The Presidential Library recalled the historian Valentin Chernukha

On January 31, 2024, the Presidential Library, as part of the video lecture Knowledge of Russia hosted a lecture dedicated to Valentina Grigorievna Chernukha (1930–2014), a prominent Russian historian who made a significant contribution to the study of the internal politics of the Russian Empire in the second half of the 19th century.

The range of scientific problems that Valentina Grigorievna investigated was very wide, but the main theme remained the theme of the historical alternative: the choice made by the authorities and the opportunities for evolutionary (“peaceful”) modernization that they missed. Continuing the work of his mentor S. N. Valka together with colleagues at the St. Petersburg Institute of History of the Russian Academy of Sciences (formerly LOII) - V. S. Dyakin, Yu. B. Solovyov, R. Sh. Ganelin, B. V. Ananich, A. N. Tsamutali, V. A. Nardova, - V. G. Chernukha studied the multifaceted problem of the crisis of autocracy. January 31, 2024 marked the 10th anniversary of her death, so on this day the students gathered to remember their mentor.

The lecture “Valentina Grigoryevna Chernukha: Reflections of a Historian” was given by an associate researcher at the St. Petersburg Institute of History of the Russian Academy of Sciences in the department of modern history of Russia, associate professor, doctor of historical sciences, professor of the department of history of Russia from ancient times to the beginning of the 19th century and professor of the department of humanities education Vyborg branch of the Herzen State Pedagogical University of Russia, student of V. G. Chernukha, Inna Barykina. The event also included an associate employee of the St. Petersburg Institute of History of the Russian Academy of Sciences, head of the Department of History and Philosophy of the St. Petersburg State University of Aerospace Instrumentation, Associate Professor, Doctor of Historical Sciences Leonid Gusman.

When studying many issues of the internal politics of the Russian Empire in the second half of the 19th century, Valentina Grigorievna Chernukha often had to be the first - in her own words, “to wander through virgin soil”, paving the way for the next generations and passing on the “baton of the baton” to them. She became such a pioneer in the study of previously unexplored aspects of government constitutionalism and the struggle for the creation of the cabinet of ministers, the first period of the Council of Ministers (1857–1882) and government policy regarding the press, the history of the passport system. The result of the work on each aspect of domestic policy was a series of articles and a monograph, and some of the materials remained outside the scope of publications, among drafts.

In one of her speeches to the audience, Valentina Grigorievna emphasized that “this is not a narrative, but the reflections of a researcher, in which there are more questions than answers”.

The video lecture continued the series Outstanding Historians of the 19th–20th Centuries, which the Presidential Library conducts jointly with the St. Petersburg Institute of History of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

The event recording is available on the institution’s Rutube-channel.