Correspondence of M. M. Berezhkov and K. M. Bestuzhev-Riumin: the source study review

The publication presents letters of a famous Russian historian, Saint-Petersburg University professor, Saint-Petersburg Academy of Sciences academician K. M. Bestuzhev-Riumin to M. M. Berezhkov, a professor of Russian history of the Historical and Philological Institute of the Prince Bezborodko in Nizhyn. In the publication preface we have submitted the biographical information of both scientists and defined the origin of their friendship. Their epistolary heritage is deposited in the private archival fonds of M. M. Berezhkov in the Manuscript Institute of VNLU and comprises 88 original letters of 1876–1898. This documental complex has not yet been discussed nor studied in the Russian or Ukrainian historiography. Therefore this publication carries an attempt to make a source study review of the letters of K. М. Bestuzhev-Riumin to M. М. Berezhkov and their introduction to a wide scientific circulation by their step-by-step publication. The letters of K. М. Bestuzhev-Riumin come with a «Preface» which is a structural part of a peculiar memoirs book that M. М. Berezhkov devoted to his teacher's memory.