Development of Russian Unitary State in the Works of Domestic Historians of the Late 1930’s – Early 1950’s

Abstract

The present research featured the concept of Russian unitary state in the Soviet historiography of the late 1930’s – early 1950’s. The paper introduces the key problems the leading historians of that period had to face while developing their theoretical and methodological positions. The study focused on the effect of politics and ideology on historical science and the most important research problems studied by Russian mediaevalists. The author highlighted the role of I. V. Stalin in establishing the conceptual foundations for the theory of unitary state development. The article summarizes the vast material obtained from scientific publications, educational literature, and official documents of the period in question. The author revealed some continuity between the approaches of pre-revolutionary and Soviet historians, which made it possible to describe the specifics of the Marxist method. The research improves the scientific understanding of the development of the Soviet monoconcept of domestic history, as it clarifies the development process of the theory of Russian state. In practical terms, the obtained results can improve theoretical, scientific, methodological, and educational studies.

Keywords

• dating
• methodology
• marxism-leninism
• historiography
• concept