Russian Historical Society

(Russkoe Istoricheskoe Obshchestvo [RIO]), a historical society founded in St. Petersburg in May 1866 and functioning until 1917. According to regulations issued by Emperor Alexander II, the society was placed under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Its main purpose was to collect and publish materials and documents on Russian history from state and private archives.

The chairman of the council of the RIO was Prince P. A. Viazemskii. A. A. Polovtsov, the secretary, directed most of the work and became chairman of the society in 1879. Various members of the ruling Romanov dynasty served as honorary chairmen of the RIO.

Scholars connected with the RIO included S. M. Solov’ev, V. O. Kliuchevskii, N. I. Kostomarov, N. F. Dubrovin, P. P. Pekarskii, V. I. Sergeevich, Ia. K. Grot, I. E. Zabelin, A. N. Pypin, S. F. Platonov, V. S. Ikonnikov, N. D. Chechulin, and A. N. Popov.

Between 1867 and 1916, 148 volumes of the Collections of the Russian Historical Society were published; they included various documents on Russian history from the 15th through 19th centuries. A great deal of work was done in locating diplomatic documents pertaining to Russian history in the archives in London, Vienna, Paris, and other foreign cities. Between 1896 and 1918, 25 volumes of the Russian Biographical Dictionary were published by the society. On the initiative of the RIO, a congress of scholars of the provincial archival commissions was convened in 1914. Despite its official and monarchist character, the RIO played a positive role in the development of Russian historical scholarship.