ERIC NAUMOVICH KOMAROV (1927-2013)*

On October 10, 2013, a bright man who left a mark on the souls of everyone who knew him passed away. He was full of energy, optimism, and love of life. All the tasks he undertook were done passionately, with passion, with full calculation. And he took on a lot of things.

After graduating from the Moscow Institute of Oriental Studies, Erik Naumovich immediately entered the postgraduate program of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the USSR Academy of Sciences. In those days, this was already an achievement and meant that he showed himself as a thoughtful researcher while still on the student bench. It is no exaggeration to say that he was one of I. M. Reisner's favorite students, and Reisner was a Teacher with a capital letter, "sharpened" in search of talented students.

Several stories passed through the entire creative life of Eric Naumovich. First of all, the agrarian problems of late medieval and colonial India. The analysis of the rural society of Bengal in the 17th and 18th centuries, carried out in his PhD thesis, can still be considered a classic. Later, he expanded the scope of this topic by analyzing the common features of British agricultural policy in all regions of India, as well as the origins of a specific traditional Indian rural society.

Chronologically related to this topic was the problem of the level of development of India in the early modern period. And here E. N. Komarov became one of the pioneers of studying commodity relations in our country, the organization of handicrafts and the level of development of production in India in the period before the British conquest.

The desire to understand pre-colonial Indian society led to the development of his interest in the spiritual, ideological, and religious trends that developed during this period. His ra-

* For an analysis of E. N. Komarov's creative work and lists of his main scientific works up to 2006, see: Peoples of Asia and Africa. 1987. No. 6. pp. 140-142; Vostok (Oriens). 2007. No. 6. pp. 205-208.

Recent bots devoted to the ideological search of Akbar and preachers of Bhakti movements have revealed humanistic trends in the Indian traditional mentality. These works will still play a role in the future, when Orientalists and specialists in medieval Europe will deal with the question of the general laws of the ideological evolution of mankind.

Spiritual processes that took place in India during the colonial period were also studied by Eric Naumovich. Rammohan Rai, Bankimchandra Chattopadhyay, Sharatchandra Chattopadhyay Swami Vivekananda, Mahatma Gandhi, and Jawaharlal Nehru all had attractive worldviews. But a special place in the life of E. N. Komarov until his last days was occupied by Rabindranath Tagore. He studied Tagore's work thoroughly, providing the volumes of the collected works of Tagore, published in Moscow in 1961-1966, with several articles and comments.

In the works devoted to Bengali writers, E. N. Komarov acts not only as a political historian, but also as a philologist.

However, the core problem in the work of E. N. Komarov was the political development of India after independence; the origins, course and results of its "elite modernization" (a term proposed by Eric Naumovich); the laws of the world process of democratization, which the Indian experience casts a bright light on. In line with these problems, he conducted, as we would say now, "monitoring" of Indian elections at all levels; analyzing the party structure (using the factor method and content analysis); comparing the political development of India and other major developed countries, as well as Russia.

The last aspect of its activity should be mentioned in particular. A staunch democrat by nature and beliefs, Eric Naumovich, even in Soviet times, when it was unfashionable and even dangerous, proceeded in his analysis of the political development of India from the unconditional progressiveness of the democratic way of government in comparison with the authoritarian one. The establishment of a certain version of democracy in our country was greeted with enthusiasm, he plunged into Russian political life, tried to help Russian politicians with the experience of India and other countries that also encountered difficulties on the path of democratization. The productivity of Eric Naumovich's activities at that time is not easy to assess, but in any case, he did what he could with his usual passion.

Impenetrable historical optimism was his credo. He has always believed in progress in the most mundane, Westernized sense of that worn-out word. He believed that humanity as a whole and in the person of all its representatives - from the British to the bushmen - is moving towards the triumph of reason and democracy. On this path, every nation will face declines, dips, and retreats, but a single-line movement is irreversible. And this movement, according to E. N. Komarov, is ultimately determined by economic development. Now economocentrism is not fashionable. Most Soviet "quick-witted" scientists reject it along with the dogma of Marxism-Leninism. But Komarov maintained this methodological approach. For him, the inadequacy of the" superstructure "to the" basis " was one of the main research problems: if democracy is held in an economically backward society or if it cannot establish itself in an industrially developed country, this is a paradox that needs to be explained. And he was looking for those explanations.

Literally until the last few days, he worked on several topics at once. First, it is a generalizing monograph on the socio-economic and spiritual history of ancient and medieval India. Secondly, an analysis of the works of Rabindranath Tagore (Tagore on man and God; Tagore on love). Third , the fate of democracy. The latter topic was naturally connected in his thoughts with the fate of our country. Finishing one of his last articles, he wrote: "But the world experience, partially cited in the article, shows that with the level of democratization, even if limited, but already achieved in Russia after the irreversible fall of the totalitarian regime, further democratization is inevitable. The balloon is running. The rest is only a matter of time, but obviously not soon."

Many of his works have been published in foreign languages in the United States, India, and a number of other countries. He was well-known as a specialist in political issues. His concepts may be outdated, but they will remain in the history of science.

L. B. ALAEV, D. D. VASILIEV, T. L. SHAUMYAN

RECENT SCIENTIFIC WORKS OF E. N. KOMAROV

Akbar. Religious universalism, toleration and society. www.mgimo.ru/kf/ myweb8/conferences.htm.

Agriculture and the farmer in Medieval India in a comparative perspective // Collection of articles dedicated to the 70th anniversary of Rostislav Borisovich Rybakov. lit., 2008, pp. 208-227.

Agricultural productivity and the scale of withdrawal of the surplus product of the farmer of medieval India in a comparative perspective / / Russia India 2007. History, economy, politics, and culture. Vladivostok: DVGU Publ., 2008, pp. 72-115.

Krestyanstvo v istorii Indii, Rossii i stran Tsentral'noi Azii [The peasantry in the history of India, Russia and the Central Asian countries]. I. V. Deryugina).

How we studied India // Veterans of Oriental studies about themselves. Bulletin of the Society of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Adj. 6. Moscow: Klyuch Publ., 2010, pp. 21-42.

Agriculture and the farmer in ancient and medieval India in a comparative perspective / / India-Russia 2009. Research materials. Vladivostok: DVGU Publ., 2010, pp. 11-38.

Actual problems of further study of the Eastern countries. Bulletin of the Society of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, issue 19. M, 2010, pp. 136-137.

Historical background and patterns of democratization in the second half of the XX century. The example of India in a comparative perspective. International Conference of the Association for South Asian Studies (SASA), Virginia Commonwealth University. Richmond, USA. April 8-10, 2011

God and Man in Tagore's Poetry: from the Ishaupanishad to Letters about Russia / / Vostok (Oriens), 2013, no. 6, pp. 119-130.

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