2. Is There Physical Evidence of the Crime If millions of Jews were in fact murdered in the gas chambers, it is to be expected that there will be plenty of evidence confirming these unprecedented atrocities - genuine gas chambers, or at least drawings of these

The historian, as a rule, deals with the past and cannot directly observe the object of his study. To study events unbiasedly, objectively, discarding the opportunistic approach to their assessment, allows the widespread use of a variety of historical sources. In order to obtain true (reliable) historical knowledge, it is necessary to have reliable sources of this knowledge.

IN. Klyuchevsky gave the following definition of historical sources: "Historical sources are written or material monuments that reflect the extinct life of individuals or entire societies." The famous historian M.N. Tikhomirov drew attention to the fact that the source can reflect the process of formation and development of society: "Under the historical source,– noted the researcher , - is understood as any monument of the past, testifying to the history of human society. In other words, historical sources – it is all the remnants of a past life, all evidence of the past. One of the scientific definitions states that historical sources are understood as all the remnants of the past, in which historical evidence has been deposited, reflecting the real phenomena of social life and human activity. In this way, historical sources–these are objects of material culture and documents that directly reflect the historical process, fixing individual historical facts and past events.

A special scientific discipline about historical sources, methods of their identification, criticism and use in the work of a historian is called source study.

Currently, there are several main groups of historical sources: material, written, ethnographic, pictorial, behavioral, photographic documents, audio documents, etc.

Material sources are primarily archaeological sites- any ancient objects preserved in the ground, and sometimes in the water: tools, handicrafts, household items, dishes, clothes, jewelry, coins, weapons, remains of settlements, burials, treasures, etc. They are being studied archeology is a science that restores the past of human society from material monuments and reconstructs the socio-economic history of the era based on them.

The written sources are literary monuments a certain historical era, for example, birch bark letters. Among the birch bark documents found in Nizhny Novgorod, Smolensk, Pskov and other cities are letters of order from feudal lords to people dependent on them, peasant complaints, reports from village elders, draft wills, economic and usurious records, messages of a political and military nature, private letters of various household contents. , student exercises, court documents.

Chronicles are a valuable historical source. The main source for writing the history of Ancient Russia, for example, was the chronicle, which bears the full title "The Tale of Bygone Years, the Chernorite of the Fedosiev Monastery of the Caves, from where it is, the Russian land went, and who began the first reign in it," the authorship of which is attributed to the monk Nestor, who lived at the turn of the XI-XII centuries.

The richest source on history Russia XVI in. are the Moscow Chronicles, in the compilation of which Tsar Ivan IV and ruler Alexei Adashev took part.

Centuries passed, generations of chroniclers changed, all-Russian chronicle codes were created and local chronicles were written, containing huge material about hundreds of historical figures, descriptions of battles, battles and trials that befell the principalities. Over time, these chronicles were studied by professional historians, critically comprehended, interpreted and formed the basis of the history of the Russian state.

One of the important types of written sources on the history of Russia can be the notes of foreigners who visited Russia. It is interesting to note that the first major scientific work of V.O. Klyuchevsky was his Ph.D. thesis "Tales of foreigners about the Muscovite state" (1865), published in the form of a monograph.

The same group of historical sources include: government documents, legislative acts, statistical materials, judicial and investigative materials, international treaties. Diaries, private correspondence are also an important type of historical sources. Transcripts of meetings of the governing bodies of political parties and socio-political movements, their programs, brochures, leaflets, memoirs, letters, notes, periodicals (newspapers, magazines) and many others are also included in the group of written sources.

Large collections of documents on the activities of state and municipal institutions and public organizations, individuals, are concentrated in the archives–institutions that ensure the acquisition, storage and use of these documents. The complex use of all these types of sources allows researchers to reconstruct the past as objectively as possible.

Ethnographic sources- Remains of material and spiritual culture that have survived to the present day various peoples. Ethnographic sources constitute elements of traditional folk material culture (work tools, including agricultural tools; tools; housing, furnishings and decoration of the home; household items, including utensils and pottery; folk toys; food; outbuildings; fabrics and clothing, including folk costume, embroidery, ornament, etc.). The phenomena of the spiritual life of the people are also included in the group of ethnographic sources (traditions, calendar rituals, family rituals, folk beliefs, folklore, dances, forms and genres of folk prose: legends, proverbs, sayings, incantations, riddles, fairy tales, etc. ).

The group of visual sources includes all works of art, starting with rock paintings (collections and individual objects of painting, graphics, sculpture, decorative and applied art).

The behavioral group of sources consists of rituals (holiday, labor, military, etc.), customs, fashion, elements of prestige.

New ways of documenting, which were the result of technical progress, scientific discoveries, and technical inventions, have become widespread. This is photo, film, video, phono (audio) documentation. Documents created in this way are called audiovisual, i.e. containing visual and audio information, the reproduction of which requires appropriate equipment. They are usually considered in a single complex, since they are very similar in terms of the technique of creation and reproduction, the nature of information, the method of coding, and the organization of storage. Audiovisual documents include photographic documents, film documents, video documents, video phonograms, phono documents, as well as documents on microforms.

Photodocument is a photographic document. The appearance of photographic documents dates back to the first half of the 19th century. and is associated with the invention of photography (from the Greek “photos” - light, “grapho” - I write, draw, i.e. in literal translation, light painting). Photography is a set of processes and methods for obtaining images on light-sensitive materials by the action of light on them and subsequent chemical processing.

Immediately after its appearance, photography has been widely used in various fields. human life: in politics, science, culture, art, etc. The development of industries involved in the technical processing of information is closely connected with photography: printing, cartography, reprography. Photographic documents play an important role in the media. They are the most important historical source. Such importance photographic documents were acquired, first of all, because they have a huge information capacity, they can simultaneously capture many objects in detail. This is very important, given that about 80% of the information a person receives through vision. The value of photographic documents is also connected with the fact that they appear at the moment of events and at the place of events. Finally, photographic documents not only carry information about reality, but also have an aesthetic impact on a person.

Recently, the digital photographic process has been used in photographic documentation. It is devoid of many of the disadvantages inherent in traditional technology based on the photochemical silver halide process and requiring multi-stage chemical processing, a significant investment of time, and the use of a precious metal - silver.

Currently, digital (electronic) photography has not yet been widely used due to its high cost. However, already in the foreseeable future, according to experts, there will inevitably be a transition from ordinary photography to digital.

We are witnessing the emergence of a fundamentally new type of sources - electronic sources, which, along with material, pictorial, written, phonic and other sources, can be considered as a new form of recording social information, as a fundamentally new type of creation, collection, organization, storage and use of documents. .

The complex use of all these types of sources allows researchers to reconstruct the past as objectively as possible. The study in the aggregate of all types of sources makes it possible to recreate a fairly complete and reliable picture of the historical process.

6. Domestic historical schools. Even Peter I declared the need for all his subjects "to know the history of the Russian state." These words resonated with his companions. One of the "chicks of Petrov's nest" - Vasily Nikitich Tatishchev ( 1686-1750), who is rightfully considered the founder of Russian historical science, in his famous work “Russian History from the Most Ancient Times” (books 1-5. M., 1768-1848) made the first attempt to create a generalizing work on the history of the Russian state.

V.N. Tatishchev was not a professional historian. He did not receive an education in history, which at that time simply did not exist in Russia. As V.O. Klyuchevsky, "he became a professor of history for himself."

History of V.N. Tatishchev contains a description of events starting from the Scythian time and ending in the 16th century. In the first two parts of the "History" V.N. Tatishchev considers a number of problems: the ancient history of the peoples of Eastern Europe, Slavic writing, the origin of the state and its forms, etc. The next two parts in the manner of presentation are close to the summary chronicle. In a generalizing work, on the basis of various annalistic texts, the political history of Russia is presented in strict chronological sequence. V.N. Tatishchev for the first time introduced a number of new historical sources into scientific circulation: Russkaya Pravda; provided with a detailed commentary "Sudebnik 1550"; annals, and thus laid the foundation for the development of source studies in Russia. Until now, Tatishchev's attempts to critically treat sources remain valuable, many of which, subsequently lost, were preserved only in the presentation of the historian. From the lists of Russian chronicles used by Tatishchev, they have long called big interest the lost Schismatic List and the Joachim Chronicle.

V.N. Tatishchev was not only a contemporary of Peter's reforms, but also an active participant in them, which predetermined the content of his concept of historical development. For the first time in Russian historiography, V.N. Tatishchev made an attempt to identify the patterns of development of society, the causes of the emergence of state power. Of all forms of state government, the historian preferred autocracy. Tatishchev's ideal was an absolute monarchy. He viewed the history of Russia through the prism of the struggle between the monarchy and the aristocracy, wrote about the dangers of the aristocratic form of government, argued the importance of autocracy, convinced the reader of the goodness of "monarchy", thereby educating the subjects of the Russian state in the spirit of obedience to royal power.

Mikhail Vasilievich Lomonosov (1711-1765), the first Russian natural scientist of world significance, a poet who laid the foundations of the modern Russian literary language, an artist, an advocate of the development of domestic education, science and economy, made a noticeable mark in the formation and development of history as a science.

Encyclopedic scientist, M.V. Lomonosov wrote a series historical writings– “Remarks on G.F. Miller’s dissertation “The Origin of the Russian Name and People”, “Ancient Russian History from the Beginning of the Russian People to the Death of Grand Duke Yaroslav the First, or until 1054”, “A Brief Russian Chronicler with Genealogy”, a number of works about Peter's transformations.

Message from M.V. Lomonosov to the questions of Russian history was not accidental - he was prompted to do this by the report of G.F. Miller about the "Norman" origin of Russian statehood. Standing on the position of "anti-Normanism", M.V. Lomonosov tried to prove the opposite. In the scientific controversy of the middle of the XVIII century. on this issue there are more emotions and political passions. This was manifested, in particular, in the desire of M.V. Lomonosov to prove the Slavic origin of Rurik, and that the Slavs were among the peoples who inhabited the plains of southeastern Europe for a millennium before the advent of the Varangians. However, M.V. Lomonosov was able to convincingly show that G.F. Miller used exclusively Western concepts and sources for his report and the entire system of evidence, ignoring Russian chronicles, as well as those materials that do not support his point of view. M.V. was correctly identified. Lomonosov and the territory of the settlement of the Slavs. This was the strength of M.V. Lomonosov. Their weakness manifested itself when the tasks historical research he subordinated to the needs of current politics.

The largest representative of the Russian historical school was Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin (1766-1826) - the famous Russian writer, journalist and historian. Founder of Russian sentimentalism, author of Letters from a Russian Traveler, Poor Lisa”, “Reasoning of a philosopher, historian and citizen” and other works, N.M. Karamzin devoted his main 12-volume work to the history of Russia. In 1816, he published the first 8 volumes of The History of the Russian State (in 1818-1819 their second edition was published), in 1821 the 9th volume was published, in 1824 - the 10th and 11th . Starting to compose Russian history without proper historical preparation, N.M. Karamzin wanted to apply his literary talent to ready-made historical material: “select, animate, colorize” and thus make Russian history “something attractive, strong, worthy of attention not only for Russians, but also for foreigners.”

Much more important for the science of that time were the extensive "Notes" made to the text of historical research. Not rich in critical guidance, the Notes contained many quotations from manuscripts, most of which were published for the first time. Some of these manuscripts no longer exist. In the process of work, N.M. Karamzin on his fundamental work, many valuable manuscripts were provided by the Synodal repository, libraries of monasteries (Trinity Lavra, Volokolamsk Monastery, etc.). The historian also had at his disposal private collections of manuscripts by A.I. Musin-Pushkin and N.P. Rumyantsev, who collected historical materials through his numerous agents both in Russia and abroad. Many documents of N.M. Karamzin received from A.I. Turgenev.

N.M. Karamzin was a supporter of the idea of ​​the course of Russian history, which had developed in official Russian historiography in the 16th century. According to this view, the development of Russian history was strongly dependent on the development of monarchical power. The monarchical power, according to the historian, glorified Russia in the Kievan period; the division of power between the princes was a political mistake that led to the formation of specific principalities. This mistake was corrected thanks to the statesmanship of the Moscow princes. In his views on the course of Russian history, N.M. Karamzin was heavily dependent on his predecessors.

According to N.M. Karamzin, the state system of Russia should be a monarchy. For the historian, this was not an abstract speculative theory. Behind it was the centuries-old experience of Russian history, in which the Russian autocracy played a certain progressive role. It contributed to the unification of the country and the rallying of fragmented feudal lands into a single state, carried out important state transformations in the person of Peter the Great. The successes of the autocracy, according to N.M. Karamzin, determined the well-being of Russia, while periods of decline of the autocratic regime were fraught with troubles and hardships for the country.

History, according to N.M. Karamzin, should teach not only the people, but also the kings. On the examples of the reign of Russian monarchs, both positive and negative, he wanted to teach them to reign. Following C. Montesquieu, N.M. Karamzin drew attention to the duties of the autocracy to the people. “The object of autocracy,” he wrote, “is not to deprive people of their natural freedom, but to direct their actions to the greatest good.”

A peculiar stage in the development of Russian historical science is associated with the name of Sergei Mikhailovich Solovyov (1820-1879). Convinced that Russian society did not have a history that would meet the scientific requirements of its time, he set about writing such a history, seeing this as his main civic duty. CM. Solovyov tirelessly worked on the "History of Russia from ancient times" for 30 years. The first volume appeared in 1851, and since then one volume has been published neatly year after year. The last, 29th volume, was published in 1879, after the death of the author.

The "History of Russia from ancient times" considered the development Russian statehood from Rurik to Catherine II. A special place in the historical concept of S.M. Solovyov was occupied with understanding the role and place of the Russian state. The state, the researcher taught, being a natural product of people's life, is the people themselves in its development: one cannot be separated from the other. The history of Russia is the history of its statehood – not the government and its bodies, as N.M. thought. Karamzin, and people's life in general. CM. Solovyov considered statehood to be the main force of the social process, a necessary form of the existence of the people. However, he did not attribute successes in the development of the state to the tsar and the autocracy. His worldview was formed under the influence of Hegelian dialectics, which recognized the internal conditioning and regularity of the historical process. Explaining every phenomenon in history by internal causes, S.M. Solovyov, at the same time, sought to "show the connection between events, to show how the new arose from the old, to unite the disparate parts into one organic whole ...".

Unlike its predecessors, S.M. Solovyov in history attached special meaning nature, geographic environment. He wrote: “Three conditions have a special influence on the life of the people: the nature of the country where he lives; the nature of the tribe to which he belongs; move external events, influences coming from the peoples that surround it.

Accurate to the point of pedantry, he, according to contemporaries, did not waste, it seems, not a single minute; every hour of his day was scheduled. And S.M. died. Solovyov at work.

A follower of the ideas of S.M. Solovyov was made by Vasily Osipovich Klyuchevsky (1841-1911), who established himself as a brilliant and original lecturer, who captured the attention of the audience with the power of scientific analysis, the gift of oratory. Reading, deep knowledge of primary sources provided abundant material for the artistic talent of the historian, who created accurate, concise pictures and characteristics from genuine expressions and images of the source.

In 1882, V.O. Klyuchevsky, the famous "Boyar Duma of Ancient Russia". A number of issues of ancient Russian history - the formation of city volosts around the shopping centers of the great waterway, the origin and essence of the specific order in northeastern Russia, the composition and political role of the Moscow boyars, the Moscow autocracy, the bureaucratic mechanism of the Moscow state of the XVI-XVII centuries - received in " Boyar Duma ”partly a generally recognized decision, partly served as the necessary basis for the research of the next generations of historians.

In 1899 V.O. Klyuchevsky published a “Short Guide to Russian History” as “a private publication for the author’s listeners,” and in 1904 he began publishing a complete course, which had long been widely distributed in lithographed student publications. A total of 4 volumes were published, the content of which was brought up to the time of Catherine II. Trud V.O. Klyuchevsky is attracted by the vivid characteristics of historical figures, the original interpretation of sources, the wide display of the cultural life of Russian society, the imagery of comparisons and language. In the "Course of Russian History" (in 5 volumes) V.O. Klyuchevsky was the first among Russian historians to move away from the periodization of the country's history according to the principle of the reign of monarchs. Both in monographic studies and in the “Course of Russian History” by V.O. Klyuchevsky gives a strictly subjective understanding of the Russian historical process, completely refusing to review and criticize literature, without entering into polemics with anyone. Theoretical construction of V.O. Klyuchevsky relied on the triad "human personality, human society and the nature of the country." The main place in the "Course of Russian History" was occupied by questions of the socio-economic history of Russia. Approaching the study of the general course of Russian history from the point of view of a sociological historian, V.O. Klyuchevsky highlighted the history of political and socio-economic life. On the pages of the "Course of Russian History" the artistic talent of V.O. Klyuchevsky was expressed in a number of brilliant characteristics of historical figures.

Special attention the researcher paid attention to the characteristics of the social structure of Russian society. Describing the structure of Russian society, he divided it into classes. This division was based on different kinds economic activity, division of labor (farmers, cattle breeders, merchants, artisans, warriors, etc.). In the concept of "people", unlike subsequent Marxist historians, he did not invest social content (he did not single out workers and exploiters). The historian used the term "people" only in the ethnic and ethical sense. The highest achievement of the national and moral unity of the people, according to V.O. Klyuchevsky, was the state as a classless, people's body, protecting national interests.

As a testament to all compatriots who continue to live on earth, the words of the famous historian remained: "Intellectual labor and moral feat will always remain the best builders of society, the most powerful engines of human development."

In the pre-revolutionary years, famous historians Ivan Yegorovich Zabelin (1820-1908), Sergei Fedorovich Platonov (1860-1933), Dmitry Ivanovich Ilovaisky (1832-1920) enjoyed well-deserved fame.

The names of historians of the past who developed various problems in the history of our country were widely known (N.A. Polevoy, N.I. Kostomarov, P.N. Milyukov, V.I. Semevsky, N.P. Pavlov-Silvansky, etc. ); scientists who laid the foundations of Russian archeography, source studies and historiography (M.T. Kachenovsky, P.M. Stroev, K.N. Bestuzhev-Ryumin).

A great contribution to the development of national historical science was made by scientists of the 20th century, who studied the past from various positions. From this point of view, the works of A.S. Lappo-Danilevsky, N.I. Kareeva, G.G. Shpet. New theoretical, philosophical and logical approaches to understanding the meaning and course of history coexisted with empirical research, the scientific significance of which has survived to this day (the works of S.F. Platonov, A.A. Kizevetter, M.M. Bogoslovsky, P. .N. Milyukova).

The spread of Marxism at the end of the XIX century. gave rise to a new interpretation of the facts of national history. In the emerging Marxist historical concept, the starting point was socio-economic determinism. In accordance with this concept, the historical process was seen as a change in socio-economic formations, and its main content was reduced to the struggle of classes. The history of production and ideology, state and law, political events and religion, science and art was viewed through the prism of the class struggle. At the heart of textbooks and historical works published in Soviet time, lay the Marxist, historical-materialist approach to history. The Bolsheviks summed up all the facts of Russian history under the regularity of the change in socio-economic formations, interpreting them accordingly. Marxists declared the uncompromising class struggle between the exploiters and the exploited to be the main driving force of the historical process, and the leader of the oppressed masses (under capitalism) – proletariat. The instrument of building socialism was to be the state of the dictatorship of the proletariat. From the Marxist positions, the driving forces of the historical process were considered by G.V. Plekhanov, V.I. Lenin, N.A. Rozhkov, M.N. Pokrovsky.

The Marxist concept of national history was developed by the Bolshevik Mikhail Nikolaevich Pokrovsky (1868-1932) and was first reflected in his work “Russian History in the Most Concise Essay”, and then set out in the fundamental work “Russian History from Ancient Times” (in 5 volumes). M.N. Pokrovsky is considered the founder of the school of Soviet historians, which is characterized by a purely materialistic approach to history, a class character in the assessment of historical events.

Even in the pre-revolutionary period, the historical studies of N. Pokrovsky caused conflicting assessments among scientists. The fact is that he most radically considered the historical process from a purely Marxist, materialistic point of view. M.N. Pokrovsky was convinced that "history is politics overturned into the past." This formula, which placed ideology above truth, stifled Soviet historical science for many decades. This, on the one hand, gave rise to criticism of his views as one-sided and tendentious, and on the other – caused a positive assessment, as it was possible to take a fresh look at traditional historical plots. In general, the attitude towards M.N. Pokrovsky was rather negative, primarily because of his ambitiousness, contempt for all non-Marxist historians.

M.N. died. Pokrovsky in 1932 was a completely respected and revered person, but by strange logic, at the end of the 30s, his views were subjected to devastating criticism. The former beloved students of M.N. Pokrovsky, who made their scientific career on this. It was recognized that "the Pokrovsky school was the base of wreckers, spies and terrorists, cleverly disguised with the help of his harmful anti-Leninist historical concepts."

Despite the long dominance of vulgar materialism in Soviet historiography, many generations of Soviet historians continued to work fruitfully, concentrating their efforts on developing the problems of the ethnogenesis of the Slavs, the origin and development of Russian statehood, the history of Russian culture, etc.

During the years of Stalin's dictatorship, the diversity in approaches to historical phenomena and processes was replaced by their unified interpretation. Repressions that hit historians, dogmatic adherence to the Marxist-Leninist theory in the Stalinist interpretation, limited contacts with foreign researchers – All this has caused enormous damage to Russian historical science. However, Soviet scientists - N.M. Druzhinin, P.A. Zaionchkovsky, A.A. Zimin, A.A. Novoselsky, V.T. Pashuto, E.V. Tarle, M.N. Tikhomirov, L.V. Cherepnin and many others, continuing and developing the traditions of pre-revolutionary historiography, created many excellent historical works. A significant contribution to the science of the twentieth century was made by historians of the Russian abroad (G.V. Vernadsky, A.V. Kartashev, B.I. Nikolaevsky, etc.).

A significant step forward in the study of the past of our Fatherland was made in the last quarter of the 20th century. This allows a new approach to the coverage of many problems in the history of Russia. The initial centuries of Russian history were studied by B.A. Rybakov, A.P. Novoseltsev, I.Ya. Froyanov, P.P. Tolochko, L.N. Gumilyov. The era of the Middle Ages was studied by A.A. Zimin, V.B. Kobrin, D.A. Alshits, R.G. Skrynnikov, A.L. Khoroshevich; the era of Peter's reforms - N.I. Pavlenko, V.I. Buganov, E.V. Anisimov; history of Russian culture - D.S. Likhachev, M.N. Tikhomirov, A.M. Sakharov and others. The works of these authors were recognized by the scientific community not only in our country, but also abroad. Many of these researchers continue to work productively today.

A peculiar reaction of historical science to the dominance of vulgar economic and sociological determinism in it was a historical concept - the son of two famous Russian poets A.A. Akhmatova and N.S. Gumilyov.

Lev Nikolaevich Gumilyov (1912-1992), full member of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, created a new direction of science - ethnology, which lies at the junction of several branches of science - ethnography, psychology and biology. He believed that the history of any country should be considered not only as a chain of economic, political, cultural changes that have taken place over the centuries, but, first of all, as the history of its peoples - ethnic groups. And the history of ethnic groups, as the scientist believed, needs a different approach, methods used in the natural sciences are needed. In this regard, a special place in the historical concept of L.N. Gumilyov was occupied with the theory of passionarity.

A strictly scientific definition says: passionarity is a sign that arises as a result of a mutation (passionate push) and forms a certain number of people within the population who have an increased craving for action. Passionarity is an excess of the biochemical energy of living matter, manifested in the ability of people to overstress.

According to the views of L.N. Gumilyov, it is on the number of carriers of a high energy charge - "passionaries", whose actions are not only aimed at their own benefit, and the life of any state depends. Passionaries strive to change the surrounding reality and the world and are capable of this. They organize long trips from which few return. It is they who are fighting for the conquest of the peoples surrounding their own ethnic group, or, on the contrary, they are fighting against the invaders. Such activity requires an increased capacity for stress, and any efforts of a living organism are associated with the cost of a certain type of energy. This type of energy was discovered and described by our compatriot Academician V.I. Vernadsky and named by him the biochemical energy of the living matter of the biosphere.

The mechanism of connection between passionarity and behavior is very simple. Usually, people, like living organisms, have as much energy as is necessary to maintain life. If the human body is able to "absorb" energy from environment more than necessary, then a person forms relationships with other people and connections that allow you to apply this energy in any of the chosen directions. At the same time, passionaries act not only as direct performers, but also as organizers. By investing their excess energy in the organization and management of fellow tribesmen at all levels of the social hierarchy, they, although with difficulty, develop new stereotypes of behavior, impose them on everyone else and thus create a new ethnic system, a new ethnos visible to history.

But the level of passionarity in the ethnic group does not remain unchanged. Ethnicity, having arisen, goes through a series of natural phases of development, which can be likened to different ages of a person. L.N. Gumilyov identifies six phases of ethnogenesis: rise, akmatic (from "akme" - flourishing), break, inertial, obscuration and memorial.

The first phase is the phase of the passionary rise of the ethnos, caused by the passionary push. It is important to note that the old ethnic groups, on the basis of which a new one arises, are connected as a complex system. From sometimes dissimilar sub-ethnic groups, an integrity is created, soldered by passionate energy, which, expanding, subjugates territorially close peoples. This is how ethnos is born. A group of ethnic groups in one region creates a super-ethnos (for example, Byzantium - a super-ethnos that arose as a result of an impulse in the 1st century AD, consisted of Greeks, Egyptians, Syrians, Georgians, Armenians, Slavs and existed until the 15th century). The life expectancy of an ethnos, as a rule, is the same and ranges from the moment of impact to complete destruction of about 1500 years. Each ethnic group, L. N. Gumilyov believes, inevitably goes through all the phases of a 1,500-year cycle, unless its development is interrupted by external influences, when the aggression of foreigners disrupts the normal course of ethnogenesis.

The greatest rise in passionarity - the akmatic phase of ethnogenesis - is caused by the desire of people not to create integrity, but, on the contrary, to “be themselves”: not to obey general regulations, to reckon only with their own nature. Usually in history this phase is accompanied by such internal rivalry and slaughter that the course of ethnogenesis is temporarily hampered.

Gradually, due to certain reasons, the passionary charge of the ethnos is reduced; for people physically destroy each other. Civil wars begin, and such a phase is called the breaking phase. As a rule, it is accompanied by a huge dissipation of energy crystallizing in the monuments of culture and art. But the highest flourishing of culture corresponds to the decline of passionarity, and not to its rise. This phase usually ends with bloodshed; the system throws out excessive passionarity, and a visible balance is restored in society.

The ethnos begins to live “by inertia”, thanks to the acquired values. This phase is called inertial. Again there is a mutual subordination of people to each other, the formation of large states, the creation and accumulation of material wealth.

Gradually passionarity dries up. When there is little energy in the system, the leading position in society is occupied by subpassionaries - people with low passionarity. They seek to destroy not only restless passionaries, but also hardworking harmonious people. There comes a phase of obscuration, in which the processes of disintegration in the ethno-social system become irreversible. Sluggish and selfish people, guided by consumer psychology, dominate everywhere. And after the subpassionaries eat and drink everything valuable that has been preserved from heroic times, the last phase of ethnogenesis begins - memorial, when the ethnos retains only the memory of its historical tradition. Then memory also disappears: the time comes for balance with nature (homeostasis), when people live in harmony with their native landscape and prefer philistine peace to great ideas. The passionarity of people in this phase is only enough to maintain the economy established by their ancestors.

A new cycle of development can only be caused by the next passionary push, in which a new passionary population arises. But it by no means reconstructs the old ethnos, but creates a new one, giving rise to the next round of ethnogenesis - the process by which Mankind does not disappear from the face of the Earth.

L.N. Gumilyov published more than two hundred articles and a dozen monographs: “Geography of the ethnos and the historical period”, “Ethnogenesis and the biosphere of the Earth”, “Ancient Russia and the Great Steppe”, “From Russia to Russia”, etc. Currently, the teachings of L.N. Gumilyov has many followers, but among professional historians there are also quite a few who critically evaluate his views.

At the moment, domestic historical science continues to develop fruitfully. It is freed from many ideological clichés of the past, becoming more tolerant and pluralistic.

In conclusion, we emphasize once again that the Russian civilization is a unique, original civilization with a rich history and a significant contribution to the treasury of the material and spiritual life of the peoples of the world. At the same time, its development took place within the framework of the main trends in the development of world civilizations. The authors of the proposed manual consider the history of Russian, and then Russian civilization, through the prism of material, political, socio-cultural and spiritual values ​​that have been accumulated and preserved over the centuries, which ensured its originality. To show the general and particular in the historical development of the Russian state, which left a noticeable mark on the history of world civilization, is one of the main tasks of this textbook.

Questions for self-control:

1. What is history? Define the term "history".

2. When did history as a science take shape in Russia? Explain why it was at this time that it became a science in the truest sense of the word.

3. Prove that history is the foundation of liberal education.

4. Define the concept of "history".

5. What are the main functions of history?

6. Explain the essence of the formational and civilizational approach to history. What are their advantages and disadvantages?

7. What are the methods and principles of historical research?

8. Define the concept of "historical sources" and describe them.

9. What historical schools existed in historical science, how did they differ from each other?

1. History of the Fatherland: Textbook for universities / Ed. acad. G.B. Pole. 2nd ed., revised. and additional M., 2002.

2. History of Russia. Textbook. Second edition, revised. and additional / A.S. Orlov, V.A. Georgiev, N.G. Georgieva, T.A. Sivokhin. M., 2002.

3. Political history of Russia: Tutorial/ Rev. ed. prof. V.V. Zhuravlev. M., 1998.

4. Semennikova L.I. Russia in the World Community of Civilizations: Textbook for Universities. Bryansk, 2000.

5. Toynbee A.D. Understanding history. M., Progress, 1990.

6. Toynbee A.D. Civilization before the court of History. SPb., 1995.

7. Spengler O. Decline of Europe: Essays on the morphology of world history. T. 1. Image and reality. Minsk, 1998.

History studies the past. But the historian cannot touch the past with the standard methods of scientific inquiry. He cannot watch it. The time machine, alas, has not yet been invented, and even the very possibility of traveling into the past today has no theoretical justification. The historian is not in a position to set up an experiment, to simulate an event. That is, some hypothetical reconstructions are possible, but there is never confidence in a completely adequate reproduction of the events of the past.

The only possibility of a scientific search for a historian is to study the past by the traces it has left. These traces are called historical sources.

historical source- any carrier of information about the past.

There are many definitions of a historical source. Let's take a look at some of them.

"A source is something from which the material for history is drawn" (3. Becher).

"Historical sources are either written or material monuments that reflect the extinct life of individuals and entire societies" (V. O. Klyuchevsky).

"In a broad sense, the concept of a historical source includes or contains in its content any remnant of antiquity" (S. F. Platonov).

"A historical source is a realized product of the human psyche, suitable for studying facts with historical significance" (AS Lappo-Danilevsky).

"A historical source is understood as any monument of the past, testifying to the history of human society" (M. N. Tikhomirov).

"A historical source is everything that directly reflects the historical process, everything created by human society" (LN Pushkarev).

A historical source is "...everything that can exude historical information...not only that which reflects the historical process, but also... human environment natural geographic environment" (S. O. Schmidt).

"A source is a product of purposeful human activity used to obtain data on social phenomena and processes" (O. M. Medushushskaya).

Sources can be classified:

• 1) by media type (what the source is made of):
  • - real;
  • - written;
  • - oral;
• 2) the way information is transmitted.
• - written;
• - oral;
• - pictorial;
• - phonetic, etc.;
• 3) for the purpose of creation evidence, intentional and unintentional;
• BUT) according to the degree of proximity of the source to the event, direct testimonies and testimonies recorded from other people's words, based on other sources.

According to the classification of the German historian Ernst Bernheim, sources are divided into remnants (actually remnants, as well as language data, games, customs, etc.) and tradition (that is, rethinking, interpretation according to certain rules accepted in society).

According to the classification of the Russian historian A. S. Lappo-Danilevsky, sources are divided into depicting historical phenomena ("remains of culture"), and sources reflecting them ("historical legends"). With the help of depicters, it is possible to directly perceive and describe events, but those that display must first be deciphered, interpreted, and interpreted.

Historians of the influential French Annales School, including M. Blok, divided the evidence of sources into unintentional (that is, originally intended for contemporaries, and not for historians: various kinds of documents, statements, references, etc.) and intentional (that is, there are those made on purpose, in the expectation that they will be read by the addressee, a contemporary reader, or many years later by a historian).

According to the classification of the domestic researcher L. N. Pushkarev, the sources are:

1) material (archaeological); 2) written; 3) oral (folklore); 4) ethnographic; 5) linguistic; 6) photo and film documents; and 7) audio documents.

According to the classification of academician I. D. Kovalchenko, the sources are divided into: 1) real;

2) written; 3) pictorial and 4) phonetic. In another classification, Kovalchenko proposed to divide sources into mass and individual. He also included statistics, office materials, acts, that is, documents reflecting the life of society, the economy, etc. to the former. The second is literary monuments and sources of personal origin, reflecting the individual history of individuals in the general flow of historical events.

There is also a classification by types of historical sources.

The type of historical sources is a historically established group of sources that have stable common features of form and content that have arisen and entrenched due to their commonality. social functions. * 1

The classification of sources by type was proposed by the already mentioned Pushkarev:

• 1) annals;
• 2) legislative acts;
• 3) office documentation;
• 4) act materials (letters);
• 5) statistics;
• 6) periodicals;
• 7) documents of personal origin (memoirs, diaries, correspondence);
• 8) literary monuments;
• 9) journalism and political writings;
• 10) scientific works.

A kind of synthetic classification that combines the division of sources by type with criteria according to the type of media and the method of transmitting information was proposed by the Russian historian and local historian S. O. Schmidt:

• 1) material sources;
• 2) pictorial sources:

artistic and visual (works of art, cinema and photography);

• - visual and graphic (maps, diagrams, etc.);
• - figurative-natural (photos and film frames);
• 3) verbal sources:
  • - Speaking;
  • - folklore;
  • - written monuments;
  • - audio documents;
• 4) conventional sources (all systems of "symbolic symbols" and "information recorded on machine media", that is, modern electronic sources);
• 5) behavioral sources (customs, rituals);
• 6) sound sources.

The main question when referring to sources is their adequacy in reproducing the events of the past. The source must be checked for falsification. Having ascertained its authenticity, scientists must compile a description of the source (that is, establish its origin: authorship, time and place of creation, purpose of the text or document, etc.). After that, it is the turn of extracting information about the past from the source and interpreting it. This is done using special scientific methods.