V.M. KHVOSTOV AND THE MOSCOW INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY (1917-1922)

The article analyzes the little-studied documents on the history of the Moscow Institute of Social Psychology, founded on the initiative of Veniamin Mikhailovich Khvostov (1868–1920), a professor of Moscow University, a neo-Kantian philosopher, a doctor of Roman law, a sociologist; the paper also discusses his role in the development of sociology, the most important direction in the field of social sciences. The article was written on the basis of the documents that were retained by his collaborators Leonty Alekseevich Byzov (1886–1942) and his wife, Natalia Nikolaevna Fadeeva-Byzova (1892–1985). Currently, the records are kept in the Archives of the European University in St. Petersburg. After having ostentatiously left Moscow University in 1911 (the “Kasso Case”), just like many of his colleagues had done, he taught at Moscow Women’s Higher Courses and at Shanyavsky Moscow People’s University. In May 1917, during the rule of the Provisional Government, V.M.Khvostov managed to create the Moscow Institute of Social Psychology as part of the future Institute of Sociology, the main task of which was to carry out research on social processes and gradually turn sociology into an independent scientific discipline. The Institute existed for five years only (1917–1922), and the last two years – without V.M. Khvostov, who passed away at the beginning of 1920. V.M. Khvostov realized that without sociology, the science of social processes, the sprouts of which had just begun to appear in Russia, not only the social sciences, but the entire scientific community of the early twentieth century would lose out. He hoped that with the coming to power of the Provisional Government, the social life in all its manifestations would become an important phenomenon, including scientific research, free from ideological dogmas. Instead in October 1917, the country plunged into a different reality – the revolution and the victory of the Bolsheviks who gradually destroyed all illusions about the freedom of scientific choice. And nevertheless, the Institute continued to carry out a tremendous amount of research concerning the socio-psychological processes and phenomena in public life. The scope of that work could be perceived through many hours of meetings, questionnaires and survey forms, abstracts and reports, scientific disputes, practical work with the representatives of various social groups. However, gradually, the conditions imposed by the Soviet government turned out to become such a powerful irritant for V.M. Khvostov that the dream of forming sociology as an independent scientific discipline appeared to be unrealizable. And yet, the documents on the activities of the Moscow Institute of Social Psychology are of great historical and scientific value, their study and publication can contribute to the adding of the new pages in the history of Russian and Soviet science at the beginning of the 20th century.