Sergey Platonov

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Sergey Fyodorovich Platonov (Russian: Серге́й Фёдорович Плато́нов) (1860–1933) was a Russian historian who led the official St Petersburg school of imperial historiography before and after the Russian Revolution.

Platonov's scholarly career was centered on the University of St Petersburg, where he was held in highest repute for his detailed studies of the Time of Troubles and Oprichnina. Platonov's history textbooks, impeccably written and easily readable, enjoyed such popularity that he was asked by the tsar to teach history to his children. In 1909, he was admitted to the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Unlike many of his disciples, Platonov did not change his views after the Revolution and stood aloof from the mainstream Marxist historiography, as represented by Mikhail Pokrovsky. Nevertheless, he was permitted to administrate the Pushkin House (i.e., the Russian Literature Institute) in 1925–1929 and the Academy's Library in 1925–1928.

On January 12, 1930 Platonov was accused of taking part in a royalist conspiracy, arrested and exiled to Samara, where he died three years later. Most of his books were republished after the downfall of the Soviet regime.