In Memoriam. Vladislav Pavlovitch Smirnov
Bovykin Dmitry
On July 10, 2020, Dr. Hab. (History), professor of Moscow State University (Lomonosov) Vladislav Pavlovich Smirnov left us. Since in 1948 when he entered the Faculty of History, his whole life related to Moscow State University, in 2012 he was awarded the title of Honored Professor of Moscow State University. Beginning to work on subjects related to the Second World War, still under the leadership of Naum Efimovich Zastenker, V.P. Smirnov did a lot to study France in the prewar years and the French resistance movement, the links of the French Communist Party with the Comintern. In 1958 he got his Ph.D. and in 1972 his doctoral thesis. Besides many textbooks, handbooks and monographs, V.P. Smirnov also wrote several books about France in general, its history and traditions, and the people who inhabit it. Except these books he published in 2011 a really interesting memoirs “From Stalin to Yeltsin. Self-portrait against the backdrop of our age". In them, he talks not only about himself, his friends and relatives, but also about the time in which he lived, and which shaped him both as a scientist and as a person. The last book of V.P. Smirnov was “What is history and why is it needed? (Reflections of the historian)”. It came out to his ninetieth birthday, in 2019. The times changed, but Vladislav Pavlovich always remained himself – a smart, intelligent, always friendly teacher, with a great sense of humor, not sparing time for students, in a word, a real university professor.