The Department of Rare Books of the VSU Regional Scientific Library houses a collection of books by Ilya Borozdin, an outstanding historian, a prominent professor of Voronezh State University whose 140th anniversary was celebrated on 4 November. Several generations of undergraduate and postgraduate students and teachers know very well the name of this scientist and educator.
Ilya Borozdin was born on 4 November 1883 in Yaroslavl, to an old noble family whose history dates back over 600 years. Most of his life was connected with Moscow where his family moved to when he was a child. Ilya Borozdin studied at the 3rd Moscow Gymnasium, after graduating from which in 1902 he entered the Faculty of History and Philology of Moscow State University.
When he was a schoolboy, he became interested in general history, the history of Western literature, and began to collect books. His mother, Yulia, played an important role in shaping his attachments and developing his talents. She knew many famous people of that time and was on friendly terms with them. Among visitors to her house were many prominent scientists, writers, poets, actors, and travellers: Maria Yermolova, Alexander Lensky, Vasily Rozanov, Maximilian Voloshin, Jurgis Baltrušaitis, and Valery Bryusov.
Ilya Borozdin's mentor and friend was Professor Nikolai Storozhenko, a prominent Shakespeare scholar, Vice-President of the New Shakespeare Society in London, professor at Moscow State University, and curator of the library at the Rumyantsev Museum.
Under the influence of writers, poets, artists, theatre professionals, and scientists that surrounded him, the young man’s character was formed as well as his interests, and hobbies. His friends often gave him their inscribed books. Today, by these inscriptions we can judge how loved and respected the scientist was by the most famous people of that time, whose books have long become a bibliographic rarity.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the articles by Ilya Borozdin were actively published in the most popular magazines of that time.
In 1913, the scientist became the secretary of the Moscow Archaeological Society. After the revolution of 1917, he worked for the People's Commissariat of Education of the RSFSR and taught in higher educational institutions of Moscow. He was a member of the All-Union Scientific Association of Orientalists and the Head of the section of the journal “Novyi Vostok”. Several times, Ilya Borozdin was made a political prisoner. In 1949, after his last exile, Ilya Borozdin and his wife moved to Voronezh where he headed the Department of General History of Voronezh State University.
The professor possessed encyclopaedic knowledge. His research interests included history and the historiography of general history, archaeology, literary studies, the history of international relations, the history of art, and much more. He published about 500 works on history, historiography, archaeology, and a number of articles on historical novels. Over 10 years of his work at VSU, Borozdin formed two scientific areas: historiography and Slavic studies and trained several high-profile specialists: Viktor Afonyushkin, Vladimir Gusev, Natalia Sapronova, and Irina Romanova. Ilya Borozdin's extensive library is still admired. Following her husband's wishes, his widow, Polina Borozdina, donated a significant part of this unique book collection to the VSU Scientific Library. This includes about 5,000 copies of books, magazines, and photoprints. The gem of this collection is more than 1,000 autographs of scientists and cultural figures addressed to the scientist. Among the authors of inscriptions are: Konstantin Balmont, Vasily Bartold, Andrey Bely, Alexander Blok, Valery Bryusov, Pavel Vinogradov, Maximilian Voloshin, Vladimir Gerier, Sergey Yesenin, Maxim Kovalevsky, Pavel Kropotkin, Anatoly Mariengof, Nikolay Storozhenko, Evgeny Tarle, and Boris Turaev. In addition, the collection also contains books with inscriptions by Voronezh scholars: Vladimir Gusev, Vladimir Dunaevsky, Sergey Lazutin, Vikentiy Lystsov, and Evgeny Shulyakovsky.
You can see the rarities of Ilya Borozdin's library in the department of rare books of the VSU Scientific Library at the address: Prospekt Revolutsii, 24, room 222.
