“Everything is interwoven, yet very close, as it turns out… This connection, this turn of times constitute my topic,” historian Natan Eidelman wrote. It is hard to believe that Eidelman was neither an academician, nor a professor. His academic rank was candidate of history. The specialists value Natan Eidelman extremely highly. Yuri Lotman: “Natan was incapable of sounding non-intriguing. His pen organically turned historical science into belles-lettres. Everything would come to life, become fascinating, mysterious and bright.” Alexander Gorodnitky: “Poet Iosif Brodsky remarked about the poet being a tool of language rather than the language serving as a poet’s tool. If these words are true for history, Natan Eidelamn was such a historian. It was not that he just collected and studied documents, he would take the plunge into the material as if having been relocated in time to the period he studied and coming into direct contact with the people living in it.”
The characters of Eidelman’s books include the Decembrist, Emperor Pavel and last annalist Karamzin. Threshold of Centuries, Great Jeannot, The Last Annalist, Apostle Sergey, Lunin, Your 18th Century, Voyvarum (which means Muravyov being read back to front). The ideas and words of these characters seemed relevant in Eidelman’s books as if describing Soviet reality. These books would come out in huge editions and introduce history to millions of young and adult people. However, these were not just journalistic essays, but real scientific insights. It was not for nothing that Natan Eidelman enjoyed great authority among the scientific community.
