Российская картина Средневековья в контексте социальной истории исторического знания

Средние века. 2022. Т. 83. № 3. С. 31–53.

Zaretsky Y.

The article deals with the birth and transformations of the portrayal of the Middle Ages as an epoch of world history in Russian education and references literature. It covers the period from the end of the 17th century until now. What did the periodization of world history look like in Russia before the introduction of the Middle Ages into it? When and under what conditions did they appear? How were the content of the epoch and its time limits initially determined? How did Russian authors of the 19th century compare the concepts of the "Middle Ages" with "feudalism"? What influence did Western European historical literature have on their ideas about the Middle Ages? What changes in the image of the Middle Ages took place in educational and reference publications of the Soviet era? What new elements did the post-Soviet period bring to the portrayal of the epoch? How are the Middle Ages represented in today's university textbooks? The search for answers to these questions follows the approaches developed by the social history of knowledge. Knowledge acts in this field as a product that is manufactured, distributed, and consumed in a society like material products. The above fully applies to historical knowledge, which is especially subject to the influence of power relations and state policy. This feature allows paying special attention in the article to the transformations of the picture of the Middle Ages in the educational and reference literature of the Soviet and post-Soviet times. The study also attempts to compare today's ideas about the Middle Ages in Russia with new trends in understanding this period in other countries.

Keywords: Средние века, учебная литература, историческое знание, феодализм, российская медиевистика, периодизация всемирной истории