 20 (3–4), pp. 36–51. https://doi.org/10.31168/2412-6446.2025.20.3-4.02