Mitrofan Vasilevich Levchenko
Levchenko, Mitrofan Vasil’evich
Born Nov. 23 (Dec. 5), 1890, in Sudzha; died Jan. 22, 1955, in Leningrad. Soviet specialist in Byzantine history. Professor (1938); doctor of historical sciences (1941). Member of the CPSU (1925).
In 1939, Levchenko organized the Byzantine section in the Leningrad division of the Institute of History of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. From 1940 to 1944 he was head of the Leningrad division of the Institute of History of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. From 1944 to 1950 he was head of the subdepartment of Byzantine studies of Leningrad University. Levchenko wrote the first history of Byzantium from a Marxist point of view, The History of Byzantium: A Brief Survey (1940). He devoted special attention to the socioeconomic history of early Byzantium, the problem of Russo-Byzantine relations (Essays on the History of Russo-Byzantine Relations, 1956), and historiography. Levchenko was awarded two orders and a number of medals. A list of his works may be found in Vizantiiskii vremennik, 1956, vol. 8, pp. 388–90 (an obituary notice appears on pp. 3–6).