title: Cyclic Concepts of Russian History in Modern Historiography
metadata.name: dc.contributor.author
metadata.value: Mironov, Boris N.
metadata.lang: -
metadata.name: dc.date.accessioned
metadata.value: 2023-06-26T21:14:22Z
metadata.lang: -
metadata.name: dc.date.available
metadata.value: 2023-06-26T21:14:22Z
metadata.lang: -
metadata.name: dc.date.issued
metadata.value: 2023-03
metadata.lang: -
metadata.name: dc.identifier.citation
metadata.value: Mironov B. N. Cyclic Concepts of Russian History in Modern Historiography. Vestnik of Saint Petersburg University. History, 2023, vol. 68, issue 1, рp. 130–158. https://doi.org/10.21638/spbu02.2023.108 (In Russian)
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.identifier.other
metadata.value: https://doi.org/10.21638/spbu02.2023.108
metadata.lang: -
metadata.name: dc.identifier.uri
metadata.value: http://hdl.handle.net/11701/41684
metadata.lang: -
metadata.name: dc.description.abstract
metadata.value: In post-Soviet historiography, the concept of the cyclic pendulum, or inversion, of Russia’s development
  has become widespread. According to it, Russia, unlike the West, is characterized
  not by progressive, but by spasmodic pendulum development: progress is replaced by reaction,
  movement goes in a vicious circle. The article verifies four variants of the concept and makes
  conclusions about its strengths and weaknesses. Three most significant shortcomings are noted.
  The first is anti-historicism: fundamental changes that took place in the Russian society are
  ignored, which contradicts the principle of historicism. The second is Eurocentrism: the West
  is idealized and regarded as the highest manifestation of civilization, as a model for imitation
  and comparison, and deviations from this model, reforms that do not lead to Westernization,
  are condemned. The third is apriorism, weak empirical validity: explanations in most cases are
  hypothetical, even guesswork. The main methodological strategies are comparison, analogy,
  good examples, deduction as a selective ordering of facts to substantiate a certain hypothesis.
  Historians, as a rule, consider such methods to be unreliable, opening up opportunities
  for many ill-founded hypotheses. The concept objectively reflects the characteristic features
  of the Russian historical process: the presence of cycles; the pulsating nature of the reform;
  widespread authoritarian management style; low general culture of the population; the great
  role of traditional institutions, popular political culture and specific cognitive practices; strong
  historical inertia — dependence on the past path, due to civilizational stereotypes. However,
  the shortcomings inherent in the Russian society are exaggerated, and achievements are minimized.
  The imbalance creates a bias, and the representation of the course of Russian history
  is inadequate.
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.description.sponsorship
metadata.value: This research was supported by grant no. 20-09-00353 from the Russian Science Foundation “The
  standard of living of the population of Russia in the 20th — early 21st centuries according to traditional and
  alternative indicators: an interdisciplinary study on Big Data”.
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.language.iso
metadata.value: ru
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.publisher
metadata.value: St Petersburg State University
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.relation.ispartofseries
metadata.value: Vestnik of St Petersburg University. History;Volume 68; Issue 1
metadata.lang: -
metadata.name: dc.subject
metadata.value: reforms and counter-reforms in Russia
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.subject
metadata.value: turmoil and revolutions
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.subject
metadata.value: A. S. Akhiezer
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.subject
metadata.value: I. I. Glebova
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.subject
metadata.value: A. Yu. Dvornichenko
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.subject
metadata.value: V. V. Ilyin
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.title
metadata.value: Cyclic Concepts of Russian History in Modern Historiography
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.type
metadata.value: Article
metadata.lang: en_GB
resources.filename: 08.pdf
resources.url: https://dspace.spbu.ru/bitstream/11701/41684/1/08.pdf
resources.format: Adobe PDF
resources.size: 857,56 kB