Elena Druzhinina is a Soviet and Russian historian. A specialist in the history of Russian diplomacy in the 18th century, the history of the Northern Black Sea region, she was an employee of the Institute of History of the USSR Academy of Sciences, doctor of historical sciences. She was a corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences.
The biography of the future scientist-historian Elena Chistyakova-Druzhinina began in 1916. The girl was born on March 29 (April 11). Parents have already raised one child. The girl's brother Nikolai became a doctor of technical sciences.
Choosing the future
The mother of Elena Ioasafovna Druzhinina, Sventsitskaya Olga Vladimirovna, was a gifted person. Nature has endowed her with a beautiful voice and artistry. She performed in concerts, led an amateur choir, and brought up many students.
Olga Sventsitskaya received her mathematical education at the Moscow Higher Courses for Women. There she met her future husband. Ioasaf Ivanovich Chistyakov, while still in high school, helped his parents. He came from a large family of a priest.
The boy studied with the students. Graduate studied at Moscow University. The third-year student was awarded a gold medal for his research on Bernoulli's Numbers. The work was soon published. After graduation, the student stayed at the university and became a professor of mathematics. He made a significant contribution to the development of this discipline. Ioasaf Ivanovich taught, founded the journals "Mathematics in School" and "Mathematical Education".
At home, music was constantly playing. From an early age, Elena dreamed of a career as a ballerina, attended choreographic courses. In early May 1927, she performed on the stage of the Bolshoi Theater in a reporting performance.
History was not taught at the school where the girl studied. Children received elements of knowledge on discipline in literature. The teacher’s stories were blown out by Lena Chistyakova. She was carried away by the creativity and history of the various intelligentsia.
Ekaterina Kuzminichna Severnaya, her teacher, noted the independence of the student's thoughts. In 1931, the Institute of New Languages began work in Moscow. Then it was renamed into the Moscow State Pedagogical Institute named after Maurice Torez.
History education
In 1931, translators were trained at the excursion and translation department of the university. The age of the applicants did not matter. The main requirement was knowledge of a foreign language. Applicants could apply not only for the first year. Everything was determined by the degree of language proficiency.
Elena studied German at school and in private lessons at the insistence of her father with her brother. The girl was admitted to the new metropolitan institute. The student studied German. From the first year after the exam, she was transferred immediately to the third. At the beginning of 1934, the training was completed ahead of schedule.
After university Chistyakova worked as a guide-translator. In the fall of 1936, the girl became a student at the history department of the capital's university. Elena chose Russian history as her specialization. The leading course was called "History of the Peoples of the USSR". The lectures were led by Professor Nechkina.
The beginning of the Great Patriotic War coincided with the passing of state exams and graduation from the university. From August 1941, Elena became a military translator at the front. She not only interrogated the prisoners of war, but also translated the papers found in the dugouts left by the enemy. For some of them, she later wrote articles published in the front-line newspaper.
In the summer of 1943, Elena returned to the capital. She began to work in the Central Office of the NKGB, translated from several languages. Until 1944, before entering graduate school, the girl remained liable for military service. Druzhinina wrote her memoirs about her work as a military translator.
New perspectives
When the Institute of History returned to Moscow from evacuation, Elena's free time was spent attending meetings there. Attaching her work and recommendations of teachers to her application for admission to graduate school, the girl decided to continue her studies at the university. After admission, Nechkina turned to the girl's leadership with a request to release the talented researcher from her main work in order to continue her historical education.
The girl chose the Kuchuk-Kainardzhiyskiy world of 1774 as the topic of her dissertation. The name was given to him by the place of signing the treaty, the Bulgarian village of Malaya Kainardzha. The agreement was assessed by the study of the economic and political state of the countries, as well as by the study of the then international situation.
In May 1944, Chistyakova returned to her chosen profession. At the institute, she was admitted to the history sector of the year before last - the beginning of the last century, headed by her future husband, Nikolai Mikhailovich Druzhinin.
In 1946, Elena was invited to take the position of junior research assistant in the sector of military history. The head of it tried to recruit employees from among the participants in the Great Patriotic War.
Chistyakova was entrusted with the work of the scientific secretary and the compilation of a three-volume documentary “A. V. Suvorov . The documents necessary for the work were kept at the Central State Archive. The warehouse quickly became the employee's main place of work.
Summarizing
Druzhinina achieved outstanding results, becoming a famous historian, a specialist in domestic diplomatic activity in the Northern Black Sea region and the Balkans in the second half of the 18th century.
Her monograph "Kuchuk-Kainadzhiyskiymir 1774 (its preparation and conclusion)" was recognized as a classic. In this work, for the first time in the historiography of the country, the multiplicity of the meanings of the contract was considered.
The main thing for the study was the development of the Northern Black Sea region. Druzhinina wrote three monographs and many scientific articles on this topic. On the basis of previously unpublished archival data, almost all possible aspects of the development of Novorossia before the reforms are considered in detail.
All the works written by the scientist to this day remain unsurpassed in historiography. Elena Ioasafovna left life in 2000, on December 12.
