Ursynovich Sergey

Ursynovich Sergey (1891–1935) – historian of religion.

He entered the Faculty of Law of the Moscow University in 1909. After the course, he stayed there to continue his research work. In 1917, he was Ass. Docent at the Moscow University, teaching the Theory of State and Law. In 1918, he taught at the Ivanovo-Voznesensk Pedagogical Institute. For some time, he worked in Saratov. Since the early 1920s, he was again in Moscow, a teacher at the Evening Workers' Faculty named after N. Bukharin (formerly Prechistenskie Courses), which was under the supervision of the People's Commissariat for Education; probably, he taught at other educational institutions in Moscow.

From 1925 to 1935, employee of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia and the Encyclopedia of State and Law. From 1926 to 1935, a member of the Research and Methodological Council of the Union of Militant Atheists, an employee of the magazine ‘Anti-Religious’. From 1928 to 1935, an employee of the Commission on the History of Religion of the Communist Academy (since 1930, the Anti-Religious Section of the Institute of Philosophy). From 1930 to 1933, Ass. Professor of the First Moscow University. From 1933 until his death, Ass. Professor of the Moscow Historical and Philosophical Institute. Since 1930, he has been working at the Museum of Oriental Cultures, the Central Museum of Ethnology, and at the Central Anti-Religious Museum, where in 1935 he prepared an exposition on Buddhism.

He was engaged in field research, including Siberia, where he studied the religion of Nivkhs (Gilyaks), and in Buryat-Mongolia; he studied provincial archives, especially the process of Christianization of the peoples of the Volga Region, the Urals, and Siberia.

Member of the Society of Marxist Historians, member of the Society for the Study of Siberia, the Urals, and the Far East. For 18 years of his research activity, U. has written over 200 articles and books.

He died tragically during a fire in his apartment in Moscow in 1935. He was buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery, next to his relatives.

Compositions

Separation of the Church from the State in the Context of Setting This Issue in Contemporary Russian Legislation. Saratov, 1921. 23 p.
The Uprising of Exiles and Cossacks in Kamchatka (Abstract of the Report) // Severnaya Asiya. 1925. Book. 1-2.
Russification and Christianization of Kamchadals // Severnaya Asiya. 1925. Book. 3. P. 98–100.
Shaman in the Governor's House. On the Description of the Mores of Siberian Administration in the Mid-Eighteenth Century. (Abstract of the Report, February 12, 1926 in the Historical and Archaeological Section) // Severnaya Asiya. 1926. Book. 2. P. 79–80.
Religion of the Indigenous Peoples of Siberia. Moscow: Society ‘Atheist’, 1928. 135 p.
Shamanism. (An Attempt of Description the Religions of Primitive Peoples of Siberia, the Far East, and Northeastern Europe) // Antireligiosnik. 1928. Iss. 8. P. 86–96.
Some Remarks on the History of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra // Atheist, 1929. Iss. 45. P. 1-11.
Origin of Christianity. Moscow: Society ‘Atheist’, 1930. 75 p.
‘Novokreschenskaya Office’: On the Question of the Role of Orthodox Missionary Work in the Colonization and National Politics of the Autocracy // Atheist. 1930. Iss. 54. P. 25–45.
Religious and Anti-religious Movements in Sakhalin // Antireligiosnik. 1931. Iss. 11. P. 14-30.
Buddhism and Lamaism. Moscow: OGIZ-GAIZ, 1935. 45 p.
Essays on the History of Transformation of Christianity into the Dominant Religion. Moscow-Leningrad: OGIZ, 1931. 98 p.
Religious Beliefs of the Peoples of the U.S.S.R. Vol. 1-2: Collection of Ethnographic Materials / Comp. at the Central Museum of Ethnology: M.G. Levin, M.T. Markelov, M.S.Plisetskiy, S.A.Tokarev, S.P. Tolstov. With the participation of: A.G. Apollov, E.R. Binkevich, R.S. Lipets, E.M. Sshiling; Foreword S.L. Ursynovich; Under general ed. Prof. of the Moscow University V.K. Nikolsky. Central Council of the Union of Militant Atheists of the U.S.S.R. Moscow-Leningrad: OGIZ-Moskovsky rabochy, 1931.

M. Sh.