David Borisovich Ryazanov: as Director of the K. Marx and F. Engels Institute: Serving Science

Abstract

The activities of D.B. Ryazanov as director of the Institute of K. Marx and F. Engels are analyzed. The milestones of his life and creative path, scientific works, and multifaceted activities to collect the documentary heritage of the founders of Marxism are presented. The formation of a unique Archive of the Institute is shown, which concentrated documents, many of which were preserved only in copies or originals purchased by the Institute, since after Hitler came to power in 1933, a significant part of the documents stored in Europe were lost. Thus, the IME Archive (now in RGASPI) has become the largest archive containing documents that have no analogues anywhere in the world. An analysis of the archaeographic activities of the Institute is given, and the publications of scientific works of Western European thinkers are characterized. It is concluded that by the mid-1920s the Institute had become an international research center for the study of Marxism. Dramatic pages in the history of the Institute in the late 1920s and early 1930s are shown. and the tragic fate of its founder and first director.