Militsa Nechkina

Militsa Vasilyevna Nechkina (Russian: Милица Васильевна Нечкина; 24 February 1899 – 16 May 1985) was a Soviet historian. She taught at Moscow State University and extensively studied the Decembrist revolt of 1825.

In this name that follows Eastern Slavic naming conventions, the patronymic is Vasilyevna and the family name is Nechkina.
Nechkina in 1947

Biography

Nechkina was born in Nizhyn, Russian Empire. She attended Kazan University, graduating in 1921. She began teaching history at Moscow State University in 1924 and became a doctor of historical sciences in 1936. She specialized in the study of the Decembrist revolt and was the first historian to write in detail about the social and ideological aspects of the revolt. As a historian, she also contributed to Soviet history topics in the Great Soviet Encyclopedia.[1]

During World War II, Nechkina was one of the Soviet historians who responded to the war by telling stories of historical Russian victories. She wrote articles for the press and often visited soldiers in hospitals and academies to tell them stories she believed would boost morale. Nechkina was particularly conflicted on how to describe the 1812 French invasion of Russia, which resulted in the fire of Moscow.[2] While she initially supported the historical consensus that the fire was started by Russian forces as part of a scorched earth strategy against the French invasion of Russia, by 1954 she wrote that it was caused by French forces.[3]

Nechkina was friends with fellow historian Natan Eidelman and worked with him on occasion. While reviewing his book about Decembrist revolutionary Michael Lunin, she chose not to criticize it for its sympathy to legalism and neoliberalism as an alternative to revolution, instead challenging it for its emphasis on individuals rather than societal aspects such as serfdom.[4]

Nechkina died in Moscow on 16 May 1985.[1]

Awards and honors

References
  1. "Нечкина Милица Васильевна" [Nechkina, Militsa Vasilievna]. mpgu.su (in Russian). Moscow State Pedagogical University. Retrieved 2023-05-12.
  2. Manley, Rebecca (2012). To the Tashkent Station: Evacuation and Survival in the Soviet Union at War. Cornell University Press. pp. 209–210. ISBN 978-0-8014-5900-9.
  3. Mikaberidze, Alexander (2014-02-11). The Burning of Moscow: Napoleon's Trail By Fire, 1812. Pen and Sword. Preface Note 39. ISBN 978-1-4738-3449-1.
  4. Khazanov, Pavel (2021). "The Most Important Thing Is To Remain a Human Being: Decembrist Protest, Soviet Lichnost, and the Post-1968 Mass-Market Histories of Natan Eidelman and Bulat Okudzhava". Slavic & East European Journal. 65 (3): 486–487. ISSN 0037-6752.
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