External criticism. Historical criticism The content of external and internal criticism of sources

Source criticism is a decisive stage in the research work on documents. Its purpose is to determine the degree of completeness and reliability of the actual content of the source and create the prerequisites for extracting reliable information from it.

According to modern concepts, the method of source study analysis includes the following procedures and operations:

1. Determination of the external features of the source;

2. Establishing the origin of the source:

a) establishing the authenticity of the monument,

b) finding out the history of the text, determining its original and subsequent versions, reading the text,

c) determining the time and place of occurrence of the text, establishing its author (attribution),

d) finding out the reasons, goals and historical circumstances for the appearance of the text, determining its social functions in the past;

3) Interpretation or interpretation of the text: finding out the meanings of the text, its correct understanding;

4) The study of the actual content of the written source and the determination of its correspondence to historical reality;

5) Source study synthesis of the monument.

In the present sequence, the first three procedures, including the interpretation of the text, essentially constitute an external critique of the source. The final phase of source criticism is internal criticism.

Establishing the external features of a written monument helps to determine its authenticity and date the text. This procedure includes finding out the writing material (paper, parchment, fabric, birch bark, etc.), writing or printing tools, type of writing, handwriting or font, and the external design of the text. When determining the external features of the monument, data and methods of paleography, sphragistics, filigree studies and a number of other auxiliary historical disciplines are used.

The historian works only with a genuine source. Therefore, the real source study analysis begins after its authenticity is established. This is a key operation. It is caused by the presence of a large number of fake and unreliable documents. Fakes are not what they claim to be: to be a source on the history of the declared socio-cultural system, they represent other social phenomena. Therefore, the establishment of the authenticity of evidence is considered to be the determination of its true socio-cultural affiliation. In other words, to determine authenticity means to establish whether it really reflects the declared socio-cultural system and whether it arose at a certain time and in a certain place.

This is the essence of determining the authenticity of the source under study. Next, it is necessary to outline the range of techniques and means used in this operation. Why should we deal with the methods of falsification. By their nature, they can be divided into falsifications in content and forgeries in form. The first includes completely forged documents. Some of them can be executed in compliance with external signs of authenticity (handwriting, seals, etc.). Forgeries are recognized by content by content-cultural analysis.

Forgeries in form usually have genuine content. But some of them have fabricated outward signs. Others, while being genuine in appearance, include fake inserts of text, entries, scribal notes, and so on. So chronicles, letters and office documents were forged more. As experience shows, the form was more often falsified. Therefore, in establishing the authenticity of the source, an important role is played by the analysis of its external features: material, writing, design. The chronological and metrological data available in the text, the form or structure of the text, its style features are also used. If necessary, meaningful information is taken into account: inaccurate information, errors, logical contradictions, discrepancies and cultural inconsistencies.

The most important thing in a written source is its text. By definition, a text is a logically connected sequence of sentences that forms a message. It is built according to the laws of the given language and taking into account the sign system used. It is the written message that is the remainder and representative of the reconstructed socio-cultural system. Therefore, working with him is the main prerequisite for restoring the historical facts reflected in the source.

The text that reached the researcher in the course of its functioning in the past was subjected to repeated author's, editorial and censorship corrections. Many texts were replicated or copied. And the historian usually deals with several versions of the same text. The life of Alexander Nevsky, for example, came to researchers in 15 editions and hundreds of lists. Therefore, before starting work with the text, the historian studies its history. It defines the original, author's copy, sets later edited (censored) versions. The editing of the text gave it a certain political direction. In addition, the researcher identifies all copies and lists. A copy is a complete repetition of the text, a list is an approximate or selective transcription. Further, the historian works with the original. If there is none, then the researcher restores it, clearing it of later editorial and censorship layers, or reconstructs it from copies and lists, eliminating the errors and insertions of the copyist.

Having received or restored the original, the historian proceeds to read it. The medieval text is preliminarily codified: it is divided into words and sentences, and punctuation marks are placed. Then the text is translated into modern Russian as close as possible to the original. When translating, it is very important to find the exact meaning of the words, terms and expressions used in the message, not paying attention to the similarity of many Old Slavonic and Russian words. In fact, very often their meaning is different, so you should definitely work with dictionaries.

After the text has been restored and translated, one should begin to study the external circumstances of its appearance.

Time and place of origin, authorship are the fundamental external characteristics of written evidence. They determine the spatio-temporal and cultural framework of the historical facts contained in the source and create decisive prerequisites for assessing the reliability of its information. Let's consider separately each of the noted operations.

Most Russian documents of the Middle Ages and modern times have a date in the text, a stamp or near the signature. She takes the truth. However, when a historian works with a copy or revision of a text, he must find out whether this date is not the time of the compilation of this version.

The next step in source study is to determine the place of origin of the analyzed document.

Determining the place of creation of a written certificate is very important. The localization of the source helps to find out the reasons, goals, historical, cultural and local conditions of its origin and existence, to find the author and, ultimately, to correctly interpret its content. When working with spatial information, the historian must know the political and territorial division of the country, its geography, toponymy, local features of culture and language at the time under study and in their historical development. Therefore, for the localization of the document, he uses the data of historical geography, historical toponymy and historical linguistics. Together with them, the researcher often uses materials from historical metrology, paleography, heraldry, sphragistics, and a number of other auxiliary historical disciplines.

After the localization of the written news, the historian turns to the establishment of authorship.

Determining the author (attribution) of a written source is a key task of external criticism. By identifying the author or compiler of a document, one can get a more accurate idea of ​​the place, time, causes and conditions of its occurrence and more fully reveal its social and political orientation. Having studied the worldview, practical activities and sociocultural affiliation of the author, the historian will be able to correctly interpret the text and determine the degree of reliability of the information reported in it. Even incomplete non-personalized (corporate-cultural) attribution of the source is important. After collecting all possible indirect information about the alleged author, it is synthesized and holistically generalized. Next, the identity of the author is identified. This process includes two stages. First, the historian makes a group identification, then he makes a personal identification. Group identification establishes the maximum possible circle of persons suitable for the author's role. Individual identification of a person includes the collection of information about the life and activities of all selected persons, their subsequent comparison with the original data and the maximum possible reduction of applicants. Further, through analysis, the final choice is made in favor of one or another person.

Having established all the external aspects of the origin of the source, it is necessary to determine the internal, socio-cultural causes and conditions for its appearance.

Finding out the reasons, goals and historical circumstances for the appearance of the text, determining its social functions in the past

As a work, the source belongs to a particular author. At the same time, it is a product of a specific culture of the past. Its emergence was caused by certain specific historical conditions, causes, goals and objectives of the functioning of this socio-cultural system. Therefore, it is very important to understand what was the historical reality in which this source arose and functioned. Without this, it is impossible to correctly understand and interpret the content of the written evidence.

All conditions in which the source is born can be divided into external and internal. Internal circumstances are the needs, goals, tasks and functions of the socio-cultural system that generated this written message. It is culture itself with its defining meanings, ideals and values. External circumstances are generated by the functioning and development of culture in a certain historical environment. They are the result of the impact on a given culture of other socio-cultural complexes: another social group, culture, time.

The historical circumstances that give rise to the source leave a very strong imprint on its content. The socio-cultural functions of the monument in the past play a special role in this. Its functions explain the reasons for the appearance of the text and determine the influence of the current conjuncture on it.

internal criticism.

Internal criticism is the next and final stage of the critical analysis of the source. At this stage, source criticism is based on hermeneutics, theory, and the art of interpreting historical (and generally literary) texts. It is important for the cognizing subject to reveal as much as possible the degree of reliability and scientifically significant value to the informative content of the source, its factology. At the same stage of the work, the social orientation and orientation of the attribution of the document are revealed.

The stochnikologist, in essence, is a philologist and historian rolled into one. First, he considers the source as part of the reality of the past, and then - as part of the reality in which he himself is. He evaluates the source logically, referring now intentionally, now unintentionally to the information contained in it. The structure of the research presentation is changing - it is dictated by the desire to reveal as fully as possible all the wealth of social information that a source can give, put in connection with the data of modern science. “The historian seeks to look beyond the texts in order to obtain from them information that they do not want to give and cannot give by themselves.”

The researcher reveals the fullness of the social information of the source, solves the problem of its reliability. He puts forward arguments in favor of his version of the veracity of the evidence, substantiates his position. If the stage of source interpretation involves the creation of a psychologically reliable image of the author of the source, the use, along with the logical categories of the cognitive process, of such categories as common sense, intuition, sympathy, empathy, then, in turn, at the stage of content analysis, logical judgments and evidence prevail, data comparison , analysis of their consistency with each other.

Turning to the analysis of the actual content and evaluating the reliability of the information in the document, the researcher prepares it for inclusion in the source base being formed. It is the basis for building a historical picture. As a result of the procedure, the source becomes part of the contemporary scientific and social culture of the historian.

Consider the content of this procedure. As you can see, it includes: firstly, the identification of all the historical facts available in the news, the disclosure of the completeness of its sociocultural information and, secondly, the determination of the correspondence between the actual content of the source of historical reality, the assessment of the accuracy and reliability of its data. Thus, it should first be established what historical events, facts are displayed by this source and what historical topics can be studied on the basis of its information. Then it is necessary to determine the reliability of his data on all historical facts, topics and aspects presented in the text. To this end, it is necessary to take into account the socio-cultural affiliation of the evidence, the personal characteristics of the author, the functions of the source and the historical conditions for its occurrence. Subsequently, this will free his information from subjective distortions.

Specifically, to assess the reliability of the news, you need to do the following. First of all, find out what national and social environment the source came from, outline the range of values ​​and ideals of this environment and determine its influence on the author in the selection, recording and evaluation of events, facts and persons. It is also very important to find out the character and worldview of the author, his personal attitude to the events and persons described. It is very important in assessing the reliability of written information to take into account such aspects as the knowledge of the author, the sources of his information (rumors, eyewitness accounts, personal impressions, documents), methods of collecting and processing information and his analytical abilities. In addition, one should keep in mind the influence on the author of the social atmosphere and the political situation at the time of the creation of the work.

These operations are mostly related to narrative sources with a strong author's beginning. The analysis of impersonal, documentary evidence is, of course, simpler and more objective. The attention of the source specialist is focused on the functions of the institution that created the document, the goals and objectives of the source, the described object, the structure and content of the document, methods of collecting, processing and publishing data, etc. are also taken into account.

Synthesis is the final stage in the study of a work. Its goal is to restore the integrity of the source as an organic part of the culture of its time, the socio-cultural community that produced it. Thus, restoring the integral image of a legislative act, it is necessary not only to restore the process of its creation in the system of law-making institutions, but also to inscribe it into the system of social, political and, especially, legal culture of a given society.

Conclusion

Historical sources - the whole complex of documents and objects of material culture that directly reflected the historical process and captured individual facts, and past events, on the basis of which the idea of ​​​​a particular historical era is recreated, hypotheses are put forward about the causes or consequences that entailed certain historical developments.

The purpose of studying historical sources is to extract the facts necessary to solve the problem under study. Thus, the work of the historian begins with the formulation of the question to which the scientist wants to find an answer.

In source studies, various classifications of sources are used.

Classification by type is the most important, corresponding to the main task of source study.

Each of the types of historical sources listed in the control work (material, ethnographic, linguistic, oral, electronic and written sources) requires a special approach.

But for the historian, written sources are of particular importance.

Thus, the process of historical research combines work with sources and the use of theoretical knowledge. It is in this way that the historian can reveal the patterns of historical development.

Literature

1. Belova E.B., Borodkin L.I., Garskova I.M., Izmest'eva T.F., Lazarev V.V. Historical informatics. M., 2006.-78 p.

2. Borodkin L.I. Multivariate statistical analysis in historical research. M., 2006.-96 p.

3. Kovalchenko I.D. Methods of historical research. M., 2007.-195 p.

4 Racer C.A. Fundamentals of textology. 2nd ed. M.: Enlightenment, 2008.-278 p.

5. Golikova A.G. Methods of working with historical sources. M.: Academy, 2014.-30 p.

6. Medushovskaya O.M. Source study., 2007.

7. Samorodov D.P. Introduction to history and fundamentals of scientific-historical methodology. M., 2005.

8. [Electronic resource] - Access mode: https://ru.wikipedia.org

1.1. External and internal criticism of historical sources. The subject of study of auxiliary historical disciplines

When recreating a true picture of the historical past, researchers use a variety of historical sources in their work. historical sources- all evidence of the past that is associated with human activities and reflects the history of human society. Any object to which human labor activity has been applied at least twice is a historical source.

Historical sources are:

· material (various objects of everyday life and culture created by human civilization);

· ethnographic (preserved traditions in the manners and customs of peoples);

· oral (folklore);

· linguistic (outdated words and names, which in ancient times were called various phenomena and objects);

· written (signs made on organic or inorganic material that can be identified as writing);

· film, photo, phono, video documents.

Historical sources are varied and in order to prove their authenticity they must be subjected to criticism. Criticism of sources is divided into external and internal.

External criticism is, first of all, obtaining information about the origin of the source. This is what they do auxiliary historical disciplines- establishing the time and place of compilation of the source, authorship, conditions of its writing, authenticity, as well as restoring the original text.

Auxiliary historical disciplines allow you to analyze the text, language data, proper names, geographical information, monitor the form, handwriting, writing signs and writing material.

Purpose of external criticism – determination of the degree of legitimacy of using the source in a scientific study.

Internal criticism It is based on the study of the content of the source and aims to establish its reliability, that is, to determine the degree of correspondence of life events to their reflection in the source. The completeness of the information and the scientific value of the source is established. In internal criticism of the source, it is necessary to identify social status, national and cultural affiliation of the author. The author can ignore or modify some facts and, on the contrary, highlight those of them in which he is interested in detailed coverage. A certain influence on the author is exerted by historical setting where he lives and works. Source science deals with internal criticism of a historical source.

source study - This is an auxiliary historical discipline that needs to be singled out in the first place, which develops a methodology and theory for the study and use of historical sources. Source studies are engaged in methods of identifying, classifying historical sources, developing a comprehensive methodology for processing, studying and using sources.

The subject of study of source studies is written sources.

The main tasks of source study:

1. Identification of sources, search for sources;

2. Establishment of the text (identification of later inserts - intercolations). Reading the text.

3. Establishing the origin of sources - authorship, place of writing, year of writing, authenticity, establishing the purpose of writing.

4. Determining the completeness of information, the political orientation of the document.

5. Synthesis of historical sources.

Source study, having separated from the auxiliary historical disciplines, is currently striving to become a special historical discipline.

Historical criticism

Under the name of historical K. they mean, first of all, the totality of methods that the historian uses in order to distinguish truth from falsehood in historical evidence. The so-called K. text aims to decide the question of the authenticity or falsity of this or that document. For example, one of the founders of historical culture in the new Europe, an Italian humanist of the 15th century. Lavrenty Valla (q.v.), wrote a whole essay to prove the forgery of the famous gift of Konstantinov, the authenticity of which was believed throughout the Middle Ages. Further, the document itself may be authentic, but the information contained in it may be incorrect. The author of this or that historical source often conveys what he himself learned from others, entering into his work, without any criticism, known to him only by hearsay. Often the author himself, consciously or unconsciously, intentionally or unintentionally, distorts the facts in relation to which he was a direct witness. The scientific nature of historical work should be based primarily on the elimination from the sources of everything that may contradict factual reliability. Historical K. gives rules worked out through experience on how to treat news contained in historical sources of various categories. The main general basis of these rules is simple common sense, but their successful application in practice is possible only with a certain kind of skill, the possession of which indicates a good school passed by the historian. Nevertheless, many scholars have attempted to formulate the rules of historical philosophy as a special methodological discipline; There is an entire literature on this subject. Historical K. is usually divided into external and internal. By external criticism is meant the investigation, in relation to each document or monument, firstly, whether it is what it claims to be, and secondly, whether it really represents what it has been taken to be until now. When examining the source from the first point of view, for example, either a direct forgery, or any inserts in the original text or other distortions can be found. When examining a monument from the second point of view, incorrect ideas about it, formed and confirmed regardless of the author's intentions, can be eliminated. Science knows a lot of such cases when scientists mistook this or that monument for what it really was not. Once the authenticity of a source is established, it is very often necessary to resolve questions about the time and place of its origin, about its author, whether it is a primary source or borrowing from some other source, etc. It is necessary to distinguish internal K. from this external K., which consists in deciding the relation of the news contained in the sources to the actual facts, that is, whether these news can be considered completely reliable, or only probable, or the very possibility of reported facts must be rejected. The main questions are solved here by examining the internal dignity of the sources, which depends on the nature of the sources themselves, on the individuality of the author, and on the influences of place and time. At the same time, it is very often necessary to check the reliability of some sources by others, and many sources about the same fact may, to a greater or lesser extent, either coincide with each other or contradict each other. In all cases of historical research, both external and internal, in addition to common sense and skill, impartiality and close acquaintance with the subject of research are also required from the researcher. Some theorists of historical criticism also point to the need to keep to the golden mean between gullibility and excessive skepticism. The newest treatise on historical K., with references to the literature of the subject, is the fourth chapter of E. Bernheim's excellent book: "Lehrbuch der historischen Methode" (1889, 2nd ed. 1894). Russian historical literature is very poor in writings on historical K. A number of remarks on this subject can be found in the first volume of Bestuzhev-Ryumin's "Russian History" and in the first volume of Ikonnikov's "Experience in Russian Historiography". See also Fortinsky's article: "Experiences in the Systematic Processing of Historical Criticism", in "Kiev University News" for 1884, as well as the Russian translation of Tardif's pamphlet: "Fundamentals of Historical K." (1894). In a broader sense, the name of historical criticism is given to a critical attitude, from a historical point of view, to the very phenomena studied by historical science; but such a usage cannot be considered correct, and it can give rise to great misunderstandings.

N. Kareev.

Encyclopedic Dictionary F.A. Brockhaus and I.A. Efron. - St. Petersburg: Brockhaus-Efron. 1890-1907 .

See what "Historical Criticism" is in other dictionaries:

- (Greek xritikn the art of judging, disassembling) the study, analysis and evaluation of the phenomena of muses. claim. In a broad sense, classical music is part of any study of music, since the evaluative element is an integral part of the aesthetic. judgments. ... ... Music Encyclopedia

THEORY. The word "K." means judgment. It is no coincidence that the word "judgment" is closely related to the concept of "judgment". To judge this, on the one hand, means to consider, reason about something, analyze some object, try to understand its meaning, give ... ... Literary Encyclopedia

- (Greek krittke, from krino I judge). Analysis and judgments about the merits and demerits of any subject, work, especially essays; discussion, evaluation. Dictionary of foreign words included in the Russian language. Chudinov A.N., 1910. CRITICISM of Greek ... ... Dictionary of foreign words of the Russian language

Criticism- Literary criticism is a type of literary creativity, the subject of which is literature itself. Just as the philosophy of science is the theory of knowledge, epistemology is the organ of self-consciousness of scientific creativity, so criticism is the organ of self-consciousness of creativity ... ... Dictionary of literary terms

CRITIQUE, critics, wives. (from Greek kritike). 1. only units Discussing, examining, investigating something, testing something for some purpose. Criticize something. Treat something without any criticism. Criticism of pure ... ... Explanatory Dictionary of Ushakov

Contents 1 Criticism of Jehovah's Witnesses 1.1 Notable critics 1.2 Translation ... Wikipedia

Female search and judgment about the merits and demerits of any labor, esp. essays; parsing, evaluation. Historical criticism, analysis of everyday life, search for events, cleaning them from embellishments and distortions. Human criticism cannot be avoided, gossip, ... ... Dahl's Explanatory Dictionary

- "New chronology" is a non-academic theory that claims that the generally accepted chronology of historical events is generally incorrect, and offers its own version of the chronology and the history of mankind in general. According to the statements of its authors, it is based on ... ... Wikipedia

This term has other meanings, see Historical school. Historical school of law - a trend in jurisprudence in the first half of the 19th century. It originated and gained the greatest popularity in Germany. Contents 1 Basic provisions ... Wikipedia

Books

• A. Pushkin. Collected works in 6 volumes (set of 6 books), A. Pushkin. The collection of works of the great Russian poet and writer A. S. Pushkin includes all of his most significant works ...

At the very beginning of the nineteenth century . A. L. Shletser substantiated the need for studying all sources of application three types of criticism: criticism of words, or small, then grammatical or historical interpretation of the text and, finally, higher criticism, or criticism of deeds. Throughout the nineteenth century. many Western European and Russian scholars, representatives of noble and bourgeois historiography, offered their own methods of scientific criticism of sources. So, V. O. Klyuchevsky, F. Schleiermacher and W. Wund divided it into philological and historical criticism, I. G. Droysen - into criticism of the authenticity and correctness of the testimony of the source, Paul - into criticism of the text and testimony, etc.

At the end of the XIX - beginning of the XX centuries. in the works of C. Langlois and C. Segnobos, E. Bernheim and A. S. Lappo-Danilevsky, a method of scientific criticism of written historical sources was developed, which received wide recognition among bourgeois historians.

The first stage in the analysis of historical sources according to this method should be their external criticism, i.e., establishing their origin in the narrow sense of the word. The task of external criticism is to determine the date and place of origin of the source, its author and authenticity based on the study of the material on which the source is written, handwriting and other paleographic data, seals, coats of arms, if any, as well as direct indications in the text of the source.

Second stage - internal criticism. According to these scientists, it consists in clarifying the reliability of the facts contained in the source. According to C. Langlois and C. Segnobos, this is achieved “by inference, by analogy, borrowed phenomena mostly from psychology and aimed at reproducing the state of mind of the author” .

Internal and external criticism cannot be run separately. Any position expressed in the document can be better understood and more accurately studied if the researcher knows the name of the compiler, time, place and conditions of occurrence.

Many bourgeois scientists of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. recognized this method of criticizing historical sources as correct, even classical, and in their scientific work they were guided by it, making only minor adjustments. There are adherents of it even today.

However, while completely denying the reality and regularity of any connections in the historical process, proponents of theories in the West speak of the impossibility of developing scientific methods for critical analysis of sources.

historical materialism- a scientific basis for the development of general methods of analysis and criticism of historical sources. It provides a theoretical basis for criticizing the idealistic idea of ​​a historical source, as well as for developing a scientific understanding of the source as a phenomenon of social life. It equips the historian with the criteria and principles for identifying sources.

Many bourgeois scholars draw a sharp line between the different stages and methods of scientific criticism of sources. From their point of view, all issues of external criticism of sources can be resolved in isolation from understanding the political and class positions of the author. Even such a penetrating researcher as A. A. Shakhmatov, who recognized the reflection of the political positions of their authors in the sources, often reduced his work on chronicles to a logical-semantic or comparative analysis of their texts.

Purpose of criticism- Accurately convey the facts. In contrast to them, Soviet historians are of the opinion that the completeness, reliability and accuracy of the transmission of facts depends most of all on the positions from which they were covered. Moreover, even many private questions related to establishing the place and time of the document, its authenticity or forgery, the name of the author, etc., the researcher can answer only on the basis of simultaneous conduct of both external and internal criticism of the source.

Subject, method and periodization of the IGPR.

The subject of the science of the history of state and law in Russia is the study of the emergence and development of types and forms of state and law, institutions and mechanisms of state power, as well as legal institutions of specific states among the peoples of our country in a certain historical period.

The history of the state and law of Russia explores the interaction: state structures; legal institutions.

One of the tasks of the science of the history of the state and law of Russia is the study of various approaches to historiography.

The main methods of studying the history of the state and law of Russia are; historical, comparative, system-dark-structural, statistical, analogy and extrapolation.

The historical method approaches the state and law as phenomena that develop and change over time. This method reveals the main elements of the object under study and the changes taking place in it in order to reveal their content and relationships.

The comparative method consists in a comparative study of the state-legal phenomena in Russia and other countries. At the same time, their common features, differences and features of development are revealed. Individual state-legal institutions of the country in the process of their evolution can also be compared.

As a result of a comparative analysis, it is possible to trace the changes in these concepts and identify their causes.

The system-structural method is effective in the study of self-governing systems consisting of many interacting elements. Their analysis involves the study of the structure of elements, their internal and external relations, the identification of backbone elements.

The statistical method is used in the study of the quantitative aspects of the historical process. Working with numerical indicators allows you to identify the extent, prevalence, pace of development and other aspects of the process. Inference by analogy is a conclusion about the similarity of two or more phenomena in any particular respect, made on the basis of their similarity in other respects. Analogy is used in cases of studying phenomena, information about which is inaccurate, incomplete or fragmentary.

Extrapolation involves the distribution of conclusions obtained in the course of studying one part of a phenomenon (process) to another part of it. Extrapolation contributes to forecasting, especially when the object of study is a historical process. The conclusions obtained as a result of the study of the completed stage of development help to understand its present and to foresee the boundaries of the future.

The history of the state and law of Russia can be divided into the following periods:

- Ancient Russia (IX-XII centuries);

The period of independent feudal states of Ancient Russia (XII-XIV centuries);

Russian (Moscow) state (XV-XVII centuries);

- The Russian Empire of the period of absolutism (XVIII - the middle of the XIX century);

Russian Empire of the period of transition to a bourgeois monarchy (mid-19th - early 20th centuries);

Russia during the period of the bourgeois-democratic republic (February-October 1917);

The period of the socialist revolution and the creation of the Soviet state (1918-1920);

Transition period, or NEP period (1921-1930);

The period of state-party socialism (1930 - early 1960s);

The period of the crisis of socialism (1960-1990);

The period of restoration of capitalism (from 1990 to the present).

A modern human (homo sapiens) appeared on the territory of our country in the Black Sea region and in the south of Central Asia about 30 thousand years ago. At that time, the central and northern regions of the European part of Russia were covered with a glacier. Primitive people were engaged in hunting, gathering, fishing. As the climate warmed and glaciers melted, primitive people began to settle from the southwestern and southern regions to the north and east. By the 5th millennium BC. people penetrated to the upper reaches of the Volga and into the territory of the modern Baltic states and Karelia, and in the III - II millennium BC. - to the Barents Sea and to the southern regions of Siberia (to Baikal), after which they began to gradually move to the north of the Asian part of the country.

The southern regions, due to favorable natural conditions, were significantly ahead of other parts of the European and Asian territories in their development. The development of material production, the increase in population and the growth of property inequality led to the decomposition of the primitive communal system, which did not take place simultaneously in different regions of Eurasia. At the turn of III and II millennia BC. Slave-owning states arose in Transcaucasia, Central Asia and the Black Sea region. It is important to note that all of them appeared in the south and developed independently of each other for a long time.

The general events of their history were most often due to the invasion of the same foreign conquerors. These states had no contacts with the western and central regions of the European part of Russia, where the foundations of ancient Russian statehood began to form a millennium later. Contacts with this territory were prevented by mountains or semi-deserts lying on the way, as well as a wide strip of steppes where warlike pastoral tribes roamed. From the first centuries of our era, the steppes became the main route for the penetration of large nomadic hordes from Asia to Europe, often destroying everything in their path.

State of Urartu.

In the ninth century BC. in Transcaucasia, around Lake Van (now in Turkey), the state of Urartu was formed from several dozen Armenian tribes. By the middle of the 7th century the state occupied the territory from Lake Sevan in Armenia to the upper reaches of the Tigris and Euphrates and became one of the significant states of the Ancient East. Urartu were engaged in agriculture, gardening with the use of artificial irrigation. Cattle breeding was widely developed. The cities of Urartu were fortified with walls and towers made of huge stones. Skilled artisans made tools, household utensils, weapons, expensive gold jewelry from clay, copper and iron. The state of Urartu had to constantly wage defensive wars with neighboring Assyria, which sought to enslave Urartu.

The state reached its heyday by the middle of the 8th century. BC, but in the VI century. after the invasion of the Scythians, the state perished. The Armenian tribes became the basis for the later Armenian kingdom formed here. To the west of it, the Colchis kingdom was formed from the Georgian and Abkhazian tribes, and to the north - the Georgian kingdom of Kartli (Iberia). Somewhat later - in the 4th century BC. - The state of Albania appeared on the territory of northern Azerbaijan.

Peoples of Central Asia.

The history of the peoples of Central Asia goes back into the mists of time. In the middle of the 1st millennium BC. three states arose here: Sogdiana(Zerafshan basin), Bactria(southern parts of modern Tajikistan and Uzbekistan) and Khorezm(in the lower reaches of the Amu Darya).

In the 5th century BC. Transcaucasia and Central Asia briefly came under the rule of the Persian Empire. In the IV century. these areas were conquered by Alexander the Great. There were large and powerful cities here: Khojent, Samarkand. The population was engaged in agriculture, cattle breeding, crafts. There was an advanced irrigation system.

The Arab conquest (VII-VIII centuries AD), which brought Islam with it, had a significant impact on the history of Transcaucasia and especially Central Asia. In the Caucasus, Islam spread among the ancestors of the Azerbaijanis and other peoples of the Eastern and Northern Caucasus. Armenians and Georgians, who adopted Christianity in the first centuries of our era, staunchly resisted Islamization, but some groups of Georgians (Adjarians, Ingiloys, etc.) were later converted to Islam. In Central Asia, Islam gradually became the main religion of the entire population. In socio-economic terms, the Arab conquest coincided with the emergence of feudal relations and partly contributed to this process.

After the collapse in the ninth century. Arab Caliphate in Transcaucasia emerged a number of feudal states. In the XI century. in the course of the struggle against the Seljuk Turks who penetrated into the Transcaucasus from Central Asia, the unification of Georgian lands took place, which ended under David the Builder with the creation of a single Georgian kingdom with its capital in Tbilisi. This kingdom reached its socio-economic and cultural flourishing under Queen Tamara (late 12th - early 13th century). The borders of Georgia at that time, as a vassal state, included most of Armenia (with the capital Ani). To the north of it was the Abkhazian kingdom and independent Kakheti, to the east (on the territory of Azerbaijan) - the Albanian kingdom and a number of other feudal states, the largest among which was Shirvan (with its capital in Shamakhi).

In Central Asia, after the collapse of the Arab Caliphate, several states arose (Samanids, Karakhanids, etc.), the largest of which was Khorezm. The Shahs of Khorezm managed to repel the invasion of the Seljuk Turks and extend their power by the 13th century to almost the entire territory of Central Asia, as well as to the southern Caspian regions, including part of Azerbaijan.

Greek colonies.

In the I millennium BC. The shores of the Black Sea began to explore the ancient Greeks. Greek colonization reached its greatest extent in the 6th-5th centuries. BC. At this time, in the Northern and Eastern Black Sea and Sea of ​​\u200b\u200bAzov, the Greeks create such large colony cities as Tiras (the mouth of the Dniester), Olvia (the Ochakov region), Chersonesos (the region of Sevastopol), Feodosia, Panticapaeum (the Kerch region), Tanais (the mouth of the Don) , Phanagoria (Taman Peninsula), Dioscuria (Sukhumi region), Phasis (mouth of the Rion). In the 5th century BC. Panticapaeum became the center of a large slave-owning power - the Bosporan kingdom (V century BC - IV century AD), which covered a significant part of the Sea of ​​\u200b\u200bAzov. Trade, agriculture, cattle breeding, fishing, handicraft production were actively developing here.

The Greek city-states copied the structure and way of life of the Greek world. Almost all of them were slave-owning republics. Slaves were acquired as a result of wars, and all free citizens could own them. Large land holdings were formed here, in which grain, wine, and oil were produced. The craft was at a high level, which was largely facilitated by extensive trade. The Greek colonies maintained trade and cultural ties with the Scythian tribes living in the Black Sea and Azov steppes, and with the Caucasian peoples. At the turn of our era, the Greek colonies were subjected to repeated attacks by nomads, and in the 3rd century, when the great migration of peoples began, they all ceased to exist.

Scythians.

Numerous nomadic Scythian tribes lived to the north of the Greek Crimean settlements. They created a bright and original culture that left a deep mark on the history of the peoples of the southern part of Eastern Europe and the regions of Western and Central Asia. The earliest references to the Scythians are found in written sources. The "father of history" the Greek historian Herodotus (5th century) dedicated book IV of his history to them. he named the Iranian-speaking tribes that occupied the space from the mouth of the Danube, the Lower Bug, the Dnieper to the Sea of ​​\u200b\u200bAzov and the Don. During this period, the Scythians were in the process of decomposition of the primitive communal system and a class society was taking shape. On the territory of the former USSR, the Scythians were among the first to create their own state.

Following the example of Herodotus, according to the way of managing the economy, the Scythians are usually divided into Scythian nomads and Scythian plowmen. Scythian nomads roamed in the Lower Dnieper, Crimea, Azov. Scythian plowmen lived on the right bank of the Lower Dnieper. Their dwellings were semi-dugouts, the depth of which did not exceed 1 m. Scythian plowmen cultivated wheat, flax, hemp, bred cows, sheep, goats, and pigs. Grain from Scythia was exported to Greece. They were engaged in various crafts, the most important of which was metallurgy, as well as bone carving, weaving, and pottery.
The nomadic Scythians were pastoralists. They left the most famous treasures and burials, which make it possible to judge the level of their development. Horse breeding among the Scythians played a major role. The horse was the favorite and main animal, and its image was a favorite and integral decoration of many products of the Scythians. Since the Scythians constantly changed camps, they developed a special type of dwelling - a felt yurt placed on a wagon.

In the VI - IV centuries. BC e. the Scythians united in a powerful tribal union. In the III century. BC. on its basis, a strong Scythian state was formed with its capital in Scythian Naples (a district of Simferopol). From the point of view of the political structure, the Scythians represented military democracy. Power belonged to the military assembly. At the head of the tribe was the leader - the king, he was considered the supreme commander. The tribal nobility of the Scythians was fabulously rich, owned a huge number of slaves and had strong power. Slavery among the Scythians reached considerable proportions. Slaves were not only prisoners of war, but also free people from subordinate tribes. In the event of the death of the king, the royal escort was also killed in order to serve the master in the other world. The Scythians adopted from the Greek aristocrats a passion for the accumulation of gold and its obligatory placement with the deceased.

By the 3rd century BC e. the general situation in the Northern Black Sea region has changed significantly. The troops of Alexander the Great dealt a crushing blow to the Scythians. The territory of the Scythians was greatly reduced and was limited only to the Crimean peninsula. Relations between the Greek city-states and the Scythians deteriorated. From the east, the Scythians began to be pressed. At the beginning of the III century. AD came to the Northern Black Sea region. They destroyed the Scythian cities. The final defeat of the Scythian state was carried out by those who appeared on the Crimean peninsula in the 70s. 4th century AD

The Great Migration of Peoples in the III - IV centuries.

In the III-IV centuries. AD the time of the struggle of hundreds of barbarian tribes with neighboring states began. This period of world history is also called the great migration of peoples. Barbarians from the steppes and forests conquered the rich southern cities and settled in new places. This process contributed to the collapse of the Roman Empire and Byzantium. At the same time, he had a great influence on the formation of the Romanesque, Germanic and Slavic peoples.

The migration of peoples went in two directions. From the north-west of Europe to the south and south-west, the tribes of the Celts, Germans, and later the Slavs moved. Hordes of nomads moved from the east from Asia to the west. In the IV century. AD the nomadic Huns traveled from the Great Wall of China to France, the Alans - the ancestors of modern Ossetians - from the North Caucasus to Spain. At the same time, the Germanic tribes visited the Black Sea, Italy, North Africa. Beginning of the 6th century characterized by the strongest pressure of the Slavs on Byzantium. Byzantine historians describe the invasion of the empire by Slavic troops, settling it with Slavic colonists.

The emergence of statehood among the ancient Slavs. Norman theory.

By the VI century. the tribes of the Eastern Slavs are going through the process of decomposition of the primitive communal system. Tribal and kinship relations are replaced by territorial, political and military ties.

As the division of labor and the increase in its productivity, it becomes possible to exploit the labor of others. In the rural community, the process of social stratification begins, the separation of the top, which grew rich due to the exploitation of neighbors and the use of slave labor.

Numerous wars also contributed to the emergence of a class society. In connection with the wars, the dependence of the communal peasants on the princes and their squads, which ensured the protection of the communities from external enemies, increased.

By the 8th century 14 tribal unions were formed on the territory of the Slavic tribes. At the head of the union were the prince and the prince's retinue.

The form of social relations of the Slavs in the VII-VIII centuries. military democracy.

Its features include:

Participation of all members of the tribal union in solving the most important issues;

The special role of the people's assembly as the highest authority;

General arming of the population (people's militia).

The ruling class consisted of the old tribal aristocracy - leaders, priests, elders - and wealthy members of the community.

Pursuing military-political goals, tribal unions united into even larger formations - “unions of unions”. Sources testify to the existence in the VIII century. three major political centers:

Kuyaba - the southern group of Slavic tribes (Kyiv); Slavia - northern group (Novgorod); Artania - southeastern group (Ryazan).

The Old Russian state was formed in 882 as a result of the unification under the rule of Kyiv of the two largest Slavic states - Kiev and Novgorod. Later, other Slavic tribes submitted to the Kiev prince - the Drevlyans, the northerners, the Radimichi, the Ulichi, the Tivertsy, the Vyatichi and the Po-Lyans. The ancient Russian (Kiev) state in its form was an early feudal monarchy.

It lasted until the middle of the 12th century. In the second half of the XI - the beginning of the XII century. semi-state principalities began to form on its territory: Kiev, Chernigov, Pereyaslav.

According to the Norman theory of the emergence of the Old Russian state, the state of the Eastern Slavs was created by the Varangians (Normans). Supporters of this theory are based on the legend of the calling of the Varangians to rule the Slavs. In this regard, they believe that the Slavs were at a low level of development and were not able to create a state. The Slavs were conquered by the Varangians, and the latter created state power.

However, sources testify that by the time the Varangians appeared in Novgorod, the state had already taken shape there. The Slavs had a high level of both socio-economic and political development, which served as the basis for the formation of the state.

The Varangian princes and their squads did not have a significant impact on the development of the Eastern Slavs, moreover, the Varangian nobility itself was influenced by Slavic culture and soon became Russified.

The development of state bodies in Russia.

According to the form of government, Kievan Rus was an early feudal monarchy. The Grand Duke was at the head of the state. Its functions at an early stage of the existence of the Old Russian state consisted in organizing the armed forces, commanding them, collecting tribute and establishing foreign trade. In the future, the activities of the prince in the field of administration acquired greater importance: the appointment of a local administration, princely agents, legislative and judicial activities, management of foreign relations, etc.

The income of the prince consisted of feudal duties, tribute (tax), court fees, criminal fines (vir and sales) and other requisitions.

Relations with other princes were built on the basis of letters of the cross, which determined the rights and obligations of the Grand Duke and the vassal princes (protecting the latter, helping them, helping the Grand Duke, etc.).

The Grand Duke's throne was inherited: first, according to the principle of seniority - to the eldest in the family, and then "fatherland" - to the son.

The Grand Duke in his activities relied on the advice of large feudal lords - the boyars and the clergy. Although the council did not have a clearly defined competence, the boyars, together with the prince, decided the most important issues of administration, foreign policy, court, legislative activity, etc.

When the prince consisted of a council of boyars and "princely husbands." The management of the branches of the princely palace economy was entrusted to tiuns and elders. Over time, they turn into managers of branches of the princely economy. The decimal management system is being replaced by the palace-patrimonial system, in which political power belongs to the owner (boyar-patrimony). Two centers of power are being formed - the princely palace and the boyar estate.

In the early feudal monarchy, an important state and political role is played by the people's assembly - Vienna. All free residents of the city (posada) and adjoining settlements (settlements) participated in the veche. The competence of the veche included issues of taxation, defense of the city, organization of military campaigns and the election of princes. The executive body of the veche was the council, which consisted of the city patriciate, elders, and others.

Local government was carried out by posadniks (governors) in cities and volosts in rural areas, and relied on military garrisons led by thousands, centurions and tenths.

The representatives of the prince had the following powers: they collected tribute and duties, administered justice, established and levied fines, etc. Instead of a salary for service, they had the right to keep part of the population collected from the population for themselves. Such a control system is called a feeding system.

The body of local peasant self-government was the territorial community - verv. Verv XI-XII centuries. combined elements of neighborhood and family communities and was a conglomerate of small settlements. The competence of the Vervi included issues of redistribution of land allotments, tax and financial issues, police supervision, resolution of litigation, investigation of crimes and execution of punishments. The state, using the rope for fiscal, police and administrative purposes, was interested in the further preservation of the community structure.

Judicial bodies as special institutions did not yet exist. Judicial functions were performed by authorities and administrations in the center and locally - princes, posadniks, volostels and other representatives of princely power.

Ecclesiastical jurisdiction was established. The Church judged: the dependent population of their lands, the clergy in all categories of cases, the population of the state in certain categories of cases (crimes against religion, morality, etc.).

The armed forces included: the squad of the Grand Duke, the squad of local princes, the feudal militia and the people's militia.

In 988, Christianity was adopted as the state religion in Russia. The Russian Orthodox Church was organized as a diocese of the Patriarch of Constantinople. The clergy were divided into "black" (monastic) and "white" (parish). Dioceses, parishes and monasteries acted as organizational centers.

The procedure for collecting tithes for the income of the church is established. She was granted the right to acquire land, inhabited villages, to exercise judgment in certain categories of cases, etc.

The largest monument of Russian law is Russkaya Pravda. Lists of Russian Pravda have come down to us in large numbers, but their unified classification is still missing.

Russian Pravda was a code of ancient Russian feudal law. Its norms underlie the Pskov and Novgorod judicial charters and subsequent legislative acts not only of Russian but also of Lithuanian law.

The articles of Russkaya Pravda speak of the establishment of the right of feudal property not only to land and land, but also to the movable property of horses, beavers, tools of production, etc.

Russkaya Pravda, the oldest Russian collection of laws, was formed during the 11th-11th centuries, but some of its articles go back to pagan antiquity. The first text was discovered and prepared for publication by V.N. Tatishchev in 1737. Now there are more than a hundred lists, which differ greatly in composition, volume and structure. The name of the monument is different from European traditions, where similar collections of law received purely legal headings - the law. lawyer. In Russia at that time the concept of "charter" was known. "law", "custom". but the code is designated by the legal-moral term "Pravda".

It is customary to divide the collection into three editions (large groups of articles. United by chronological and semantic content): Brief. Spacious and Abbreviated. The Brief Edition includes two components: the Truth of Yaroslav (or the Most Ancient) and the Truth of the Yaroslavichs - the sons of Yaroslav the Wise. Yaroslav's Truth includes the first 18 articles of the Short Truth and is entirely devoted to criminal law. Most likely, it arose during the struggle for the throne between Yaroslav and his brother Svyatopolk (1015-1019). The hired Varangian squad of Yaroslav came into conflict with the Novgorodians, accompanied by murders and beatings. Trying to fix the situation. Yaroslav appeased the Novgorodians "by giving them the Truth, and copying off the charter, taco told them: go according to her letter." Behind these words in the Novgorod Chronicle 1 is the text of the Most Ancient Truth.

True Yaroslavichi includes Art. Art. 19-43 Brief Truth (Academic list). Its title indicates that the collection was developed by the three sons of Yaroslav the Wise with the participation of major figures from the feudal environment. There are clarifications in the texts. from which it can be concluded that the collection was approved no earlier than the year of Yaroslav's death (1054) and no later than 1072 (the year of the death of one of his sons).

From the second half of the XI century. The Long Truth began to take shape (121 articles on the Trinity List), which took shape in the final version in the 20th century. In terms of the level of development of legal institutions and the socio-economic content, this is already a highly developed monument of law. Along with new regulations, it also included modified norms of the Brief Pravda. The Long Truth consists, as it were, of groups of articles united by a single meaning. It presents criminal and inheritance law, thoroughly developed the legal status of categories of the population and slaves, contains a bankruptcy charter, etc. By the beginning of the XII century. The Broad Truth has formed.

In the XIII-XIV centuries. an abridged edition arose, which has come down to us in just a few lists (50 articles on the IV Trinity List). It is a selection from the Extended Truth, adapted for more developed social relations during periods of fragmentation.

Origin criticism and content criticism. There are usually two sides to historical criticism: origin criticism and content criticism. True, some source scholars deny the need for such a division, sometimes different historians invest in each of these concepts not quite the same content. But for all the vagueness of concepts and the mobility of the lines between them, it is difficult to do without dividing into criticism of the origin and criticism of the content in the analysis of sources.

Origin criticism also has other names that help to understand its essence to some extent: “external”, “initial”, “preliminary”, “preparatory”. Criticism of the origin should reveal: the type (type) of the source, its authenticity, originality or copy; the author of the source, his social origin and position, age, education, party affiliation, nationality, personal likes and dislikes (the dispassionate author of the source, who "calmly looks at the right and the guilty, listening to good and evil indifferently, knowing neither pity nor anger", existed only in the imagination of a brilliant poet); time, place, conditions of creation, the purpose of the appearance of the source, etc. Criticism of the origin gives the source a general description and facilitates the criticism of the content.

The most important task of historical criticism is to clarify the ideological and political orientation of the source. This postulate, however, should not be vulgarized, acting on the principle that a source from an environment close to us is always reliable, and a source from a hostile environment is always unreliable.

3. The founding fathers of historical criticism

Lorenzo Valla. Lorenzo Valla (1407-1457) was a brilliant connoisseur of Latin and even wrote a treatise, Six Books on the Beauties of the Latin Language, in which he advocated a return from the corrupted, barbaric medieval Latin to classical Latin. Like other humanists, Valla was an opponent of the church, opposed asceticism as one of the principles of medieval church morality, and preached happiness and enjoyment as the goal of life. Valla considered the main culprits for the political fragmentation of Italy to be the popes, whose claims to secular power during the Renaissance were still very strong.

The legal basis for such claims was a fake known as the Gift of Konstantin. It was a false charter, fabricated in the papal office in the 8th century, according to which the Roman emperor Constantine (306-337) allegedly granted Pope Sylvester I secular power over the entire western part of the empire.

In the treatise Discourses on the False and Fictitious Donation of Constantine, Valla convincingly proved that this was a forgery that could not have been compiled in the 4th century. The arguments of his analysis were as follows: 1) why would Constantine begin to deprive himself of half of his possessions; 2) references to the alleged donation are not found in any other evidence; 3) the letter was written not in classical Latin, which was still in use in the 4th century, but in late barbarian, and, therefore, it was written later and forged. The date of the compilation of the fake (VIII century) was established later.

We are interested in Balla's work not from the anti-church side, but from the side of source studies. Valla laid the foundations for source analysis, although it will be centuries before historical criticism becomes widely used as the most important method of historical research.

The further development of source study analysis from the end of the 18th century was associated with the names of the German university professors of antiquity Wolf and Niebuhr, especially the modern historian L. Ranke.

Wolf and Niebuhr. F. A. Wolf(1759-1884) in his "Introduction to Homer" (1795) examined the Homeric epic.

Historians have used Homer's poems before, but mainly to borrow historical facts. Wolf, on the other hand, investigated the source itself, in particular, put forward the problem of its authorship. He argued that the Iliad was not created by one person, but was a record of folklore works in which the Greek people reflected their ancient past.

Walking, like Wolf, along the path of philological criticism, B. G. Niebuhr(1776-1831) studied the works of the Roman historian Titus Livius and argued that they were based on folk tales. He argued that historical narration is impossible without a prior assessment of witnesses who tell about the past, that is, without a preliminary assessment of the authors of the sources: their awareness, their likes and dislikes, and the ability to reliably convey events.

Wolff and Niebuhr critically studied specific sources on their topics (Homer, Titus Livy). Each of them explored their specific sources gropingly, intuitively. They did not formulate the rules of which the critical method was supposed to consist. Therefore, they themselves could not apply this method systematically and comprehensively, much less could they consciously and deliberately teach it to other historians.

Ranke's creative path. The further development of source study analysis is connected, first of all, with the name of Ranke.

In the life of the modest teacher Leopold Ranke (1795-1886), who taught history and Latin at the gymnasium of the provincial Frankfurt an der Oder, suddenly began a rapid advancement in the educational, scientific and social ladder. He turned out to be a professor and head of a department at the University of Berlin, a member of the Prussian Academy of Sciences, was elevated to the dignity of nobility, turning into Leopold von Ranke, and became the educator of some of the German heirs to the throne. Bismarck even compared the usefulness of reading Ranke's works with the study of the Bible. This take-off by Ranke began in 1824, when he published his first work, The History of the Germanic and Roman Peoples in 1494-1535, with the accompanying study of sources, Towards a Criticism of Modern Historians, and continued until the end of his life - Ranke died at the height of his fame. Meanwhile, Ranke's views were conservative, lecturer's data were mediocre. What are the reasons for his phenomenal career? What are his merits?

"The Ranke Method". Using previous achievements, in particular the methods of philological analysis by Wolf and Niebuhr, Ranke developed a system of techniques for analyzing sources, which contemporaries began to call "Ranke's method". The foundations of this analysis were already contained in the study "To the Critique of Recent Historians" - in fact, part of his first work with a story about the sources used in his writing and how they were used. Among the sources were the works of the Florentine politician Guicciardini and the Roman memoirist Giovio, who lived at the end of the 15th - beginning of the 16th century. It was impossible to reconcile their testimonies due to the great inconsistency, and in order to establish the historical truth, Ranke drew on the testimony of other contemporaries, whose appearance he had previously found out, as if subjecting them to “cross-examination”. This is the basis of the "Ranke method": it finds out the origin of each source, the competence of the author of the source, the degree of trust in it, and then compares the sources used to establish a true picture of the past.

Although the "Ranke method", or, more precisely, the method of historical criticism, did not arise from scratch, it represented a discovery in science. Several times historians have used this method unintentionally, gropingly. "Ranke distracted it from the unconscious actual application and generalized it into a logical formula, which could henceforth be passed on through school to a whole generation of minor historians" 1 .

With the arrival in 1825 at the University of Berlin, Ranke turned historical criticism into an academic discipline. Seminars, which he introduced into university practice for the first time, became a convenient form of academic teaching of historical criticism. Students and young historians, in time not only German ones, took part in their work, eager to join the latest methods of researching historical sources. Ranke created an extensive school, his students took chairs in most German universities. Thanks to the activities of Ranke's seminar and the growing authority of his school, the principles of historical criticism spread not only in Germany, but also beyond its borders.

In addition, Ranke began to study archival materials and revealed their significance for the study of the past, and it was with him that the use of archives began, without which historians have not imagined themselves ever since.

That is why Ranke is deservedly called the "father of historical criticism."