Our future is heavier than our past and emptier than our present.

V. O. Klyuchevsky

Instead of a preface: Dark waters of Russian history

Russian, that is, local history entered scientific circulation at the very end of the 18th century, when the post-Petrine rulers, in order to create a favorable image of the country among the civilized peoples of Europe, needed something more significant than the “legends about antiquity” that existed before. You understand that traditions and legends will not get you very far in proving the antiquity and culture of the territory under their control. The Russians themselves had no scientific knowledge about their past. Yes, Russian historical chronicles were kept in every land - be it Kyiv, Novgorod, Pskov, Suzdal, Yaroslavl or another ancient city where a local prince sat and there was a local monastery. But the chronicles, called chronicles in Rus' (from the word summer- that is, a year), were rewritten many times to please the next owner of the territory, so that by the 18th century no ancient chronicles had survived; the earliest could be considered texts written down in the 15th century. And the first centuries of the Russian state seemed to be in a fog. The Russian historical school also did not exist, which is why Western scientists, mainly Germans, were called in for the correct, that is, European, approach to the chronicle material. This is how G. Z. Bayer (1694–1738), G. F. Miller (1705–1783) and A. L. Shletser (1735–1809) began to study Russian history. One should not think that these scientists, so reviled by our first domestic “historian” M.V. Lomonosov, were asleep and only saw how to harm Russia in European perception. Alas, German historians were honest people, they knew their subject perfectly. However, these citizens certainly did not experience truly Russian “patriotism”! As was customary for that time, they studied the history of Russia using exactly the same methods as the history of any other state. The Germans examined the Russian primary sources they received, trying to understand the truth of the material they received. And it’s not their fault that understanding this chronicle chaos turned out to be so difficult that the notorious early history of Rus' became the subject of political disputes and claims over the following centuries, ours, the 21st century, is no exception. There is hardly a more thankless task than studying Russian antiquities.

The conclusions made by German experts did not please both the customers of scientific knowledge and local patriots. Mikhailo Vasilyevich Lomonosov was one of them.

Let us say right away that he had no right to be called any historian. Lomonosov was an amateur. Chemist, physicist, mathematician, naturalist, but not a historian! In Russian historical science, he could call himself a historian only because there was no one else to put next to him. The niche that Lomonosov occupied is in some ways very similar to the place in this science of our contemporary A. T. Fomenko, with the only difference that, with all his amateurism, Mikhailo Vasilyevich did not reach the level of insanity that the conclusions of the school of our contemporary are guilty of. Lomonosov firmly believed in the greatness of the Russian spirit, therefore he considered the conclusion of German historians, who read in the chronicles the legendary foundation of the Russian state by the Scandinavians, an insult. And so a funny, in my opinion, collision arose: the scientists had to justify themselves to the amateur that they had nothing bad in their thoughts, but from then on, the degree of his patriotism was judged by the scientist’s attitude to the Norman theory of the creation of the Russian state. Such a completely wild story with history arose at the very beginning of the creation in Russia of its own historical school. It is from Lomonosov that the holy thought comes that the first Rus were named after the Ros River and in general originated from the Roxolans. And although hardly anyone takes his last statement seriously today, the first exists in many historical works to this day. And for Fomenko’s school, the Roxolans were remarkably replaced by the Etruscans, who with their name appeal to the historical memory of the people, according to Fomenko, the Etruscans, translated into modern language, are nothing more than “these are Russians.” Such are the things.

The first historian who managed to bring together scattered local chronicles was Vasily Nikitich Tatishchev(1686–1750). It was he who wrote the first large-scale historical work - “Russian History”. To write this work, Tatishchev read, processed and systematized a huge amount of ancient materials, strictly following the scientific principles accepted in his time. His “Russian History” is especially valuable for us because over two and a half centuries, science has lost many documents that the scientist held in his hands in fires and other natural disasters. So Tatishchev’s retelling of documents is sometimes the only evidence that such documents existed at all. He divided the history of Russia into five periods: the early, from the 9th to the 12th centuries, when in Rus' there was one sovereign prince, transferring power to his sons; internecine (from the 12th century to the end of the Mongol-Tatar yoke), when the princes actively fought with each other and thereby weakened the state until it became easy prey for the eastern predator and was forced to spend several centuries under the rule of foreigners; the period of new autocracy under Ivan III and Ivan IV (the Terrible); the period of the Troubles, when civil strife and the struggle for power began again, which almost ended with a new conquest, but from the West; and the last period of restoration of autocracy under Alexei Mikhailovich and Peter the Great, which ended with the creation of a powerful Russian Empire. Tatishchev saw Russian history as a constant change of autocracy and unrest (infighting). When the government was able to unite the country, the state developed and strengthened; when it was not capable, things led to collapse and national tragedy. But during his lifetime, Tatishchev did not see his works published: the first volume of his “History” was published only twenty years after his death, and the last – even fifty years later.

Another Russian historian was much more fortunate, Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin (1766–1826).

Having begun his life as a writer, Karamzin became interested in Russian history and devoted himself entirely to the muse Clio. Over the course of fourteen years, he wrote and published twelve volumes of “History of the Russian State.” Karamzin had the opportunity to work in various archives and study numerous ancient texts. Possessing a pictorial style, he was able to bring history closer to the understanding of educated people of his time. However, Karamzin, for all his perseverance and literary talent, was, of course, not a scientist, but an excellent popularizer of history. He divided his history into three large periods - Ancient(from Rurik to Ivan III), Average(Ivan III to Peter I), New(from Peter I to Alexander I). He produced a purely patriotic essay. Karamzin did not spare colors to teach the reading public the idea that only autocratic rule allowed Russia to emerge as a strong and cultural state from ancient times, that any violation of autocracy leads to misfortunes and troubles, since it contradicts the very spirit of the Russian people. Karamzin’s far-fetched conclusions did not in the least bother the best minds of that time. Karamzin was literally engrossed... Alas, a historical work in appearance, his “History” was essentially a new chronicle to please the reigning monarchs.

IN. Klyuchevsky

“In the life of a scientist and writer, the main biographical facts are books, the most important events are thoughts.” (V.O. Klyuchevsky)

Vasily Osipovich Klyuchevsky was born in the village of Voskresensky near Penza into the family of a poor parish priest, who was the boy’s first teacher, but who died tragically when Vasily was only 9 years old. The family moved to Penza, where they settled in a small house given by one of the priest’s friends.

He graduated first from the Penza Theological School and then from the Theological Seminary.

In 1861 he entered the Faculty of History and Philology of Moscow University. His teachers were N.M. Leontyev, F.M. Buslaev, K.N. Pobedonostsev, B.N. Chicherin, S.M. Soloviev, whose lectures had a great influence on the young historian. “Soloviev gave the listener an amazingly integral view of the course of Russian history, drawn through a chain of generalized facts through a harmonious thread, and we know what a pleasure it is for a young mind beginning scientific study to feel in possession of a complete view of a scientific subject,” Klyuchevsky later wrote.

Klyuchevsky Museum in Penza

Career

After graduating from the university, Klyuchevsky remained to teach here and began work on ancient Russian saints, which became his master's thesis. Along the way, he writes several works on the history of the church and Russian religious thought: “Economic activities of the Solovetsky Monastery”, “Pskov disputes”, “Promotion of the church to the successes of Russian civil order and law”, “The significance of St. Sergius of Radonezh for the Russian people and state”, “Western influence and church schism in Russia in the 17th century”, etc.

Klyuchevsky devotes a lot of energy to teaching: in 1871 he was elected to the department of Russian history at the Moscow Theological Academy, where he worked until 1906; then he began teaching at the Alexander Military School, as well as at higher women's courses. His scientific and teaching career is rapidly growing: in September 1879 he was elected associate professor at Moscow University, in 1882 - extraordinary, in 1885 - ordinary professor.

IN. Klyuchevsky

In 1893 - 1895 he taught a course in Russian history to Grand Duke Georgy Alexandrovich (son of Alexander III); taught at the school of painting, sculpture and architecture; in 1893 - 1905 he was chairman of the Society of History and Antiquities at Moscow University.

He was an academician and honorary academician of a number of scientific societies.

Klyuchevsky gained the reputation of a brilliant lecturer who knew how to capture the attention of the audience with the power of analysis, gift of image, and deep erudition. He shone with wit, aphorisms, and epigrams that are still in demand today. His works always caused controversy, in which he tried not to interfere. The topics of his works are extremely diverse: the situation of the peasantry, zemstvo councils of Ancient Rus', the reforms of Ivan the Terrible...

He was concerned about the history of the spiritual life of Russian society and its outstanding representatives. A number of articles and speeches by Klyuchevsky about S.M. relate to this topic. Solovyov, Pushkin, Lermontov, N.I. Novikov, Fonvizin, Catherine II, Peter the Great. He published a “Brief Guide to Russian History,” and in 1904 began publishing the full course. A total of 4 volumes were published, up to the time of Catherine II.

V. Klyuchevsky sets out a strictly subjective understanding of Russian history, eliminating review and criticism and without entering into polemics with anyone. He bases the course on facts not according to their actual significance in history, but according to their methodological significance.

"Russian history course"

Klyuchevsky’s most famous scientific work is “Course of Russian History” in 5 parts. He worked on it for more than 30 years, but only decided to publish it in the early 1900s. Klyuchevsky considers the colonization of Russia to be the main factor in Russian history, and the main events unfold around colonization: “The history of Russia is the history of a country that is being colonized. The area of ​​colonization in it expanded along with its state territory. Sometimes falling, sometimes rising, this age-old movement continues to this day.”

Klyuchevsky divided Russian history into four periods:

I period - approximately from the 8th to the 13th centuries, when the Russian population was concentrated mainly on the middle and upper Dnieper with its tributaries. Rus' was then politically divided into separate cities, and the economy was dominated by foreign trade.

II period - XIII - mid-XV century, when the main mass of the people moved to the area between the upper Volga and Oka rivers. It is still a fragmented country, but into princely appanages. The basis of the economy was free peasant agricultural labor.

Monument to Klyuchevsky in Penza

III period - from the half of the 15th century. until the second decade of the 17th century, when the Russian population colonized the Don and Middle Volga black soils; the state unification of Great Russia took place; The process of enslavement of the peasantry began in the economy.

IV period - until the middle of the 19th century. (the Course did not cover later times) - the time when “the Russian people spread across the entire plain from the seas

Baltic and White to Black, to the Caucasus ridge, the Caspian and the Urals." The Russian Empire is formed, the autocracy is based on the military service class - the nobility. The manufacturing factory industry joins serf agricultural labor.

“In the life of a scientist and writer, the main biographical facts are books, the most important events are thoughts,” wrote Klyuchevsky. The life of Klyuchevsky himself rarely goes beyond these events and facts. By conviction he was moderate conservative, his political speeches are extremely few. But if they were, they were always distinguished by their originality of thinking and were never to please anyone. He only had his own position. For example, in 1894 he delivered a “Laudatory speech” to Alexander III, which caused indignation among the revolutionary students, and he was wary of the 1905 revolution.

"Historical portraits" by V. Klyuchevsky

His "Historical Portraits" include a number of biographies of famous people:

The first Kiev princes, Andrei Bogolyubsky, Ivan III, Ivan Nikitich Bersen-Beklemishev and Maxim the Greek, Ivan the Terrible, Tsar Fedor, Boris Godunov, False Dmitry I, Vasily Shuisky, False Dmitry II, Tsar Mikhail Romanov, Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, Peter the Great, Catherine I , Peter II, Anna Ioannovna, Elizabeth I, Peter III, Catherine II, Paul I, Alexander I, Nicholas I, Alexander II.
Creators of the Russian land
Good people of Ancient Rus', Nestor and Sylvester, Sergius of Radonezh, Ivan Nikitich Bersen-Beklemishev and Maxim the Greek, Nil Sorsky and Joseph Volotsky, K. Minin and D.M. Pozharsky, Patriarch Nikon, Simeon of Polotsk, A.L. Ordin-Nashchokin, Prince V.V. Golitsyn, Prince D.M. Golitsyn, N.I. Novikov,
MM. Speransky, A.S. Pushkin, Decembrists, H.M. Karamzin, K.N. Bestuzhev-Ryumin, S.M. Soloviev,
T.N. Granovsky.

Klyuchevsky's grave in the Donskoy Monastery

Aphorisms by V. Klyuchevsky

• To be happy means not wanting what you cannot get.
• A great idea in a bad environment is distorted into a series of absurdities.
• In science, you need to repeat lessons in order to remember them well; In morality, one must remember mistakes well so as not to repeat them.
• It is much easier to become a father than to remain one.
• An evil fool is angry at others for his own stupidity.
• Life teaches only those who study it.
• He who loves himself very much is not loved by others, because out of delicacy they do not want to be his rivals.
• He who laughs is not angry, because to laugh means to forgive.
• People live in idolatry of ideals, and when ideals are lacking, they idealize idols.
• People look for themselves everywhere, but not in themselves.
• There are people who know how to speak, but do not know how to say anything. These are windmills that always flap their wings, but never fly.
• Thought without morality is thoughtlessness, morality without thought is fanaticism.
• We should not complain that there are few smart people, but thank God for the fact that they exist.
• A man usually loves women whom he respects; a woman usually respects only men whom she loves. Therefore, a man often loves women who are not worth loving, and a woman often respects men who are not worth respecting.
• Science is often confused with knowledge. This is a gross misunderstanding. Science is not only knowledge, but also consciousness, that is, the ability to use knowledge properly.
• Young people are like butterflies: they fly into the light and end up in the fire.
• You need to know the past not because it has passed, but because, when leaving, you did not know how to remove your consequences.
• A reflective person should fear only himself, because he must be the only and merciless judge of himself.
• The smartest thing in life is still death, for only it corrects all the mistakes and stupidities of life.
• A proud person is one who values ​​the opinions of others about himself more than his own. So, to be self-loving means to love yourself more than others, and to respect others more than yourself.
• The surest and perhaps the only way to become happy is to imagine yourself like that.
• By freedom of conscience we usually mean freedom from conscience.
• Beneath strong passions there is often only a weak will hidden.
• Proud people love power, ambitious people love influence, arrogant people seek both, reflective people despise both.
• A good person is not one who knows how to do good, but one who does not know how to do evil.
• Friendship can do without love; love without friendship is not.
• The mind perishes from contradictions, but the heart feeds on them.
• Character is power over oneself, talent is power over others.
• Christs rarely appear like comets, but Judases are not translated like mosquitoes.
• Man is the greatest beast in the world.
• In Russia there are no average talents, simple masters, but there are lonely geniuses and millions of worthless people. Geniuses can do nothing because they have no apprentices, and nothing can be done with millions because they have no masters. The first are useless because there are too few of them; the latter are helpless because there are too many of them.

These lectures are a general course on the history of Russia, in which V. O. Klyuchevsky outlined his concept of the historical development of Russia.

The scientist believes that the purpose of studying local history is the same as the purpose of studying human history in general. The subject of universal history is the process of human coexistence. This community is made up of the interaction of various social elements, forces that build human society. These forces are: nature and people, person and social union, power and law, labor and capital, knowledge and art, etc. These forces are present in every society, but the society created by them is not the same in its character and in its forms at different times and in different places. This happens because the listed social forces do not come in the same combinations in different places and different times. The more diverse combinations of elements we study, the more we recognize new properties in social elements, the more fully we understand the nature of each of them.

Through historical study we learn not only the nature of social elements, but also their mechanism, we learn when a certain social force moved humanity forward and when it retarded its movement, when, for example, capital destroyed free labor without increasing its productivity, and when, on the contrary, this capital helped labor become more productive without enslaving it. Thus, in the course of the history of Russia, V. O. Klyuchevsky is primarily interested in the following questions: what peculiar local combinations does this history of an individual people represent, how these peculiar combinations arose, what new properties were revealed by the elements operating in it. In his presentation he confines himself to the facts of economic and political life and divides history into periods corresponding to changes in the relations between the main social elements.

The first part includes three periods. The first period lasts from the 8th to the end of the 12th century, when the mass of the Russian population was concentrated on the middle and upper Dnieper with its tributaries and its historical water continuation of the Lovati-Volkhov region. The second period is the time of the Upper Volga appanage Rus' from the end of the 12th to the half of the 15th century. The third period begins with the accession of John III to the princely table in 1462 and continues until 1613, when a new dynasty appears on the Moscow throne

The second part includes the fourth period - from 1613, when the Zemsky Sobor elected Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich to the Moscow throne until 1762 - changes in the state position of the nobility, landownership and service.

The third part includes two sections. The first is dedicated to the 18th century. The second includes the end of the 18th century and the 19th century - the reign of Alexander II (the appendix talks about Alexander III).

THE SCIENTIFIC TASK OF STUDYING LOCAL HISTORY. HISTORICAL PROCESS. HISTORY OF CULTURE OR CIVILIZATION. HISTORICAL SOCIOLOGY. TWO POINTS OF VIEW IN HISTORICAL STUDY – CULTURAL-HISTORICAL AND SOCIOLOGICAL. METHODOLOGICAL CONVENIENCE AND DIDACTIC APPROPRIATENESS IS THE SECOND OF THEM IN STUDYING LOCAL HISTORY. SCHEME OF SOCIO-HISTORICAL PROCESS. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF LOCAL AND TEMPORARY COMBINATIONS OF SOCIAL ELEMENTS IN HISTORICAL STUDY. METHODOLOGICAL CONVENIENCES OF STUDYING RUSSIAN HISTORY FROM THIS POINT OF VIEW.

You have already taken several courses on general history and become familiar with the tasks and methods of university study of this science. Starting a course on Russian history, I will preface it with several very general elementary considerations, the purpose of which is to connect the observations you have made and the impressions you have made on general history with the task and methods of a separate study of the history of Russia.

THE SCIENTIFIC TASK OF STUDYING LOCAL HISTORY. The practical interest that prompts us to study the history of Russia in a special way, isolating it from the composition of general history is understandable: after all, this is the history of our fatherland. But this educational, that is, practical, interest does not exclude scientific interest; on the contrary, it should only give it more didactic force. So, starting a special course on Russian history, we can pose the following general question: what scientific purpose can a special study of the history of one particular country, any individual people have? This goal must be derived from the general tasks of historical study, that is, from the tasks of studying the general history of mankind.

HISTORICAL PROCESS. In scientific language the word story is used in a double sense: 1) as movement in time, a process, and 2) as knowledge of the process. Therefore, everything that happens in time has its own history. The content of history as a separate science, a special branch of scientific knowledge is historical process, i.e., the course, conditions and successes of human society or the life of humanity in its development and results. Human society is the same fact of world existence as the life of the nature around us, and scientific knowledge of this fact is the same inescapable need of the human mind as the study of the life of this nature. Human society is expressed in various human unions, which can be called historical bodies and which arise, grow and multiply, transform into one another and, finally, are destroyed - in a word, they are born, live and die like the organic bodies of nature. The emergence, growth and change of these unions with all the conditions and consequences of their life is what we call historical process.

TWO SUBJECTS OF HISTORICAL STUDY. The historical process is revealed in the phenomena of human life, news of which is preserved in historical monuments or sources. These phenomena are immensely diverse and relate to international relations, the external and internal life of individual peoples, the activities of individuals among one or another people. All these phenomena add up to the great struggle of life that humanity has waged and continues to wage, striving for the goals it has set for itself. From this struggle, constantly changing its methods and character, however, something more solid and stable is deposited: this is a well-known everyday order, the structure of human relations, interests, concepts, feelings, morals. People stick to the established order until the continuous movement of historical drama replaces it with another. In all these changes, the historian is occupied by two main subjects, which he tries to discern in the undulating flow of historical life, as it is reflected in the sources. The accumulation of experiences, knowledge, needs, habits, everyday conveniences, improving, on the one hand, the private personal life of an individual, and on the other, establishing and improving social relations between people - in a word, the development of man and human society - this is one subject of historical study . The degree of this development achieved by one or another people is usually called culture, or civilization; the signs by which historical study determines this degree constitute the content of a special branch of historical knowledge, cultural history, or civilization. Another subject of historical observation is the nature and action of historical forces that build human societies, the properties of those diverse threads, material and spiritual, with the help of which random and diverse human units with a fleeting existence develop into harmonious and dense societies that live for entire centuries. The historical study of the structure of society, the organization of human unions, the development and functioning of their individual organs - in a word, the study of the properties and action of the forces that create and direct human society, constitutes the task of a special branch of historical knowledge, the science of society, which can also be distinguished from the general historical study under name historical sociology. Its essential difference from the history of civilization is that the content of the latter consists of the results of the historical process, and in the former, the forces and means of achieving it, so to speak, its kinetics, are subject to observation. Depending on the difference in subjects, the methods of study are also different.

RELATION TO THEM OF GENERAL AND LOCAL HISTORY. What is the relationship of general and local history to these objects of knowledge? Both of these subjects of historical study are more easily distinguished in the abstract classification of knowledge than in the process of study itself. In fact, both in general and in local history, the successes of the community and the structure of society are simultaneously observed, moreover, in such a way that the very successes of the community are used to study the nature and action of the forces that build it, and, conversely, the success of the community is measured by this structure of society. However, it can be noted that in general history and in local history, both subjects are not in balance, and in one study one subject predominates, in the other the other. Let us compare what degree of scope and what material the cultural historian finds for his research within the framework of general history and within the framework of local history, and then we will give ourselves the same account in relation to the historian who has posed questions of a sociological nature. The successes of human life, the acquisition of culture or civilization, which are enjoyed to a greater or lesser extent by individual peoples, are not the fruits of their activities alone, but were created by the joint or successive efforts of all cultural peoples, and the course of their accumulation cannot be depicted within the narrow framework of any local history, which can only indicate the connection of local civilization with universal civilization, the participation of an individual people in the general cultural work of humanity, or at least in the fruits of this work. You are already familiar with the progress of this work, with the general picture of the successes of human society: peoples and generations succeeded, scenes of historical life moved, social orders changed, but the thread of historical development was not interrupted, peoples and generations were linked by links into a continuous chain, civilizations alternated sequentially, as peoples and generations, being born one from another and giving rise to a third, a certain cultural reserve gradually accumulated, and what was deposited and survived from this centuries-old reserve - this came to us and became part of our existence, and through us will pass on to those who will replace us. This complex process becomes the main subject of study in general history: pragmatically, in chronological order and a consistent connection of causes and effects, it depicts the life of peoples who, through joint or successive efforts, have achieved any success in the development of society. Considering phenomena on a very large scale, general history focuses mainly on the cultural conquests that one or another people managed to achieve. On the contrary, when the history of a particular people is especially studied, the student’s horizons are constrained by the very subject of study. Here, neither the interaction of peoples, nor their comparative cultural significance, nor their historical continuity is subject to observation: successive peoples are considered here not as successive moments of civilization, not as phases of human development, but are considered in themselves, as separate ethnographic individuals, in which, By repeating themselves, the known processes of social life and certain combinations of the conditions of human life were modified. The gradual successes of the hostel in the connection of cause and effect are observed in a limited field, within known geographical and chronological limits. Thought focuses on other aspects of life, delves into the very structure of human society, into what produces this causal connection of phenomena, that is, into the very properties and action of historical forces that build society. The study of local history provides ready-made and most abundant material for historical sociology.

Introduction

Outstanding Russian historians used to clearly imagine that historical science has general theoretical methodological problems within itself.

In the 1884/85 academic year, V.O. Klyuchevsky for the first time in Russia gave a special course “Methodology of Russian History,” heading the truly original section of the first lecture as follows: “The absence of a method in our history.”

Commenting on this formulation, Klyuchevsky said: “Our Russian historical literature cannot be accused of a lack of hard work - it has worked a lot; but I won’t charge her too much if I say that she herself doesn’t know what to do with the material she processed; she doesn’t even know if she treated him well.”

How can there be methodological concepts drawn from historical science and corresponding criteria and approaches? Especially in conditions of zero level of development of your own approaches? It is clear that such an initial source can only come from the individual, including his social science section.

What is said about the relationship between the social concept of personality and history, with far-fetched, well-known adjustments (in each case, extremely specific, taking into account the specifics of a given science), perhaps this is extrapolated specifically to any branch of humanitarian and social science knowledge.

The purpose of the essay is to analyze, on the basis of existing literature, the life and work of Russian historians during their lifetime and what they left behind.

Based on the goal, the following tasks were formulated when writing the abstract:

1. Consider the biography of V.O. Klyuchevsky and his activities as a professor of history.

2. Consider the biography of N.M. Karamzin and his literary work.

3. Consider the life, career and literary works of V.N. Tatishchev in his biography.

4. Consider the life and main works of L.N. Gumilyov.

5. Consider S.M. Solovyov, as a teacher, a man of character and his contribution to the “History of Russia”.

Klyuchevsky Vasily Osipovich

Biography of V.O. Klyuchevsky

Klyuchevsky Vasily Osipovich- (1841-1911), Russian historian. Born on January 16 (28), 1841 in the village of Voskresensky (near Penza) in the family of a poor parish priest. His first teacher was his father, who died tragically in August 1850. The family was forced to move to Penza. Out of compassion for the poor widow, one of her husband’s friends gave her a small house to live in. “Was there anyone poorer than you and me at the time when we were left orphans in the arms of our mother,” Klyuchevsky later wrote to his sister, recalling the hungry years of childhood and adolescence. In Penza, Klyuchevsky studied at the parish theological school, then at the district theological school and at the theological seminary.

Already at school, Klyuchevsky was well aware of the works of many historians. In order to be able to devote himself to science (his superiors predicted a career for him as a clergyman and admission to the theological academy), in his last year he deliberately left the seminary and spent a year independently preparing for the entrance exams to the university. With admission to Moscow University in 1861, a new period began in Klyuchevsky’s life. His teachers were F.I. Buslaev, N.S. Tikhonravov, P.M. Leontiev and especially S.M. Soloviev: “Soloviev gave the listener a surprisingly complete, harmonious thread drawn through a chain of generalized facts, view of the course of Russian history, and we know what a pleasure it is for a young mind beginning scientific study to feel in possession of a complete view of a scientific subject.”

The time of study for Klyuchevsky coincided with the largest event in the life of the country - the bourgeois reforms of the early 1860s. He was opposed to the government's extreme measures, but did not approve of student political protests. The subject of his graduation essay at the university, Tales of Foreigners about the Moscow State (1866), Klyuchevsky chose to study about 40 legends and notes of foreigners about Rus' in the 15th-17th centuries. For the essay, the graduate was awarded a gold medal and retained at the department “to prepare for the professorship.” Klyuchevsky’s master’s (candidate’s) dissertation, Ancient Russian Lives of Saints as a Historical Source (1871), is devoted to another type of medieval Russian sources. The topic was indicated by Solovyov, who probably expected to use the secular and spiritual knowledge of the novice scientist to study the question of the participation of monasteries in the colonization of Russian lands. Klyuchevsky did a titanic job of studying no less than five thousand hagiographies. During the preparation of his dissertation, he wrote six independent studies, including such a major work as Economic Activities of the Solovetsky Monastery in the White Sea Territory (1866-1867). But the efforts expended and the result obtained did not live up to expectations - the literary monotony of the lives, when the authors described the lives of the heroes according to a stencil, did not allow establishing the details of “the setting, place and time, without which a historical fact does not exist for a historian.”

After defending his master's thesis, Klyuchevsky received the right to teach at higher educational institutions. He taught a course on general history at the Alexander Military School, a course on Russian history at the Moscow Theological Academy, at the Higher Women's Courses, at the School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. From 1879 he taught at Moscow University, where he replaced the deceased Solovyov in the department of Russian history. Teaching activities brought Klyuchevsky well-deserved fame. Gifted with the ability to imaginatively penetrate into the past, a master of artistic expression, a famous wit and the author of numerous epigrams and aphorisms, in his speeches the scientist skillfully built entire galleries of portraits of historical figures that were remembered by listeners for a long time. The doctoral dissertation The Boyar Duma of Ancient Rus' (first published in the pages of the magazine “Russian Thought” in 1880-1881) constituted a well-known stage in Klyuchevsky’s work. The themes of Klyuchevsky's subsequent scientific works clearly indicated this new direction - the Russian ruble of the 16th-18th centuries. in its relation to the present (1884), The origin of serfdom in Russia (1885), The poll tax and the abolition of servitude in Russia (1886), Eugene Onegin and his ancestors (1887), Composition of representation at the zemstvo councils of ancient Rus' (1890), etc. Klyuchevsky's most famous scientific work, which has received worldwide recognition, is a Course of Russian History in 5 parts. The scientist worked on it for more than three decades, but decided to publish it only in the early 1900s.

Klyuchevsky called colonization the main factor in Russian history around which events unfold: “The history of Russia is the history of a country that is being colonized. The area of ​​colonization in it expanded along with its state territory. Sometimes falling, sometimes rising, this age-old movement continues to this day.” Based on this, Klyuchevsky divided Russian history into four periods. The first period lasts approximately from the 8th to the 13th centuries, when the Russian population concentrated on the middle and upper Dnieper and its tributaries. Rus' was then politically divided into separate cities, and foreign trade dominated the economy. During the second period (13th - mid-15th centuries), the bulk of the population moved to the area between the upper Volga and Oka rivers. The country was still fragmented, but no longer into cities with attached regions, but into princely appanages. The basis of the economy is free peasant agricultural labor. The third period lasts from the half of the 15th century. until the second decade of the 17th century, when the Russian population colonized the southeastern Don and Middle Volga black soils; in politics, the state unification of Great Russia took place; The process of enslavement of the peasantry began in the economy. The last, fourth period until the mid-19th century. (the Course did not cover later times) is the time when “the Russian people spread across the entire plain from the Baltic and White seas to the Black Sea, to the Caucasus Range, the Caspian Sea and the Urals.” The Russian Empire is formed, led by an autocracy based on the military service class - the nobility. In the economy, the manufacturing factory industry joins serf agricultural labor.

Klyuchevsky’s scientific concept, with all its schematism, reflected the influences of social and scientific thought of the second half of the 19th century. The identification of the natural factor and the significance of geographical conditions for the historical development of the people met the requirements of positivist philosophy. The recognition of the importance of questions of economic and social history was to some extent akin to Marxist approaches to the study of the past. But still, the historians closest to Klyuchevsky are the so-called “state school” - K.D. Kavelin, S.M. Solovyov and B.N. Chicherin. “In the life of a scientist and writer, the main biographical facts are books, the most important events are thoughts,” wrote Klyuchevsky. The biography of Klyuchevsky himself rarely goes beyond these events and facts. His political speeches are few and characterize him as a moderate conservative who avoided the extremes of the Black Hundred reaction, a supporter of enlightened autocracy and the imperial greatness of Russia (it is no coincidence that Klyuchevsky was chosen as a teacher of general history for Grand Duke Georgy Alexandrovich, brother of Nicholas II). The scientist’s political line was answered by the “Laudatory speech” to Alexander III, delivered in 1894 and causing indignation among the revolutionary students, and a wary attitude towards the First Russian Revolution, and an unsuccessful run in the spring of 1906 for the ranks of electors to the First State Duma on the Cadet list. Klyuchevsky died in Moscow on May 12, 1911. He was buried in the cemetery of the Donskoy Monastery.

IN. Klyuchevsky as a historian

history literary teaching Klyuchevsky

Klyuchevsky Vasily Osipovich- Professor of Russian history at the Moscow Theological Academy and at Moscow University (in the latter - since 1879); currently ( 1895 ) is the chairman of the Moscow Society of History and Antiquities.

During the existence of higher women's courses in Moscow, Professor Guerrier gave lectures on Russian history at them, and after the closure of these courses he participated in public lectures organized by Moscow professors.

Not particularly numerous, but rich in content, Klyuchevsky’s scientific studies, of which his doctoral dissertation (“Boyar Duma”) is especially outstanding, are devoted primarily to elucidating the main issues of the history of government and the social system of the Moscow state of the 15th - 17th centuries.

The wide scope of the research, covering the most significant aspects of the life of the state and society, in their mutual connection, the rare gift of critical analysis, sometimes reaching the point of pettiness, but leading to rich results, the brilliant talent of presentation - all these features of K.’s works have long been recognized by special criticism, helped him enrich the science of Russian history with a number of new and valuable generalizations and promoted him to one of the first places among its researchers.

The most important of Klyuchevsky’s works: “Tales of Foreigners about the Moscow State” (M., 1886), “Ancient Russian Lives of Saints, as a Historical Source” (M., 1871), “Boyar Duma of Ancient Rus'” (M., 1882), “Pycc ruble XVI - XVIII centuries in its relation to the present" (1884), "The origin of serfdom" ("Russian Thought", 1885, no. 8 and 10), "Poll tax and the abolition of servitude in Russia" ("Russian Thought", 1886, $9 and 10), “Composition of representation at the Zemstvo Councils of Ancient Rus'” (“Russian Thought”, 1890, $1; 1891, $1; 1892, $1).

In addition to scientific works, Klyuchevsky wrote articles of a popular and journalistic nature, publishing them mainly in Russian Thought.

While retaining his characteristic talent for presentation here, Klyuchevsky moved further and further from the scientific soil in these articles, although he tried to keep it behind him. Their distinctive feature is the nationalistic shade of the author’s views, which is closely connected with the idealization of Moscow antiquity of the 16th - 17th centuries. and an optimistic attitude towards modern Russian reality.

Such features were clearly reflected, for example, in the articles: “Eugene Onegin”, “Good People of Old Rus'”, “Two Upbringings”, “Memories of N.I. Novikov and His Time”, as well as in Klyuchevsky’s speech entitled: “ In memory of the late sovereign Emperor Alexander III in Bose" ("Readings of the Moscow. General History and Ancient", 1894 and separately, M., 1894).