Mikhail Pokrovsky

M.N. Pokrovsky. Author of 'Brief history of Russia,' published in 1920 to much acclaim from Lenin who said that he 'like[d] your book immensely' in the preface to the first edition. A Bolshevik since 1915, Pokrovski emphasized Marxist theory in his history of the Russian people, and the brutality of the upper classes and Tsarist rule, downplaying the role of personality in favour of economics as the driving force of history. As such, his book became a Soviet school text book under Lenin and Stalin.