Sergius Yakobson

Sergius Osipovich Yakobson (also Sergej Jacobsohn or Jakobson , Russian Сергей Осипович Якобсон , scientific transliteration Sergej Osipovič Jakobson , born May 9, 1901 in Moscow , Russian Empire ; † November 13, 1979 in Washington, DC ) was a Russian-German-US -american librarian, historian and sovietologist.

Life and activity

Youth, Education and Early Career

Yakobson grew up in Moscow. His older brother was the linguist Roman Ossipowitsch Jakobson . After attending the high school of the Lazarew Institute for Oriental Languages ​​in Moscow, which he left in 1918 with the school leaving certificate, he fled to Western Europe before the upheavals of the Russian Revolution.

In 1918 or 1919 Yakobson settled in Germany, where he began studying history at the University of Hamburg in 1919 . In 1920 he moved to the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität in Berlin, where he devoted himself to recent and Eastern European history. His teachers there included Brackmann, Otto Hoetzsch , Marcks, Friedrich Meinecke , Stählin and Tang.

In 1925, Yakobson received his doctorate with the work supervised by Hoetzsch The dispute over Elbin in the years 1698/99. A contribution to the history of the relations between Poland and Brandenburg to Dr. phil. In the following years he worked as an assistant at the university and also held events. In 1930 Yakobson found a job with a publishing house in Leipzig. There he worked on two encyclopedias ( Das Rechtslexikon and Das Jugendlexikon ). In March 1930, Yakobson was naturalized in Germany.

In 1931 Yakobson received a research grant from the Publication Office of the Secret State Archives in Berlin, which enabled him to work in this facility from January 1932. In the following period he worked on a study of Prussian relations with Danzig from 1636 to 1703 ( Prussia as protector of Danzig during the Polish period ) and at the same time prepared a source edition of reports by the Prussian ambassadors in Warsaw in the 18th century.

Emigration to Great Britain

A few months after the National Socialists came to power in the spring of 1933, Yakobson was dismissed from the civil service in August 1933 due to his - according to the National Socialist definition - Jewish descent in accordance with the law for the restoration of the civil service (especially with reference to Article 3). In the same year he moved to Great Britain.

There he found a job in 1934 as chief librarian of the UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies at the University of London , which he retained until 1940. He also gave lectures here. He also takeover the function of an examiner ( examiner ) at the Foreign Office and the War Office in London, while eight contributed articles about the Soviet Union relevant topics for the Encyclopedia Britannica. There were also lectures on Russian history at the universities of Oxford, Cambridge, Cardiff and Nottingham.

After his emigration, the National Socialist police officers classified Yakobson as an enemy of the state: In the spring of 1940, the Reich Main Security Office in Berlin put him on the special wanted list GB , a directory of people who would be succeeded by the occupying forces in the event of a successful invasion and occupation of the British Isles by the Wehrmacht Special SS commandos were to be identified and arrested with special priority.

Living in the United States (1940 to 1979)

In 1940 Yakobson moved to the United States. With the help of a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation , he carried out a research project in the field of Eastern Studies (Survey of the Slavic History). In 1941, Yakobson was hired as one of the leading experts on Eastern European languages ​​and Eastern European history from the administration of the management of the Library of Congress as head of the department for Eastern and Central Europe (Slavic and Central European Division) of that institution. In personal union he also held the post of Director of the Russian Section of the Scientific Service of Congress (Legislative Reference Service), where he held the title of Chief , but was also often referred to as a Senior Specialist. In this position, Yakobson advised MPs from both Houses of Congress and government agencies on matters relating to the Soviet Union and Russia.

Yakobson held his two posts with the Library of Congress and the Legislative References Service for nearly thirty years, until his retirement in May 1971. He was succeeded by Paul L. Horecky as head of the East and Central Europe Department of the Library of Congress. In retirement, Yakobson, who was considered a "grand old men" of Eastern European research (Kirchner), continued his duties to a lesser extent as an honorary consultant . Yakobson died at George Washington University Hospital after multiple strokes.

Away from its obligations vein Library of Congress Yakobson contributing co-editor (was contributing editor ) of the journal American History Review , a member of the Panel on the Study of International Relations of the American Political Science Association, member of the Management Advisory Board (administrative committee) of the Russian Translation Project and a member of the American Council of Learned Societies, the Social Science Research Council, and the American Historical Association.

Yakobson has also given lectures as an expert on the Soviet Union at the University of Pennsylvania , Cornell University , the University of Maryland and Yale University .

Jakobson's estate is now held at the Hoover Institute.

Awards

In 1972 Yakobson received the "national distinguished scholarship award" from the AAASS.

Fonts (selection)

• The dispute over Elbin in 1698/99. A contribution to the history of the relations between Poland and Brandenburg-Prussia , Elbing 1928.
• Kruiok ljubitelej russkoj stariny , Berlin 1932.
• "Early Anglo-Russian Relations (1553-1613)", in: Slavonic Review , Vol. 13 (1934-35), pp. 597-61.
• "Russia and Africa", in: Slavonic and East European Review 17, No. 51 (April 1939), pp. 623-637.
• "The Rise of Russian nationalism", in: Nationalism. A Report by a Study Group of Members of the Royal Institute of International Affairs , London 1939, pp. 57-80.
• Five Hundred Russian Works for Libraries , 1948.
• "The Soviet Concept of the Satellite State", in: Review of Politics , Vol. 2, April 1949, pp. 184-195.
• Tensions within the Soviet Union , Washington 1951 (in German: Tensions in the Soviet Union , Vienna 1951)
• Introduction, in: Soviet Economic Institutions. The Social Structure of Production Units , Stanford 1952.
• Report on the Survey of European Slavic Collections (July-September, 1953) , Washington 1953.
• "Trend. May Day Slogans in Soviet Russia, 1918-1943", in: Harold D Lasswell / Nathan Leites: Language of Politics , 1965, pp. 233-297. (with Harold D. Lasswell)
• "Russia and Africa", in: Lederer (Ed.): Russian Foreign Policy , New Haven 1962, pp. 453-87.
• "The Soviet Union and Ethiopia. A Case of Traditional Behavior", in: Review of Politics , Vol. 25 (July 1963), pp. 329-342. (also in: Kurt London (Ed.): New Nations in a Divided World , New York 1963)
• Aspects of Intellectual Ferment in the Soviet Union , Washington 1966. (also published as pects of Intellectual Ferment and Dissent in the Soviet Union , Washington 1968) (with Richard V. Allen)
• "Peter the Great. A Russian hero", in: History Today , 22 (1972), pp. 461-469.
• "The Russian Conquest of Siberia", History Today 22 (1972), pp. 700-705.
• "Richard Cobden's Sojourn in Russia, 1847", in: Oxford Slavonic Papers 7 (1974), pp. 60-74.
• The Library of Congress. its Russian Program and Activities , slea

literature

• Anonymous: Obituary for Yakobson, in: Novoe russkoe slovo , Nov. 15, 1979.
• Michael Burleigh: Germany Turns Eastwards. A Study of Ostforschung in th Third Reich , 1988, pp. 80f.
• "Walther Kirchner" "Sergej Jakobson +", in: Yearbooks for the History of Eastern Europe , Vol. 28 (1980), p. 320.
• Helmut W. Schaller: "German Research on Eastern Europe from 1933 to 1945", in: Historische Mitteilungen 2007, pp. 210–212.
• Library of Congress: Sergius Yakobson. Fifty Years of Scholarly Activity. A Bibliography of his Writings Presented by his Friends and Associates at the Library of Congress on the Occasion of his Seventieth Birthday
• Joseph G. Whelan: "Sergius O. Yakobson", in: American Historical Review , 85 (1980), pp. 508f.

Web links

• Article about a lecture by Yakobson from 1952 (with biographical details)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Entry on Yakobson on special wanted list GB (reproduced on the website of the Imperial War Museum) .
2. ↑ http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt067nd9t3/