Greek istoria - research, story, narration about what is known, investigated) - 1) Any process of development in nature and society. "We know only one single science, the science of history. History can be considered from two sides, it can be divided into the history of nature and the history of people. However, both these sides are inextricably linked; as long as people exist, the history of nature and the history of people mutually determine each other" (K. Marx and F. Engels, Soch., 2nd ed., vol. 3, p. 16, note). In this sense, we can talk about the I. of the universe, I. of the Earth, I. otd. Sciences - physics, mathematics, law, etc. Already in antiquity the term "natural I." (historia naturalis) in relation to the description of nature. In relation to human society, I. - its past, the process of its development as a whole (world I.), individual countries, peoples or phenomena, aspects in the life of society. 2) The science that studies human development. society in all its concreteness and diversity, which is known in order to understand its present and future prospects. Marxist-Leninist ist. science studies human development. society as "...a single natural process in all its vast versatility and inconsistency" (V. I. Lenin, Soch., vol. 21, p. 41). I. is one of the societies. Sciences, reflecting the important side of human. society - the need for self-awareness. I. - one of the leading forms of self-consciousness of mankind. History as a process of development of society. I. about-va is a part and continuation of I. Earth, nature. As a result of a long nature. background ca. 1 million years ago, a man appeared, to-ry gradually moved from the use of natural objects to their purposeful processing, relying on them when influencing the world around him. Systematic the manufacture of tools at the earliest stage (the stage represented by Pithecanthropus, Sinanthropus and Heidelberg man) and their use led to the formation of the human psyche and created the basis for the emergence of speech. In parallel, the process of formation of the society went on, which, whatever its form, is a product of the interaction of people (see K. Marx, in the book: Marx K. and Engels F., Soch., 2nd ed., t 27, pp. 402). of the collective, and from that moment on, it is the I. of people, "... nothing but the activity of a person pursuing his goals" (K. Marx and F. Engels, ibid., vol. 2, p. 102). The subject of I. is a person. With the advent of about-va begins East. "creativity" of people, humanity, which is the content of I. People create material and spiritual values, fight against nature and overcome contradictions within the society, while changing themselves and changing their societies. relationship. In I. there are people, collectives, societies, to-rye differ from each other not only historically (as, for example, primitive societies of people with primitive tools and modern societies of industrialized countries, etc., are different. ), but also at any given moment. People live in various natural conditions; they occupy a different place in the system of production and consumption, their level of consciousness is not the same, and so on. people, man. collectives, all mankind. Received. I.'s course is manifested in all aspects: in I. material production, changes in societies. building, the development of science and culture, etc. Starting with the manufacture of stone tools, humanity gradually moved to the production and use of more complex and advanced tools made of bronze, later of iron, created mechanical. engines, then machines and, finally, systems of machines, on which the modern. production Simultaneously and in connection with the development of material production, there was a process of transition from primitive collectives through the communities of slaves and slave owners, serfs and feudal lords, proletarians and capitalists to a community of people who eliminated the exploitation of man by man and built communism. Mankind has gone from subjugating the forces of nature and worshiping them to the conscious transformation of nature and society to the extent that it knows the laws of their development. The path passed by mankind for hundreds of thousands of years shows that the process of its ist. development is objective, natural. The development of the island is influenced by many factors in their complex dialectic. interaction: the level of development produces. forces, production. relations and their corresponding superstructural phenomena (state, law, etc.), geographical environment, population density and growth, communication between peoples, etc. Each of the factors significantly affects the development of the society, making up the necessary conditions for its existence and development. Geographic The environment, for example, exerts a great influence on the development of man, on his settlement throughout the world I.. The low density of the population and its slow growth in the presence of vast spaces not mastered by man held back, for example, human progress. about-in America (before the 16th century) and Australia (before the 18th century). In the totality of the development factors of society, the main thing is the production of material goods, i.e. e. means of subsistence necessary for the very existence of people and their activities. "...People must first of all eat, drink, have a dwelling and clothe themselves before being able to engage in politics, science, art, religion, etc." (Engels F., ibid., vol. 19, p. 350). The mode of production embraces productive forces and productions. relationships that people enter into with each other. "In the social production of their lives, people enter into certain, necessary relations that do not depend on their will - relations of production that correspond to a certain stage in the development of their material productive forces. The totality of these production relations constitutes the economic structure of society, the real basis on which the legal and political superstructure and to which certain forms of social consciousness correspond" (Marx K., ibid., vol. 13, pp. 6-7). The method of production of material life determines the social, political. and the spiritual structure of the society, determines the type of relations prevailing in it. But the nature of the relations existing in different regions of the world, if the same mode of production exists in them, depends on all factors: "... the economic basis is the same from the side of basic conditions - thanks to infinitely diverse empirical circumstances, natural conditions, racial relations, historical influences acting from outside, etc. - can reveal in its manifestation endless variations and gradations, which can only be understood by analyzing these empirically given circumstances "(ibid., vol. 25, part 2, p. 354). The material life of the Society, being the objective side of the East. process of its development, is primary, and human. consciousness is secondary to it. The life of the island, its I. is manifested in the conscious activity of people, which constitutes the subjective side of the ist. process. Societies. consciousness of each given about-va, its societies. ideas and institutions are a reflection of its societies. being and, above all, the mode of production that dominates in this society. Each new generation of people, entering into life, finds a certain objective system of social-economic. relations, due to the achieved level of production. forces. These inherited relationships determine the nature and general conditions of the activity of the new generation. Therefore, the society sets itself only such tasks as it can solve. But, on the other hand, new societies. ideas, political institutions, etc. after their emergence, they acquire relative independence from the material relations that gave rise to them and, stimulating people to act in a certain direction, thereby exert an active influence on the course of societies. development. On the move ist. The development of the basis is constantly influenced by various elements of the superstructure: political. class forms. struggle, legal forms, political, legal, philosophical. theory, religion views, etc. "Here there is an interaction of all these moments, in which, in the end, the economic movement, as necessary, makes its way through an infinite number of accidents ..." (Engels F., ibid., vol. 28, 1940 , p. 245). I. about-va knows the following DOS. production types. relations - primitive communal, slave-owning, feudal, capitalist. and communist, and their corresponding types of socio-economic. formations. I. formations depending on the level produces. forces and nature of production. relations goes through a number of stages, phases, stages in its development (stages of early, developed and late feudalism, capitalism of the period of "free competition" and monopoly capitalism - imperialism, etc.). In addition, in ist. process it is possible to reveal a number of ist. eras, stages, to-rye embrace a complex of processes and phenomena characteristic of a number of countries and peoples located in similar ist. conditions, although often different in terms of their level of development (for example, the Renaissance). Main element of the formation is the dominant socio-economic. a way, with which other ways can coexist - the remains of a formation that has become a thing of the past, or the embryos of a new formation. Sequential change of social-economic. formations expresses the general direction of the progressive movement of the world-east. process. Int. the source of the society's development is the process of constantly emerging and constantly overcome contradictions between mankind and nature and contradictions within the society. Overcoming the contradictions between society and nature leads to the discovery and use of new forces of nature, which contributes to the development of production. forces and progress about-va. But as a mode of production is Ch. a factor in the totality of the conditions that determine the life of the island, and the contradictions inherent in the mode of production and the process of overcoming them are the determining sources of societies. development. "At a certain stage of their development, the material productive forces of society come into conflict with the existing production relations, or - which is only the legal expression of the latter - with the property relations within which they have hitherto developed. From the forms of development of the productive forces, these relations are transformed into their fetters. Then comes the era of social revolution. With a change in the economic basis, a revolution occurs more or less quickly in the entire vast superstructure "(Marx K., ibid., vol. 13, p. 7). A change in the development of material production forces that conflict with existing production relations, t i.e. a change in social existence, reflected in the social consciousness of people, is the cause of the emergence of new ideas. This contradiction leads to the appearance of a struggle within the society between classes, groups of people clinging to the old forms of property and political institutions that support them, and classes, groups of people interested in establishing new forms of property and political institutions, which, by resolving the conflict, contribute to the further progress of the material productive forces.Conscious motives in the actions of people, political parties and prominent historical personalities are a reflection of economic conditions In antagonistic formations, the discrepancy between the material productive forces of society and the existing production relations is manifested in the class struggle (see Classes and class struggle). Changing forms of ownership and political. institutions always affects the class. the interests of people, and the internal contradictions that arise here can only be resolved in the course of the class. struggle, the highest manifestation of which is the social revolution. Reforms in about-ve, consisting of antagonistich. classes are a particular result of the class. struggle and they only partially resolve the contradictions that have arisen in society. In a society that does not have antagonistic classes, no influential societies. forces standing for the preservation of obsolete forms of ownership and opposing the restructuring of the existing political on their basis. institutions. Overcoming of the contradictions arising in such about-ve is carried out by means of reforms, and their carrying out is an indicator of its progressive development. Under socialism and communism, when antagonistic. there are no contradictions, "...social evolutions will cease to be political revolutions" (ibid., vol. 4, p. 185). Ch. the creator of I. is the people, Nar. masses, to-rye play a decisive role in economic., political. and spiritual development of man. about-va. Historical experience shows that there is a constant increase in the role of Nar. of the masses in India. There is a continuous increase in the productivity of people's labor: the productivity of the labor of a serf under feudalism is higher than that of a slave, and the productivity of the labor of a hired worker is many times higher than that of a serf. The activity, strength and effectiveness of the struggle of the Nars are also growing. the masses for their own interests. The role of people masses in society. life is greatly enhanced in critical eras, especially during the revolution. turns in I. It becomes most active during the socialist. revolutions, because the socialist. revolution "... is the most decisive break with property relations inherited from the past; it is not surprising that in the course of its development it breaks most decisively with ideas inherited from the past" (K. Marx and F. Engels, ibid., p. 446 ). Socialist revolution fundamentally changes the course of world revolution. It leads not to the replacement of some exploiting classes by others (as was the case, for example, during the bourgeois revolutions), but to the withering away of classes and societies. antagonism. If the previous revolution. coups meant a transition to a new stage in the I. of mankind, then the socialist. revolution marks the transition to a new society. era, to a fundamentally new society. system - classless. about-wu. The development of social-economic. formations, class. struggle, the increasing role of Nar. masses determine the progressive, progressive development of man. about-va. Society criterion. progress is the degree of development produces. forces, the liberation of people. masses from the shackles of inequality and oppression, progress in the development of a universal human. culture. In the gradual mastery of the forces of nature, milestones ist. development are the discovery of the "mysteries" of nature - the energy of fire, water, steam, electricity, intra-atomic energy, etc. Simultaneously and in close connection with the development of material progress, the progressive development of man took place. collectives from the primitive herd, clans and tribes to nationalities and nations, from exploitative societies with various forms of dependence and freedom to such societies, which are based on the equal cooperation of its members. In the course of ist. In this process, the production and activity of people expands to a huge extent, their cognitive activity intensifies, intensifies, the person himself improves as a rational and social being. Received. human development. about-va also has a spatial aspect. Primitive man from the centers of the initial appearance gradually settled around the globe. The appearance at first of a few districts, where civilization developed more rapidly and where the first state. slave owner education. type (in the basins of the Nile, the Tigris and the Euphrates, the Ganges and the Brahmaputra, the Yellow River and the Yangtze), had a strong influence on the life of the population of neighboring territories. Gradually, people developed new, more and more extensive territories, coming into closer contact with each other. This process continues up to the present. time. The way passed by mankind testifies to the general acceleration of rates of development about-va. The "Age of Stone" is characterized by extremely slow progress in the material and spiritual life of the community; incomparably faster was the development of the society in the "age of metal" (copper, bronze, and especially iron). If the primitive communal system existed for hundreds of thousands of years, then the subsequent stages of its development took place at an ever accelerating pace: the slave owner. system - for several millennia, feudal - mainly for one millennium, and capitalist. about-in - for several centuries. For several decades, since 1917, the transition of the human. about-va to communism. Acceleration of rates of progress about-va in all spheres of a life has reached such degree when people of even one generation became capable to feel progressive development and to realize it. East the process of human development is not uniform and identical in different peoples and countries. In And. the moments of relative stagnation or even time were observed. regression, and in other cases - especially intensive development. The flow is uneven. development within the same era, country, etc. In some areas, economic., Political. or spiritual life there is a flourishing, rise, in others - decline, stagnation. The transition among different peoples from one society. building to another happened and is happening at different times. Slave owner the system first appeared in Egypt, Sumer and Akkad (4th-3rd millennium BC), then in China and India. In the 1st floor. 1st millennium BC e. a slaveowner is formed. ob-in the ancient Greeks, Persians, Romans. Equally uneven was the transition to feudalism and then to capitalism. After Vel. Oct. socialist. revolution of 1917 owls. the people were the first to start the construction of socialism, and now they are creating material and technical. base of communism. After the 2nd World War of 1939-45, the socialist. about-va arose in a number of the countries of Europe and Asia. At the same time, in most countries of modern world capitalist remains dominant. production method. Some nationalities, ethnic. groups, countries by virtue of certain. ist. conditions passed one or another stage of society. development. For example, germ. and glory. the tribes switched to feudalism, bypassing the slave-owners. system; a number of nationalities in the USSR, Mongolia, and others passed from feudalism to socialism, bypassing capitalism; there was no feudalism in the USA, etc. Peoples and countries that are on the same level of history. development, there are also differences (for example, classical antich. slavery is different from slavery in the countries of the East; there are features in the construction of socialism in various socialist. countries). Irregularity and differences in the development of otd. peoples and countries are caused by the specific features of their I.: the level of development produces. forces, differences in natural conditions, influences and relationships with neighboring peoples, etc. But the general trend is ist. development is a consistent change obshchestv.-ekonomich. formations, although in a number of specific cases there is coexistence at any given moment of several formations in the world. So, in present. time along with two main. formations - socialism and capitalism - a number of nationalities preserved feuds. relations and even the remnants of slave owners. And. primitive communal system (among some tribes and peoples of Africa). The general progressive course of human development. about-va, the acceleration of the pace of this development and at the same time the presence of unevenness and differences in the development of otd. peoples and countries, even phenomena of stagnation - all this is an indicator of the unity and at the same time of the colossal diversity of the ist. process. An expression of the unity of ist. process are also repeatability, the similarity of many features of the socio-economic., political., ideological. phenomena, forms among different peoples and countries that are at the same stage of society. development. As a result of the great archeological discoveries of the 19th and 20th centuries. similar tools, dwellings, objects of worship, etc. were found among peoples who often did not have direct contacts in the distant past. connections with each other. Int. unity of the world-ist. process is also manifested in closely related forms, currents, directions in the field of ideology (religion, art, etc.). I. speaks of a common human. authorship in the development of scientific. knowledge. Many human achievements knowledge can be considered the result of the collective creativity of peoples in the course of their history. development. T. o., otd. Parts of humanity, despite certain exceptions, have generally followed the same path. The trend, the pattern of world I. is the growth, strengthening of the relationship of departments. peoples and countries, their mutual influences. So, the cultural exchange between different tribes, communities in the Paleolithic era took place within a radius of up to 800 km, by the time the first civilizations appeared (3-1st millennium BC) - up to 8 thousand km, and in 1 -m thsd. e. it covered all of Asia, Europe and Africa. Establishing links between peoples, states, etc. is of great importance in I. human. about-va. These connections between groups, peoples throughout the human. I. took on a different character: migration (for example, the so-called great migration of peoples, the settlement of the islands of Polynesia, etc.), ideological. , cultural and other influences and borrowings, various social diffusions (the spread of Buddhism, Christianity, Islam from the places of their original origin, the influence of ancient culture in the Renaissance, the spread of Marxism in the 2nd half of the 19th - 1st half of the 20th centuries . and etc.). But before the advent of capitalism, these ties were episodic. character, easily violated under the influence of external causes, often had a forced character; peoples lived in means. degree of isolated life, and the violation of communications often led to a delay in the East. development of peoples (for example, the invasions of Attila's Huns, the hordes of Genghis Khan, and others led to a violation of trade exchange, the decline of agriculture and culture). Only capitalist. era with its Great Geographic. discoveries, world-wide exchange leads to the creation of world-wide connections and world-wide I. The communication of peoples has turned from an accidental, episodic into a necessary, constant one, although in a number of cases the compulsory nature of the connections is preserved and intensified. The latter found a vivid manifestation in the colonial exploitation of the developed capitalist. countries of backward peoples. A new type of communication between peoples was born with the formation of the socialist. systems. Relations between socialist countries. camps united by a common goal are built on the basis of equality, mutual assistance and fraternal cooperation and lead to a gradual equalization of the levels of development of these countries. A new type of socialist relations was also born. countries with peoples who have thrown off the yoke of colonialism - the establishment of close ties with the socialist. countries contributes to their rapid economic., political. and cultural development. Modern The Society is entering a new era of its development - the era of the classless communist. ob-va, in which all Ch. will be gradually overcome. differences in the levels of development of the peoples of the world and the unity of ist. process will become truly global. History as a science of the development of society. East science, like other sciences, as it developed, absorbed the experience of many people. generations; its content was expanded and enriched, a process of ever-increasing accumulation of knowledge took place. World I. has become the guardian of the thousand-year experience of mankind in all areas of material and spiritual life. All societies. the sciences are historical because they study "... in their historical continuity and present state, the conditions of life of people, social relations, legal and state forms with their ideal superstructure in the form of philosophy, religion, art, etc." (Engels F., ibid., vol. 20, p. 90). In a broad sense, the concept of "I." or the concept corresponding to it "historical. group of sciences" in present. time is rarely used. The established system of sciences, to-rye from various sides, is studied by I. about-va (sociology, history, political economy, jurisprudence, philology, aesthetics, linguistics, etc.), it is customary to call a group of societies. Sciences. With modern the level of knowledge, i.e., with the developed independence of each of the societies. sciences, and sometimes their seeming independence from each other, they are organically and inextricably linked. Only in their totality they are able to give a truly scientific. idea of ​​about-ve in. as a whole and solve in dialectical. unity ch. the task facing them is the knowledge of the past and modern. state of the island in order to understand its present and development prospects in the future. Communist party of the Soviets. The Union in its Program formulated the immediate task for I. in a broad sense, indicating that the modern. stage research world-east. process should show the emergence and development of socialist. system, a change in the balance of forces in favor of socialism, the aggravation of the general crisis of capitalism, the collapse of the colonial system of imperialism, the rise of national-liberate. movement, the natural process of the movement of mankind towards communism. Societies. sciences study specific I. about-va and derive laws (and their system - theories) in relation to the development of otd. stages, sides, spheres in human life. about-va, constituting the subject of study of each of them. In this way, each of the societies sciences within the limits of the subject of research prepares in parts the decision ch. tasks facing I. in a broad sense. The formulation of the general laws of development about-va is the subject of a general theoretical. sociology. Scientific Marxist sociology is historical materialism. Actually, I. as a science in a narrower sense is an integral part of societies. science groups. The place of I. in this group is due to its subject and method of research. For a very long time, I. had a purely "descriptive", empirical character. The immediate object of her attention were external. human events. I. in chronological order. sequences, the study of dep. private parties ist. process. Ch. attention was focused on the description of the political. events. Only later ist. science proceeds to isolate the elements, connections, human structure. about-va, mechanism ist. process. In the 19th century there is a socio-economic. I., which under the influence of Marxism becomes I. socio-economic. processes, relationships. The subject of ist. science has become the whole concrete and diverse life of the island in all its manifestations and in its ist. continuity, starting with the advent of human. about-va to its present state. For ist. the main thing in science is the study of specific I. about-va. At the same time, I. relies on the facts of the past and present, in which the objective process of development of the society is reflected (see Historical sources). The collection of facts, their systematization and consideration in connection with each other is that ext. basis of ist. science, which has been characteristic of it since its inception, as it is characteristic of all other specific societies. and natures. sciences. Even at that stage of development, when I. did not have a truly scientific. method, she, relying on this basis, gradually created factographic. picture of development about-va. As the facts accumulated, I. managed to catch the connections and interdependence of the department. phenomena, the typicality of some of them for all peoples, groups of countries, to accumulate the amount of knowledge about the development of about-va, to-rye became one of the scientific. prerequisites for the emergence of ist. materialism (clarification of the history of the class struggle in the 17th and 18th centuries, etc.). The Marxist understanding of I. about-va as an objective and natural process of development requires especially careful accumulation and study of facts. At the same time, as V. I. Lenin pointed out, “it is necessary to take not individual facts, but the totality of facts related to the issue under consideration, without a single exception ...” (Soch., vol. 23, p. 266). Collecting as far as possible the totality of facts about various events, phenomena and processes, the constant accumulation of these facts and their study in connection with each other are necessary conditions for the existence of I. and its development as a science, this is one of its sides. Therefore, in I. means. place is taken by description and narration. Moreover, quantitatively a very large group of ist. studies devoted to the study of the department. events, local phenomena, certain facts of life about-va, etc., is predominantly descriptive and narrative. The task of the historian in this case is reduced to giving an accurate and extremely concise description of the event or phenomenon under study. But I., as a science, cannot confine itself to telling about events without trying to understand and explain them. Based on the analysis of the totality of facts, I. comes to an understanding of the essence of the department. phenomena and processes in the life of about-va, the discovery is specific. laws of its development, features in the East. development of countries and peoples in comparison with others, etc. I. formulates all such discoveries in the form of theoretical. generalizations. This side is of particular importance. science acquired with the discovery of K. Marx and F. Engels DOS. laws ist. development about-va. In order to scientifically reproduce any process of development, the historian must first of all determine which elements are involved in this process and what is the role of each of them, study in detail the structure of the object under study and its modifications at different stages of the process. Finally, in order to present development precisely as a process, and not simply as a series of successive states of an object, the historian must reveal the very laws of transition from one source to another. states to another. Theoretical generalizations, awareness of the totality of facts and private conclusions accumulated and studied depending on each other, is the second side of I. as a science. I. includes theory, it is impossible without theory. The unity of these two sides science is inseparable. In the knowledge of I. about-va dialectically combined, on the one hand, the accumulation of facts and their study in connection with each other and, on the other, theoretical. generalization of the accumulated and studied facts. Violation of this unity in one way or another inevitably leads to a perversion of the process of cognition I. about-va, a cut always negatively affects the results of the study. The most extreme manifestations of such a perversion are: vulgar sociologism, when the researcher, digressing from specific facts or ignoring them, creates arbitrary sociological ideas without sufficient reason. society schemes. development, and empiricism, when for the researcher it is essentially an end in itself to collect and string facts without trying to comprehend them theoretically, generalize and find certain patterns. During the development of ist. science, along with a change in the subject of I., accordingly, there was a change in the method of cognition and comprehension of the source. phenomena. Scientific the method of knowledge I. about-va was developed gradually by all societies. sciences. Until ser. 19th century historians used methods that suffered in the meaning. measure of metaphysics. Therefore, their conclusions could not be strictly scientific. Historians one-sidedly assessed the role of individual, often real factors in the life of the community - the role of natural conditions, outstanding personalities, and societies. ideas, etc. Lack of truly scientific. method led to the slow progress of I. Only the combination of dialectics with materialism made it possible to introduce really scientific. a method of cognition of a complex and diverse I. about-va. This was one of the reasons for the rapid progress of the ist. science, which received special development in the USSR and other socialist. countries. I., using the Marxist dialectic. method, studies not just a variety of facts for the sake of creating factographic. pictures of the life of the Society with a consistent and entertaining presentation of the course of events. It studies the specific course of events, highlighting the internal connections between them and their mutual conditionality, seeks to reveal the internal inconsistency inherent in societies. phenomena and the entire process of development about-va. The method of cognition I. about-va is an organic component of the ist. Sciences. A necessary condition for the study of the facts and phenomena of societies. life is historicism. More historians Dr. East and Antich. world sought to give a description of the East. events in chronological order. sequences. Later, the desire for historicism was expressed in attempts to identify trends in the East. process. But only with the advent of Marxism did historicism become for societies. sciences, including for I., scientific. method of revealing regularities ist. process: "The most reliable thing in the question of social science ... is not to forget the main historical connection, to look at each question from the point of view of how a well-known phenomenon in history arose, what main stages in its development this phenomenon went through, and from the point of view from the point of view of its development, look at what this thing has become now" (ibid., vol. 29, p. 436). Ignoring the principle of historicism leads to a distortion of historical reality, for example. to the modernization of the past, i.e., to the transfer of later relations to eras far from them. Truly scientific. I. must be truthful, scientifically objective, devoid of exaggerations, strictly corresponding to the reality of this or that time. At the same time, I. was and remains a party science. Party ist. research expresses class. ideology and manifests itself primarily in the theoretical. generalizations, to-rye make historians, based on factual. material, and in connection with these generalizations existing in this ob-ve sociological. exercises. V. I. Lenin emphasized that "... there can be no 'impartial' social science in a society built on the class struggle" (ibid., vol. 19, p. 3), that "... not a single living person cannot but take the side of this or that class (once he understands their relationship), cannot but rejoice at the success of this class, cannot but be upset by its failures, cannot but be indignant at those who are hostile to this class, at those who hinder its development by the dissemination of backward views, etc., etc. " (ibid., vol. 2, pp. 498-99). Reactionary obsolete classes, the interests of which are contrary to the leading trend East. development about-va, are not interested in objective knowledge of it And. Their ideology expressed in certain sociological. systems, generates distortion and falsification of I. Communication I. with sociological. the teachings of obsolete, reactionary classes have always slowed the society in the past and continues to slow down in the modern capitalist. world development of I. as a science. And vice versa, the connection with the advanced for its time sociological. doctrines expressing the ideology of classes and societies. groups, to-rye in the present defended the interests of the future, was fruitful for I. and contributed to its development in science. Communication I. with scientific. Marxist sociology - ist. materialism - finally turned I. into a science, became the basis of its rapid progress as a science because Marxism-Leninism is the ideology of the working class. The interests of the working class require an objective ist. knowledge, as it helps him to realize put before him I. development of the Society of the world-historical. task - to carry out the transition to communism, and facilitates the struggle for its solution. Therefore, the party spirit of the I. and its scientific objectivity can be identical only when the I. reflects the interests of the working class. Other connections exist between I. and other specific societies. sciences. Unlike I., for political economy, jurisprudence, philology, and other specific societies. sciences, the objects of study are department. sides of life about-va or specific. his appearance in their modern. state and in connection with each other (the economic structure of the society, forms of state-va, law, art, literature, etc.). Dr. sides and phenomena, the entire set of conditions that characterize the life of the island, are taken into account by these sciences to the extent that it is necessary for understanding the sides and phenomena they study. For I., on the contrary, the object of study is the entire set of conditions that characterize the life of the community both in the past and in the present, including, as their constituent element, and those aspects and phenomena that other specific societies explore. Sciences. At the same time, I. does not repeat their path in the study of otd. aspects and phenomena, but relies on their achievements, borrowing from other societies. Sciences a number of theoretical. concepts, categories, etc. For example, psychology helps I. to reveal the mechanism of social behavior of people in different sources. era, aesthetics gives theoretical. criterion for evaluating art. values, etc. societies. Sciences, in turn, widely use the achievements of the East. Sciences. In the process of studying I. about-va in the East. science, as in all other sciences, there was an inevitable specialization of the department. parts of it, which continues to the present. Modern I. has become an area of ​​​​knowledge, to-heaven consists of a department. sections and branches of science, auxiliary ist. disciplines and special ist. Sciences. Degree of specialization parts is different, which allows us to distinguish several groups among them. The first is made up of sections and branches ist. sciences, within which historians are studying I. about-va as a whole (world I.) in its parts. The allocation of these parts, taking into account the objective course of the development of the society, is caused by the convenience of knowing the world I., and therefore such an allocation does not lead to the transformation of the

History as a chronology of events that have taken place on earth over the entire period of human existence should serve as an invaluable experience for the modern generation of people.

However, the sayings of famous historical figures testify to the opposite:

“The main lesson of history is that humanity is unteachable,” said Winston Churchill. “History does not teach anything, but only punishes for ignorance of the lessons,” wrote V. Klyuchevsky.

What is the true goal of historical science, and how is it realized?

Term story has 2 main meanings:

The process of development in nature and society, for example: the history of the development of the Earth, the history of the universe, the history of any science (law, medicine, etc.).

A science that studies the past of human society in various aspects: active, philosophical, social, etc.

As for historical science specifically, it studies and describes the historical process on the basis of sources of information about the past, establishing the objectivity of the facts and the causal relationship between them.

Origin of the term

The word "history" goes back to the ancient Greek ἱστορία (historia), which in turn is derived from the Proto-Indo-European wid-tor-, where the root weid- is translated as "to know, to see." Another word - historeîn was used in the sense of "explore".

Thus, initially "history" was identified with the method of establishing, clarifying, recognizing the truth of any fact or event. It included a broader range of meanings compared to modern ones, implying any knowledge obtained through research, not limited to the framework of human history.

Later - in ancient Rome - "history" began to be called a story about an incident, a case.

The subject of history

There is no consensus among researchers on the subject of studying history.

Materialistic scientists see the key indicators of social development in the way of producing material goods. Therefore, the main subject of historical science for them is society in its economic aspect.

Historians who hold liberal positions put the human person at the forefront, endowed by nature with natural rights and realizing them in the process of self-development. The definition of history as "the science of people in time", given by the French scientist M. Blok, characterizes this approach in the best possible way.

Hence the balancing of history on the verge of the social and human sciences.

Historical methods, principles and sources

Historical methods are based on the principles of working with discovered primary sources and artifacts.

The basic principles of historical science include:

1. The principle of truth as the highest goal of historical knowledge.
2. The principle of historicism, which establishes the consideration of the object of history in its development.
3. The principle of objectivity, which protects historical truth from distortions and subjective influences.
4. The principle of concreteness, which prescribes the study of a historical subject, relying on the features of the place and time of its development.
5. The principle of relying on historical sources, etc.

According to the last principle, the historical work of researchers should be based on objects that directly reflect the historical process. Historical sources are:

• Written - They, in turn, are divided into state acts (laws, treaties, etc.) and descriptions (chronicles, diaries, lives, letters).
• Linguistic (linguistic material).
• Oral (folklore).
• Ethnographic (ceremonies and customs).
• Material - These include tools found as a result of archaeological excavations, objects of culture and life, etc.

Historical disciplines

Among the auxiliary historical disciplines that serve the study of various historical sources, the following stand out:

• Archiving (studies and develops archives).
• Archeography (collects and publishes written historical sources).
• Bonistics (studies out-of-circulation banknotes as historical documents).
• Vexillology (studies flags, banners, standards, pennants, etc.)
• Genealogy (studies family ties between people).
• Heraldry (studies coats of arms).
• Diplomatics (examines ancient legal documents).
• Source studies (engaged in theory, history and methods of studying documents and objects of material culture of the past).
• Codicology (studies handwritten books).
• Numismatics (deals with the history of coinage and money circulation).
• Onomastics (a historical and linguistic discipline that studies the origin of proper names).
• Paleography (examines the monuments of writing, graphics).
• Sphragistics or sigillography (studies seals and their impressions).
• Chronology (studies historical events in their sequence), etc.

Philosophy of history

To date, there are several approaches to the interpretation of the historical process, explaining the patterns, goals and possible outcomes of its development. These include the following:

civilizational, considering history in the process of birth and extinction of civilizations; The brightest representatives of this approach were: O. Spengler, A. Toynbee, N. Ya. Danilevsky and others;

formational, materialistic approach based on socio-economic formations; Its creators were: K. Marx, F. Engels, V. I. Lenin;

relay-stage, which is considered a kind of Marxist-formational concept, in which the main driving force of history is the class struggle, and its ultimate goal is communism; Developed by Yu. I. Semyonov.

world-system, exploring the social evolution of social systems; Its creators: A. G. Frank, I. Wallerstein, J. Abu-Lutkhod, A. I. Fursov, L. E. Grinin and others.

school "Annals", studying the history of mentalities, values. Its founders and followers: M. Blok, L. Fevre, F. Braudel, J. Le Goff, A. Ya. Gurevich and others.

Video

What is history

Video lesson "Why do we need a story?"

History is a science that studies the features of human activity in the past. It makes it possible to determine the causes of events that took place long before us and in our day. Associated with a large number of social disciplines.

History as a science has existed for at least 2500 years. Its founder is considered the Greek scientist and chronicler Herodotus. In ancient times, this science was valued and considered its "teacher of life." In ancient Greece, she was patronized by the goddess Clio herself, who was engaged in the glorification of people and gods.

History is not just a statement of what happened hundreds and thousands of years ago. It is not even only the study of processes and events that took place in the past. In fact, its purpose is more and deeper. It does not allow conscious people to forget the past, but all this knowledge is applicable in the present and future. This is a storehouse of ancient wisdom, as well as knowledge of sociology, military affairs, and much more. To forget the past means to forget one's culture, heritage. Also, mistakes that have ever been made should not be forgotten, so as not to repeat them in the present and future.

The word "history" is translated as "investigation". This is a very appropriate definition.

borrowed from Greek. History as a science investigates the causes of events that took place, as well as their consequences. But this definition still does not reflect the whole point. The second meaning of this term can be perceived as "a story about what happened in the past."

History as a science experienced a new upsurge in the Renaissance. In particular, the philosopher Krug finally determined her place in the system of teachings. A little later, it was corrected by the French thinker Naville. He divided all the sciences into three groups, one of which he called “History”; it was supposed to include botany, zoology, astronomy, as well as history itself as a science of the past and heritage of mankind. Over time, this classification has undergone some changes.

History as a science is concrete, it requires the presence of facts, dates attached to them, the chronology of events. However, it is closely related to a large number of other disciplines. Naturally, among the latter was psychology. In the last and the century before last, theories were developed about the development of countries and peoples, taking into account the "public consciousness" and other similar phenomena. The well-known Sigmund Freud also contributed to such doctrines. As a result of these studies, a new term appeared - psychohistory. The science expressed by this concept was to study the motivation of the actions of individuals in the past.

History is connected with politics. That is why it can be interpreted biasedly, embellishing and painting some events and carefully hushing up others. Unfortunately, in this case, all its value is leveled.

History as a science has four main functions: cognitive, ideological, educational and practical. The first gives the sum of information about events and epochs. The ideological function involves understanding the events of the past. The essence of the practical is in understanding some objective historical processes, "learning from the mistakes of others" and refraining from subjective decisions. The educational function involves the formation of patriotism, morality, as well as a sense of consciousness and duty to society.

History largely determines the vector of development of the future: the one who controls the past controls the present and the future. There is an opinion that history is the most politicized science. And this opinion has the right to exist, because each previous era denies the other, as a result, history is adjusted taking into account the demands of time.

Historical knowledge covers several millennia, and if the understanding of the most ancient world is based on dilapidated sources, archaeological excavations, assumptions and hypotheses, then the basis of modern history is facts, events, documents, statistics and human evidence.

If we consider facts as fragments of reality, we can understand that in themselves they say nothing. For historical knowledge, the fact is the basis, and only a historian can give the fact the meaning that certain ideological and theoretical views require. Therefore, one and the same fact in historical practice can have a different vision. Thus, the interpretation that stands between the fact and its understanding by historical science is important.

Historical schools and the subject of their research

The very subject of historical science is defined ambiguously. On the one hand, the subject of history is political, economic, demographic history, as well as the history of a particular place - a village, city, country, sometimes the history of a separate unit of society - a person, family, clan.

Modern historical schools have up to thirty definitions of the subject of history (in the scientific sense). As a rule, the subject of history is determined by the worldview of the historian, his philosophical and ideological convictions. Therefore, one should not look for objectivity in history, the support in its understanding should be one's own understanding of the processes, independent work with facts and sources, as well as critical thinking.

Historians-materialists are of the opinion that history studies the patterns of development of society, which depend on material goods and the methods of their production. In other words, from the point of view of materialism, history is based on economic relations, and with the help of society, the reasons for the development or non-development of these relations are determined.

At the heart of the liberal understanding is the belief that the subject is specifically a person (his personality), through which his natural rights are realized. That is, history, according to liberal historians, studies people in time.

The arguments that a person comes up with on his own usually convince him more than those that come to the mind of others.

Blaise Pascal

Terms and issues

The word "history" in most European languages ​​has two main meanings: one of them refers to the past of mankind, the other - to the literary and narrative genre, a story, often fictional, about certain events. In the first sense, history means the past in the broadest sense - as a set of human deeds. In addition, the term "history" indicates knowledge about the past and denotes the totality of social ideas about the past. Synonyms of history in this case are the concepts of "historical memory", "historical consciousness", "historical knowledge" and "historical science".

The phenomena denoted by these concepts are interconnected, and it is often difficult, almost impossible, to draw a line between them. However, in general, the first two concepts are more indicative of a spontaneously formed image of the past, while the last two imply a predominantly purposeful and critical approach to its cognition and evaluation.

It is noteworthy that the term "history", implying knowledge of the past, retains to a large extent its literary meaning. Knowledge of the past and the presentation of this knowledge in a coherent oral or written presentation always involves a story about certain events and phenomena, revealing their formation, development, internal drama and significance. History as a special form of human knowledge was formed within the framework of literary creativity and retains a connection with it to this day.

Historical sources are diverse in nature: these are written monuments, oral traditions, works of material and artistic culture. For some eras, this evidence is extremely scarce, for others it is abundant and heterogeneous. However, in any case, they do not recreate the past as such, and their information is not direct. For posterity, these are only fragments of a lost forever picture of the past. To recreate historical events, information about the past must be identified, deciphered, analyzed and interpreted. Cognition of the past is connected with the procedure of its reconstruction. A scientist, as well as any person interested in history, does not simply investigate some object, but, in essence, recreates it. This is the difference between the subject of historical knowledge and the subject of exact sciences, where any phenomenon is perceived as an unconditional reality, even if it has not been studied and explained.

Historical knowledge was formed in antiquity in the process of development of society and social consciousness. The interest of the community of people in their past has become one of the manifestations of the tendency towards self-knowledge and self-determination. It was based on two interrelated motives - the desire to preserve the memory of oneself for posterity and the desire to understand one's own present by referring to the experience of ancestors. Different eras and different civilizations throughout the history of mankind have shown interest in the past, not only in different forms, but also to varying degrees. The general and fair judgment of modern science can be considered the assumption that only in European culture, which has its origins in Greco-Roman antiquity, did the knowledge of the past acquire exceptional social and political significance. All eras of the formation of the so-called Western civilization - antiquity, the Middle Ages, modern times - are marked by the interest of society, its individual groups and individuals in the past. The ways of preserving the past, studying it and telling about it changed in the process of social development, only the tradition to look in the past for answers to the pressing questions of the present remained unchanged. Historical knowledge was not just an element of European culture, but one of the most important sources of its formation. Ideology, value system, social behavior developed in accordance with the way contemporaries understood and explained their own past.

From the 60s. 20th century historical science and historical knowledge as a whole are going through a turbulent period of breaking the traditions and stereotypes that were formed in the new European society during the 18th-19th centuries. Over the past decades, not only have new approaches to the study of history emerged, but the idea has also arisen that the past can be interpreted endlessly. The idea of ​​the multi-layered past suggests that there is no single history, there are only many separate "stories". A historical fact acquires reality only to the extent that it becomes part of human consciousness. The plurality of "stories" is generated not only by the complexity of the past, but also by the specifics of historical knowledge. The thesis that historical knowledge is unified and has a universal set of methods and tools for cognition was rejected by a significant part of the scientific community. The historian is recognized the right to personal choice of both the subject of research and intellectual tools.

Two questions are most essential to contemporary discussions about the meaning of history as a science. Is there a single past about which the historian must tell the truth, or does it break up into an infinite number of "stories" to be interpreted and studied? Does the researcher have the opportunity to comprehend the true meaning of the past and tell the truth about it? Both questions concern the cardinal problem of the social purpose of history and its "benefit" for society. Reflections on how historical research can be used by society in the modern, complex, changing world forces scientists to return again and again to the analysis of the mechanisms of historical consciousness, to seek an answer to the question: how and for what purpose people of previous generations were engaged in cognition of the past. The subject of this course is history as a process of knowing the past.