Petr Andreevich Slovtsov

Born 1767 at Nizhnesu-sanskii Zavod, Verkhniaia Tura District, Perm’ Province; died Mar. 28 (Apr. 9), 1843, in Tobol’sk. Russian historian of Siberia.

Slovtsov was trained as a clergyman and taught at the seminary in Tobol’sk. Because of his criticism of certain aspects of the system of autocracy and serfdom, he was incarcerated in 1794 in Valaam Monastery (on Lake Ladoga). Illness necessitated his transfer in 1795 to St. Petersburg, where in 1796 he entered the civil service. At the beginning of 1808, Slovtsov was falsely accused of taking bribes and was sent to serve in Tobol’sk. In 1815 he became director of the Gymnasium in Irkutsk, and in 1821 he began serving as inspector of Siberian public schools. He retired in 1829.

Slovtsov was the founder both of the bourgeois school of historiography on Siberia and of the study of Siberian local lore. He viewed the union of Siberia and Russia as a progressive phenomenon consistent with historical laws. He focused on the determining role played by voluntary colonization in settling the region, and he raised the question of Siberia’s place in the overall makeup of Russia. Although a defender of autocracy and the church, Slovtsov opposed the excesses of serfdom and the injustices of local authorities. His ideas were subsequently used in part by the Siberian Oblastniki.