Pokrovsky graduated from Moscow University in 1891. A Bolshevik from 1905, Pokrovsky emphasized Marxist theory and the brutality of the upper classes in his Russian History from the Most Ancient Times (1910-13), downplaying the role of personality in favour of economics as the driving force of history. He wrote a Brief History of Russia, published in 1920 to much acclaim from Lenin, who said that he "like[d] the book immensely" in the preface to the first edition. Pokrovsky was head of the Institute of Red Professors from 1921-31. In 1929, he was elected to the Soviet Academy of Sciences. Posthumously, the Communist party accused Pokrovsky of "vulgar sociologism", and his books were banned. It has been suggested that his works lost favor because their opposition to "great men" history contradicted Stalin's cult of personality. After Stalin's death and the subsequent renouncement of his policies by the Communist Party, Pokrovsky's work regained some influence.
