Поволжская археология (Dec 2018)
Review of the Monograph T.F. Khaidarov “Age of ‘Black Death’ in Golden Horde and Adjacent Regions” Kazan: Marjani Institute of History of Academy of Sciences, 2018. 304 P.
Abstract
The author examines the monographic work of T.F. Khaidarov, devoted to the study of the second plague pandemic in the Golden Horde and neighboring territories, which was published in 2018. Researchers have already studied some aspects of the course of the Black Death in Eastern Europe. Before the publication of the monograph, T.F. Khaidarov had published several articles devoted to this problem. Despite this, the monograph is the first experience of a comprehensive study of the manifestations of the second plague pandemic in all their diversity in Eastern Europe. The objectives set in the book required the synthesis of various natural sciences (biology, climatology, medicine) and social (history, historical source study, social anthropology) disciplines. In the monograph phenomena of different scale are investigated. On the one hand, the epidemics in Eastern Europe were considered in the context of the worldwide course of the pandemic. On the other hand, from the researcher’s view did not escape the local phenomena: the specific dating of a particular outbreak of the epidemic, the problem of the perception of the disease by society, the features of its description, etc. In the review, an assessment is given to this "total" study of the pandemic. The advantage of this approach is that it overcomes the boundaries between different scientific disciplines, allows us to fill the knowledge that is fragmentary in each separate science. The drawback of this approach is that it leads to the absolutization of the plague factor in history. The study of Black Death becomes the main link in the whole multidisciplinary research, turns into a kind of paradigm. Sometimes this leads to incorrect reading of historical sources and scientific works. Despite the revealed shortcomings, it should be recognized that the monograph of T.F. Khaidarov is a serious step forward in the study of the problem at the present stage of the development of science.
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