Soviet historical experience as an object of cognition

Review article

doi 10.28995/2073-0101-2025-1-260-281

For citation

Bezborodov, Alexander B. (2025). Soviet historical experience as an object of cognition, Herald of an Archivist, № 1, pp. 260-281, doi 10.28995/2073-0101-2025-1-260-281

Bezborodov, Alexander B. Russian State University for the Humanities, Moscow, Russia

Soviet historical experience as an object of cognition

Abstract

The article considers theoretical and methodological problems of the Soviet historical experience, noting their lack of development due to the complexity of the issue of the past as an objective reality and its relationship with the present. The Soviet historical experience is considered as a set of regular trends and recurring phenomena and events of the Soviet past, reflected in the historiographical process. The author reveals the fundamental problem of philosophy about the essence of being and non-being and their correlation in the context of the acute theoretical and methodological confrontation between materialists and idealists. In the Soviet era, the efforts of scholars focused primarily on the historical experience of the CPSU, and in later years the historical experience of the USSR was either perceived indiscriminately critical, or gave way to a number of “hot” topics that were not commonly mentioned in the Soviet Union. The concept of “historical experience” in general has been underdeveloped in Russian historical science also due to the fact that the bearers of historical action in our country were often guided by the thesis “let's renounce the old world”, and the mechanism of elite change often worked with great disruptions. Preferred to talk about the lessons of history in relation to this or that event, which is important, but not enough. It is proved that the Soviet historical experience is indivisible and irreversible, it is necessary to take this into account and use a system of methods in the study based on the principle of historicism: comparative-historical (the history of the USSR - world history); descriptive-narrative (characterization of processes, phenomena, events that make up the content of this experience); biographical (analysis of authorship and author's position in a variety of works on the topic), etc. It is also proved that generations of Soviet people have been forming various kinds of sources for decades, i.e. part of the global history). Attention is drawn to the fact that generations of Soviet people for decades formed various kinds of sources, i.e. part of the global information resource, which was the content of the Soviet historical experience. It is concluded that such experience as an object of research is a major problem of modern humanities, it is necessary to analyze the sources on the basis of the use of generally accepted methods of historical knowledge, which is an urgent task of historical science. In this case, the whole mechanism of formation of historical experience, including methodological apparatus, historiographical aspects, interpretations of memory policy, forms the subject of the study.

Keywords

Soviet historical experience, theoretical and methodological problems of modern historical science, historical experience of the CPSU, historical sources as part of the global modern information resource, problems of formation of modern Russian humanitarianism, interpretations of memory politics.

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About authors

Bezborodov Alexander B., Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor, Russian State University for the Humanities, Advisor to the Rector, Historical and Archival Institute, Faculty of History, Department of Modern Russian History, Head of Department, Moscow, Russia, +7-495-250-66-20, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

The article was received in the editorial office on 30.06.2024, recommended for publication on 20.12.2024