Moscow professor at the department of the University of Latvia

Abstract

The scholarly heritage of the historian Robert Y. Vipper belongs to Russia and Latvia. Vipper is a brilliant connoisseur of ancient history, philosophy, law, religion, culture of the East, an experienced researcher of European and world history. In 1924 he emigrated to Latvia and became a professor at the University of Latvia. The historian was a follower of the spiritual heritage of the philosopher, jurist, historian Giambattista Vico, who at the beginning of the 18 th century was the first in the history of European humanitarian knowledge to carefully consider local cultures, local history, social life, legal system, economy, the entire hierarchy of values (religion, art, language), to evaluate the contribution of local cultures to the universal culture. Professor Vipper was able to apply, theoretically and practically, the ideas of Vico to his works written in the emigration in Latvia. He paid paid special attention to the formation of the national historical science, to a comprehensive study of the peasant question in the history of Latvia. But one should also remember the contributions by Garlib Merkel, Yuri Samarin and his book “The Peasant Question in Livland” (Berlin, 1876) to the study of the peasant issues in the history of Latvia. The novelty of Vipper’s writings on the peasant question in Livland was concerned his thorough study of the legislative acts of the late 16 th -early 18 th centuries, which led to the enslavement of peasants. In his works in Latvian, German and Russian languages the scholar managed to introduce the history of Latvia and the history of the peasant question in Livland into the context of European history. Over the 17-year-period of his life in Latvia, Vipper had published many teaching aids for schools and scholarly works in Latvian on the history of modern times (XVI–XIX). The professor brought up a large number of Latvian historians, always urging students to study the archives in Riga.