Ivan Rostislavovich Sokolovsky,
Candidate of Historical Sciences, Institute of History of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, Russia, e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
The Siberian School of Urban Studies Through the Eyes of a Polish Historian
DOI: 10.31518/2618-9100-2026-1-22
The article discusses reviews on the works of Siberian scholars who studied the Siberian cities of the 17th−19th centuries published by the Polish historian Andrzej Wyróbisz (1931−2018) in the 1980s. With twenty-five years of academic experience, Wyróbisz was well-versed in Polish and foreign historiography. His reviews were friendly but highly critical, and his assessments remain relevant to this day. Unlike the domestic reviewers of the same works (Y.V. Kurskova and Z.G. Karpenko), Vyrobish was not shy about talking about shortcomings, about the parts and conclusions that seemed incomprehensible or insufficiently substantiated to him. The logic of the reviewer, who stood on the positions of positivism, is hereby characterized: starting with a discussion on general issues on the history of the Siberian city, he proceeds to review the source studies, then to discuss the studies of commercial and industrial development and the social structure of the Siberian cities. The natural continuation is the conclusion on the geographical heterogeneity of urbanization processes in Siberia. The linguistic and demographic characteristics of the city dwellers can be considered separate topics. The architectural specificity of the Siberian cities is their least significant aspect for Vyrobish, but he does not ignore it. An analysis of the Polish historian’s review leads to the conclusion that Russian Siberian studies have found an erudite and thoughtful reader in his person. His observations help to correctly assess the results achieved in studying the history of modern Siberian cities and reveal the potential for further research, as well as to orient the reader in the broader historical field. In addition, the reviews provide valuable insights into the history of Polish-Russian scientific relations.
Publishing: 28/02/2026
The article has been received by the editor on 31/05/2025
How to cite: Sokolovskiy I.R. The Siberian School of Urban Studies Through the Eyes of a Polish Historian // Historical Courier, 2026, No. 1 (45), pp. 270–286. [Available online: http://istkurier.ru/data/2026/ISTKURIER-2026-1-22.pdf]
The article was made on the topic of the state assignment “The Siberian Society as a Factor of Russia’s Territorial Growth and Unity (Late 16th − Early 20th Centuries)” (FWZM-2024-0007).
Links: Issue 1 2026
Keywords: history of Siberian urban studies; Siberian city; PolishRussian scientific relations; Andrzej Wyróbisz; D.Ya. Rezun; O.N. Vilkov