Alexander Chudinov

Alexandr Viktorovich Chudinov (Александр Викторович Чудинов; Alexandre Tchoudinov; born January 4, 1961, in Arkhangelsk ) is a Soviet and Russian historian, Doctor of Sciences in Historical Sciences (1997), works in Institute of World History, Russian Academy of Sciences (since 1984).

Alexander is a specialist in the history and historiography of French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars, social thinking of France, Britain and Russia, international relations.

In 1978 he graduated from the school №6 in Arkhangelsk, where he studied history with V. D. Ivanov.

In the same year he entered the history and philology faculty of the Archangelsk State Pedagogical Institute.

In 1980 he transferred to the Moscow State Pedagogical University.

Studied in a special seminar on the history of social thinking under the guidance of G. S. Kucherenko.

In the 1980s and early 1990s, he specialized mainly in the history of English social thought in 18th–19th century (E. Burke, W. Godwin, J. Mackintosh, T. Payne etc.) and the influence of the French Revolution.

Since the late 1980s,Tchoudinov has also been active in study of problems in historiography of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars.

After graduating in 1984, he was employed at the Institute of General History of the USSR Academy of Sciences ( now it's Institute of World History, Russian Academy of Sciences).

In 1988, he defended his dissertation:"Socio-political views of J. Mackintosh and the Great French Revolution", becoming the Candidate of Sciences in Historical Sciences.

In 1988, he organized the round table "Actual problems of studying the history of the French Revolution", which marked the gradual departure of most domestic historians of the French Revolution of the XVIII century from the Marxist paradigm.

In the 1990s, Chudinov studied the European utopian thought of the 18th and 19th centuries, and in particular the political ideas of the Robespierrists (M. Robespierre, L. A. Saint-Just and J. Couton), who, in his opinion during the Reign of Terror, attempted to put the utopian ideal into practice.

In the 1990s, together with Dmitry Bovikin and other historians of the «new Russian school» Tchoudinov made a conceptual historical turn, associated with the rejection of the Marxist perception of the French Revolution as a transition from feudalism to capitalism and clearly manifested on the round table "French Revolution of the 18th century and bourgeoisie" (2001).

The new paradigm formulated by him implies the rejection of the unambiguous perception of the French Revolution and its heroes.

In 1995 he held a round table "Jacobinism in the historical results of the French Revolution"

The results of these studies were summed up in a doctoral dissertation in 1997 entitled: "The English Reflections on the French Revolution: E. Burke, J. Mackintosh, W. Godwin".

Since 2000 – Editor-in-Chief of the international academic periodical « Annual of French Studies».

In the 2000s, in addition to the problems of the French Revolution, Tchoudinov developed various aspects of the history of Franco-Russian relations during The Age of Enlightenment, in particular the activities of French governors in Russia.

He is a member of the International Commission on the History of the French Revolution (since 2005) and one of the authors of the Great Russian Encyclopedia and The Cambridge History of the Napoleonic Wars.

Alexander is also the author of manuals for students.

He initiated and participated in a number of relevant international projects, the interim results of which were summed up at the conference "French-speaking governor in Europe XVII-XIX centuries" in 2009.

In 2010–2014 Alexander headed the Franco-Russian Center for Historical Anthropology of Marc Bloch in the RSUH, proposed using methods of historical anthropology to study the mentality of Russian peasants during the Patriotic War of 1812, primarily their archetypal representations of the image of the enemy.

In 2011 he held a round table «The Patriotic War of 1812: current issues of modern historiography»

In 2014–2019 he headed the Department of Historical Regional Studies in The State Academic University for the Humanities.

Since 2014, Tchoudinov has been running a Laboratory "World during the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars" and specializing mainly in the study of popular movements against the forced affirmation of the value system of the French Revolution in regions with a dominant traditional culture in particular in Egypt and Italy.

In 2018, he was awarded the Silver medal of Renaissance Française for services in the field of Francophonie.

In 2018, he was awarded the N.I. Kareev Award for a series of scientific works on the history of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars.