Literary works as a type of historical source. Literary work as a historical source

Fiction includes written works that have social significance, aesthetically express and shape public consciousness.

It is generally accepted that a person’s historical ideas are not formed under the influence of the works of professional historians, but are based on works of fiction and folklore sources. According to S. O. Schmidt, “the influence of the science of history on society is determined to a greater extent not by the direct research (or educational) works of historians (designed, as a rule, for a narrow circle of readers - mainly specialists), but by their journalistic writings or their concepts, conclusions and observations expressed in the writings of other publicists and masters of fiction."

In traditional source studies, only the most ancient literary texts were considered as historical sources. One of the reasons for the lack of attention on the part of professional historians of modern and contemporary times to fiction lies in the belief that the latter represents an extremely subjective, often biased, and therefore distorted picture of life that does not meet the source study criteria of reliability.

Supporters of the so-called “new intellectual history,” a movement that emerged in the 1970s. in foreign historiography, they questioned the usual understanding of historical truth, suggesting that the historian will create a text in the same way as a poet or writer. In their opinion, the historian's text is a narrative discourse, a narrative, subject to the same rules of rhetoric that are present in fiction. E. S. Senyavskaya also rightly notes that not a single historian, like a writer, is able to completely recreate the past (even following the principle of “getting used to” it), since he is inevitably pressed by the burden of knowledge and ideas of his time.

In Russian historiography, the question of the possibilities of using fiction as a historical source has been raised before. Back in 1899, V. O. Klyuchevsky, in a speech on the occasion of the opening of the monument to A. S. Pushkin in Moscow, called everything written by the great poet " historical document“: “Without Pushkin it is impossible to imagine the eras of the 20s and 30s, just as it is impossible to write the history of the first half of our century without his works.” In his opinion, incidents alone cannot serve as factual material for a historian: “... ideas, views, feelings, impressions of people of a certain time - the same facts and very important..."

The author of one of the first Soviet textbooks According to source studies, G.P. Saar included fiction and poetry among historical sources, but gave preference to " social novels", created by contemporaries of the events described. In subsequent years, the prevailing point of view was that works of art can be used in the study of social relations only in those historical eras from which a sufficient amount of other evidence has not survived.

During the discussions that took place in 1962-1963. on the pages of the magazines "New and Contemporary History" and "Questions of the History of the CPSU", the most different opinions regarding the source study perspective of fiction: from categorical objections to a call not to neglect sources that reflect the “multifaceted activities of the party and ideological life society."

Literary sources are works that, based on the plot, tell about historical events and personalities. Features of studying literary sources:

2. Availability in the source fiction– invented events and heroes.

When working with these sources, you need to separate truth from fiction, artistic descriptions from objects of reality. It is also necessary to take into account that certain genres (primarily hagiography) are built according to rigid canons, departure from which is not possible, as a result of which various invented events appear. Literary works do not so much record facts as reflect the author’s thoughts, feelings, and author’s thoughts about events and phenomena. These sources are very valuable for studying the history of culture and ideology.

52. Main features of literary works of the 11th – 13th centuries. “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” as a source on the history of Belarus.

The works of this period have two main points:

1. religious literature predominates

2. journalistic character secular literature

In the XI-XIII centuries. On the lands of Rus', works of Christian content predominated, the authors of which were Russian bishops and monks. The main genres and traditions of religious literature were adopted from Byzantium at the end of the 10th and beginning of the 11th centuries. due to the adoption of Christianity. Already in 1055, the first original work of the Russian metropolitan appeared in 1051-1055. Hilarion's "Sermon on Law and Grace", in which Prince Yaroslav the Wise was glorified. At the end of the 11th century, the monk Nestor created the first lives in Rus' - “The Life of Theodosius of Pechersk” and “The Life of Boris and Gleb”.

A good example literature that is difficult to separate from journalism is the work of Kirill Turovsky. From him we have received more than 40 works: legends, teachings on the Gospel, writings of the prophets, prayers and a canon of repentance, stories. Behind the religious form of his works there are real facts of life contemporary writer society, the tough struggle of social and cultural trends. Therefore, the literary and journalistic heritage of K. Turovsky is an important source not only for studying the writer’s activities, but also the spiritual atmosphere of that era.

One “Epistle to Presbyter Thomas” has survived, written by Clement Smolyatich, who in the 12th century “was a scribe and philosopher, the likes of which had never existed in Rus'.”

Interesting source educational, educational content (but, of course, of a secular nature) is the “Teaching of Vladimir Monomakh”, written in 1117, but erroneously included in the Laurentian list of PVL in 1097. The author gives instructions to the younger generation, shares the experience of his eventful life. Grand Duke, sharing his memories, talks about his relations with the Polotsk princes and his campaigns on the Belarusian lands.

One of the first secular literary sources on the lands of Rus' was “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign,” written in 1185–1187. Chernigov boyar Pyotr Borislavich (attribution to B. Rybakov). The source is dated by the mention of the living Galician prince Yaroslav Osmomysl, who died in 1187. The “Lay” tells about the campaign of Prince Novgorod-Seversk Igor Svyatoslavovich in April-May 1185 against the Polovtsians. The dating of the campaign is established by solar eclipse, which caught Igor’s troops in the bend of the Don on May 1, 1185.

The “Tale of Igor’s Campaign” mentions the activities of the Polotsk prince Vseslav Bryachislavovich (1044–1101). While he was in Kyiv (in the cuttings in 1068, and then as a prince in 1069), he heard the ringing of the Polotsk Sophia, which indirectly indicates the construction of this temple in the 50-60s. XI century Vseslav, having turned into a wolf, ran the distance from Kyiv to Tmutarakan (Tamatarkha on the shore of the Kerch Strait) overnight (“before the chickens”), crossing the path of the Iranian solar deity Khorsu. This prince’s campaign against Tmutarakan is not reflected in the chronicles. “The Word” emphasizes the prince’s witchcraft abilities and the speed of his movements. The Battle of the Nyamiga River on March 3, 1067 is colorfully described in the Lay, which is compared to a bloody harvest and threshing with “haraluzhny” (steel) caps.

The Tale mentions the struggle of Prince Izyaslav Vasilkovich against the “filthy” (pagan) Lithuanians, who were located in the swamps along the (Western) Dvina.

The list of “Words” was found by Musin-Pushkin in the Yaroslavl monastery. Then a copy was made from this list for Catherine II. In 1800, “The Lay” was published with parallel text in Old Russian and Russian. The list of “The Word”, which was in the Musin-Pushkin library, was lost during the fire of Moscow in 1812.

Hagiographic literature as a source on the history of Belarus.

The first “pasions” (passions) and martyrias (testimonies), which narrated the martyrdom of the first Christians, arose at the beginning of the 3rd century (pasion Perepetui and Felicites during the anti-Christian persecution of Septimius Severus 203-210).2 The first East Slavic hagiographic work was description in the Tale of Bygone Years of the pagan sacrifice of a Varangian father and son in Kiev on July 12, 983 (in later tradition they were called Theodore John).

The peculiarity of the Lives is that the author strictly followed the canon (as when writing an icon), used entire expressions and scenes from other Lives. For example, in the life of Euphrosyne of Polotsk there are many similarities with the life of Euphrosyne of Alexandria. Ephraim, the author of the life of Avramius of Smolensk, deliberately adopted the writing style of Ephraim the Syrian, creator of the life of John Chrysostom. Lives usually lack dating, and all events are usually indicated by the year of the saint’s life.

In Lives in accordance with the literary task biographical facts are only forms for determining ideal image saint Indeed, the pathos of the entire life and activity of an ascetic is based on the acceptance of the ideal image of behavior of an ancient saint, martyr, apostle, and, ultimately, Christ. Only those facts that correspond to the task are taken from the biography. Selected traits of the “ideal saint” suppress the individual personality. The hagiographer sets the task of finding a reflection of the ideal in the character, and not describing her as real historical character. Klyuchevsky said that the difference between a life and a biography is the same as between an icon and a portrait.

The Life of Euphrosyne of Polotsk (1130 - 1173 according to V. Orlov or 1105 - 1167 according to A. Melnikov) was written at the end of the 12th century. and was preserved in later revisions of the 16th – 18th centuries. More than 100 lists of lives can be divided into 6 editions: Collections, Degree Book, Makariev's great Chetyev Miney, two Prologues and the edition of the “Book of Lives of Saints” by Dmitry Rostov. The author of the life was a man close to the servant Michael, with whom Euphrosyne made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. This pilgrimage is described in detail in the life.

At the end of the 12th-13th centuries, a prologue life-memory of Cyril of Turov was created. Archimandrite Leonid attributed the time of writing the life to the time of the life of the Tver bishop Simeon (died in 1289). Preserved in lists starting from the 16th century, although N. Nikolsky published a list of the 14th-15th centuries in 1907.

During the period of the XII-XIII centuries. Ageographic works such as:

1. A word about the Turov monk Martin, who lived in the first half of the 12th century. The word has been preserved in Prologues since the 15th century.

2. Life of Avramius of Smolensk (died no later than 1219), created by his follower Ephraim after the Mongol invasion in 1237;

3. The Life of Mercury, Martyr of Smolensk, written after the Mongol invasion in 1237. Preserved in 80 copies of the 16th–18th centuries. Many researchers consider him not a real figure, but a product folk art, copied from the great martyr Mercury of Caesarea.

An attempt to consider the techniques and methods of using fiction in teaching history. Criteria for selecting literary texts; the possibility practical application sources of this type in history lessons.

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The inclusion of organic images of fiction in the teacher’s presentation is one of the important methods of using it in teaching history. The teacher uses fiction as a source from which he borrows colorful images of comparison and apt words for his presentation. In these cases, the material of the work of art organically includes the teacher in the story, descriptions, characteristics and is perceived by the student not as a literary quotation, but as an inseparable element of a colorful presentation. It is useful for a novice teacher, when preparing for a lesson, to include in the plan of his story individual, small passages, epithets, brief characteristics, vivid descriptions, apt expressions from the writer’s work. In teaching practice, a brief retelling takes place as one of the methods of using fiction and folklore. Being a rich source of information fiction contains valuable material for strengthening the consciousness of high students moral principles developed by humanity. But for a long time, in the scientific world ambiguous a thorough look at literature as a historical source.

“There is an unspoken and almost generally accepted opinion that fiction is not just subjective, but is in the realm of the author’s fantasies and cannot contain any historical facts; on this basis for a long time Traditional source studies, especially modern and contemporary history, did not consider fiction as a historical source." “Being closer to fiction in terms of the nature of its impact on the reader, historical knowledge must remain scientific, that is, obtained on the basis of historical sources,” which can be “reproduced and verified”[ 32, p. 40] . “The field of interaction between literature and history is open system, and they correlate in this system, first of all, as two domains of culture: culture changes, and their interaction also changes”[ 28. c. 63].

Having a huge literary body, on the one hand, and a community of historians with naturally differentiated interests, on the other, “it makes no sense to even think about any special cataloging of literature for a historian. After the work that was done by the structuralist branch of social science in last decades, today there seems to be no other possibility than to consider all literary texts of the past and even the present as historical documents” [Ibid. c. 63]. Fiction has value “as a source reflecting the mentality of its time [Ibid., p. 144]. Literature has the ability to “grope” and record reality, to capture on an unconscious level the moods existing in society, long before they are systematized in the language of science and reflected in historiography.

The pre-revolutionary academic school (V.O. Klyuchevsky, N.A. Rozhkov, V.I. Semevsky, etc.), in the spirit of the traditions of positivist literary criticism, identified the history of literary types with history real people. Thus, the study by V.O. Klyuchevsky’s “Eugene Onegin and His Ancestors” (1887) was almost entirely based on an analysis of libraries from Pushkin’s era.

The position of Soviet academic source studies in relation to fiction long time was quite unambiguous: only ancient literary texts were considered as a historical source. The question of the right of a historian to use fiction as a historical source in the study of modern and contemporary history has long been passed over in silence, although in historical works the works of this period were often used as a commentary on events and phenomena public life. For the first time, the question of using literary and artistic text as a historical source was raised in the book by S.S. Danilov “Russian theater in fiction”, published in 1939. In the 60–80s of the 20th century, a number of works were published that testify to the desire of historians to develop clearer definitions of fiction as a historical source.

Among the key issues brought up for discussion is the possibility of using fiction as a source for establishing historical facts. So, during the discussions that took place in 1962–1963. on the pages of the magazine “New and Contemporary History”, a variety of opinions were expressed regarding the source study perspective of fiction. Starting from categorical objections to securing the right to be called a historical source and ending with what is noteworthy for Soviet era the judgment that “the party historian has no right to neglect sources that in one form or another reflect the multifaceted activities of the party and the ideological life of society.”

The question of a historian’s right to use fiction as a historical source was first raised in 1964 in an article by A.V. Predtechensky "Fiction as a historical source". The author drew attention to expanding the limits of source study by separating independent branches of science from the cycle of auxiliary historical disciplines. Referring to a fairly extensive range of statements by figures social thought XIX–XX centuries, A.V. Predtechensky makes a conclusion about the identity of the cognitive role of fiction and the historical source as such, seeing the natural difference between one category and another in their belonging to phenomena of different social natures. Thus, to substantiate scientific truth, a system of evidence is required, while in art “nothing needs to be proven,” since the criterion of the “truth” of a work of art is its “artistic persuasiveness” [Ibid., p. 81]. A.V. Predtechensky notes: “in the works of some artists, the artistic persuasiveness is so great that the line between fiction and reality is blurred, and literary hero begins to exist as historical” [Ibid., p. 82].

Against the background of the above examples, the famous article by L.N. certainly stands out. Gumilyov “Can a work belles lettres be a historical source? . In this work, the author, answering the question he put in the title, noted that “Fiction is not a lie, but a literary device that allows the author to convey to the reader the idea for which he undertook his work, which is always difficult. And here, even if there are a large number of references to historical facts, the latter are only a background for the plot, and their use is a literary device, and the accuracy or completeness of the presentation is not only not mandatory, but simply not necessary. Does this mean that we should not use the information contained in ancient literature, to complete the story? In no case! But compliance with certain precautions is mandatory" ... continuing his thought about the veracity of the source, the author writes "Fiction in the works historical genre only sometimes it involves the introduction into the plot outline of a hero born of the author’s imagination. But there is always a transformation of the real historical figures into the characters. The persona is the mask of an ancient actor. This means, unlike business prose, in work of art It is not real figures of the era that appear, but images under which quite real people are hidden, but not those, but others who are of interest to the author, but are not directly named. It is this literary technique that allows the author to express his thoughts with extreme precision and at the same time make it visual and intelligible”; “every great and even small work of literature can be a historical source, but not in the sense of a literal perception of its plot, but in itself, as a fact signifying the ideas and motives of the era. The content of such a fact is its meaning, direction and mood, and fiction plays the role of a mandatory device.”

For Russian history and science in 1991, the article by N.O. is of interest. Dumova “Fiction as a source for studying social psychology”, dedicated to M. Gorky’s novel “The Life of Klim Samgin”. In the source study context, the author divides fiction into three categories. The first includes works reflecting a distant period from which documentary evidence has not survived (Homer’s epic, “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign”). To the second - historical novels and stories written many years after the event based on studying it from surviving sources (“War and Peace”, “Peter I”). The third category consists of works of art written by eyewitnesses or participants in the events (A.T. Tvardovsky “Vasily Terkin”, V.S. Grossman “Life and Fate”). Works belonging to the first category serve as a historical source. Literary texts, belonging to the second category, are a source of an auxiliary nature. The works of the third group are valuable for the study of social psychology, the inner world of a person - his type of thinking, worldview.

In the 1990s, academic source studies represented by the Russian historian S.O. Schmidt expresses his “ the last word"on the issue of source study “possibilities” of fiction. Unlike humanists who defend the educational and propaganda role of literature or develop the traditions of studying " psychological types", S.O. Schmidt turned to the history of mentalities, considering works of literature as “the source of formation historical ideas"for the general reader, as valuable material "for understanding the mentality of the time of their creation and further existence ... ". On the evolution of the views of domestic humanities scholars beginning of the XXI century on the source study status of fiction in connection with global changes in the methodology of humanitarian knowledge is provided by the materials of the collection “History of Russia in the 19th–20th centuries: new sources of understanding.” Thus, among the circumstances contributing to the rapprochement of historical science with fiction in solving source study problems, the authors of the collection name the following:

– a shift in emphasis in historical knowledge from socio-political to individual psychological, which is due to a growing distrust of global historical constructs that are difficult to verify empirical level ;

– the prevailing desire of both spheres of creativity – artistic and scientific-historical – to reproduce reality; the historicity of literature as a documented expression of the spiritual history of the country [Ibid. c. 63];

– the mutual inability of the writer and the historian to fully “recreate all facets of the past,” even following the “hermeneutic principle of getting used to it,” since “any person is inevitably pressed by the burden of knowledge and ideas of the time in which he himself lives and acts;

– the historicity of the language of literature as a “social meta-institution” that records “the realities, concepts and relationships of its time”;

– historical truth can be revealed in its entirety only through the means of art; literature has more opportunities to reveal historical truth than history itself; history-art is higher than history-science”;

Among the most important factors that separate literature and history on opposite sides of the “barrier” regarding the problem of the source study status of fiction, historians name the following:

– “any work of art contains a certain pre-aesthetic reality from the field of politics, economics, social life,” but “under the influence of artistic techniques it is so deformed that it ceases to be a source for scientific and historical research” [Sokolov A.K. Social history, literature, art: interaction in understanding the realities of the 20th century. ];

– there is an objective contradiction between the “linear” linguistic style of historical science and the pictorial language literary creativity, allowing for many interpretations when reading[ Right there. c. 75] ;

- scientific historical knowledge performs a socio-political function - “the formation of a common social memory as the basis for the unification of society and the information basis for making political decisions”, and in this function it retains its sovereignty[Ibid. c. 40].

As for the historian, for him (provided that he does not intend to go beyond the traditional boundaries of his field), fiction as a source of information will be of interest only in three cases:

– if the text is a carrier of unique information not recorded in other documents;

– if information about the character contained in the work is confirmed by sources of another kind; in this case literary text can be used either as an illustration of knowledge already obtained by other sciences, or as an additional source of evidence (or refutation) of scientific hypotheses, including in relation to the historical worldview of the author of the text.

The importance of works of art in moral education students. Learning about actions historical figure, students often transport themselves to the same conditions, empathizing with the hero. One of my favorite heroes is the gladiator Spartacus, the leader of the restoration of slaves in Ancient Rome. You can ask students to prove, based on fragments of literary works and stories about the uprising, that Spartak possessed such traits as determination and determination, conviction, courage and courage. ABOUT dramatic events slave uprising, on behalf of the teacher, the student tells. His story can take the form of a memoir of a gladiator from Spartacus’s squad (the story includes fragments from R. Giovagnoli’s novel “Spartacus”).

But it’s not enough to attract students’ attention to heroic deeds outstanding personalities. In lessons, questions should be raised about the appropriateness of those forms of politics, about decency, dignity, kindness, and lasting friendship.

Travel literature as a source on the history of Belarus

Travel literature has always played a significant role in the process of getting to know different peoples. Although travelers are short term could form only a superficial idea of what they saw, often mistaking individual events for signs of certain trends, yet their notes contain a fresh look at a representative of a different culture, different traditions and values. When analyzing the notes of travelers, you need to take into account the goals that were set for them.

One of the first travelers through Belarus was Gilbert de Lanois, who in 1413, on behalf of the Duke of Burgundy, visited Novgorod on a diplomatic mission. On the way, he passed through northwestern Belarus, leaving quite a lot of memories about it general description. At the same time, it is from him that we learn about the existence of Vitovt’s office and its three departments: Russian, Latin and Tatar. In the 15th century Belarus was visited by two ambassadors of Venice – Ambrogio Cantarini and Giosophata Barbara. They also left rather modest notes.

Those who visited Belarus in the 16th century were also diplomats. Thus, some information about Belarus is contained in the memoirs of J. Garcia, a representative of the “Moscow Company” (an English company for trade with Muscovy, which had exclusive (semi-monopoly) rights in it; its representative was essentially the ambassador of England in Moscow). He reports only about personal meetings at the court of the King of the Republic of Poland, describes the wealth of the Lithuanian magnates, especially the Radziwills, and their hospitality. As a result of his “Notes” about Russia XVI– beginning XVII centuries for us special significance Dont Have.

His opposite is Reinhold Heidenstern - the secretary of the Prussian prince, an educated man who, from 1582, served for 30 years at the court of the kings of the Republic of Poland Stefan Batory and Sigismund III Vasa. His work “Notes on the Moscow War” is based not only on his own observations, but also on documents. In his narrative, he justified the policies of S. Batory, as well as J. Zamoyski, for whom he has obvious sympathy and who took part in editing the “Notes”. To some extent, these memoirs are not of a traveler, but of a resident of the Republic of Poland of foreign origin.

In this sense, Sigismund Herbenstein was a great foreigner, who twice, at the head of an embassy (in 1516 and 1526), passed through Belarus, heading to Moscow on behalf of Emperor Maximillian. Along the way, he kept a diary, which he published in 1549 under the title “Notes on Moscow Affairs.” But besides “Moscow affairs” there is a lot of news about Belarus and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in general.

Very detailed notes were left at this time Venetian ambassador Fascarino (1537), Englishman Fletcher (1584), German Petrey, who lived in Russia for 4 years (1616-20), Austrian ambassador Meerberg (1661), Czech Taner (1678), Russian steward Peter Tolstoy (1697), secretary of the Austrian embassy Johann Korb (1698.99) and many others. Important information about Belarus times Livonian War contain notes from the papal legate Antonio Possevino, who in his communications resorted to data presented to him by the famous merchant Giovanni Tedaldi.

Foreigners at this time left a lot of information about the geography of Belarus, about the origin of the name White Rus' (Gerbenstein - from snow, Petrey - from the white hats that men wear in the summer); left a lot of information about our nature, communication routes on our lands, but at the same time they barely touched upon the issues economic life cities and towns of Belarus, although they talked about their geography, defense structures, as well as the religious situation in them.

The inclusion of Belarus into the Republic of Ingushetia caused the appearance of a large number of notes from Russian travelers. They discovered this region, which propaganda called “originally Russian,” and in Russian society it was designated by the terms “Belarusian,” “Lithuanian,” and “Polish.” In the very early XIX V. officials and priests were sent here, some of whom left their memories. Since 1812, Russian officers (eg I.I. Lazhechnikov) have left their notes on events on the territory of Belarus. After the uprising of 1830-31. Belarus, so familiar and unfamiliar, attracted Russian writers, artists, people in general creative professions. This also led to changes in the content of travel literature. Surprise at the language being unlike Russian and information about good roads gives way to admiration Belarusian nature, the history of Belarusian cities and churches, the study of traditions and holidays of the local population.

The fashion for travel notes led to the appearance of works by representatives of the local intelligentsia, who sought to acquaint their neighbors with the history and traditions of their people. The most striking here is the series of notes “Travel through Polesie and the Belarusian region” by Pavel Shpilevsky (published in Sovremennik in 1853-55). Shpilevsky came from a priest's family, but abandoned his spiritual career, becoming a famous publicist and writer. He wrote about what he knew well and saw for himself. This is information about the Kirmas, about Belarusian cities and towns, their population, about the life of ordinary peasants, as well as landowners. Shpilevsky did not ignore the Tatars and Jews living in Belarus. “The Journey...” by Shpilevsky and similar works belong to the so-called. internal literature travel when the author writes about his people for others. These works are often distinguished by the fact that they somewhat embellish reality.

Literary sources are works that, based on the plot, tell about historical events and personalities. Features of studying literary sources:

2. The presence of fiction in the source - invented events and characters.

53. Main features of literary works of the 11th-13th centuries. "The Tale of Igor's Campaign"

The works of this period have two main points:

1. religious literature predominates

2. journalistic nature of secular literature

A good example of literature that is difficult to separate from journalism is the work of Kirill Turovsky. From him we have received more than 40 works: legends, teachings on the Gospel, writings of the prophets, prayers and a canon of repentance, stories. Behind the religious form of his works are the real facts of life in the writer’s contemporary society, the fierce struggle of social and cultural trends. Therefore, the literary and journalistic heritage of K. Turovsky is an important source not only for studying the writer’s activities, but also the spiritual atmosphere of that era.

One “Epistle to Presbyter Thomas” has survived, written by Clement Smolyatich, who in the 12th century “was a scribe and philosopher, the likes of which had never existed in Rus'.”

An interesting source of educational content (but, of course, of a secular nature) is the “Teaching of Vladimir Monomakh”, written in 1117, but erroneously included in the Laurentian list of PVL in 1097. The author gives instructions to the younger generation, shares the experience of his eventful life life. The Grand Duke, sharing his memories, talks about his relations with the Polotsk princes and his campaigns on the Belarusian lands.

One of the first secular literary sources on the lands of Rus' was “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign,” written in 1185–1187. Chernigov boyar Pyotr Borislavich (attribution to B. Rybakov). The source is dated by the mention of the living Galician prince Yaroslav Osmomysl, who died in 1187. The “Lay” tells about the campaign of Prince Novgorod-Seversk Igor Svyatoslavovich in April-May 1185 against the Polovtsians. The dating of the campaign was established by a solar eclipse, which caught Igor’s troops in the bend of the Don on May 1, 1185.

The Tale mentions the struggle of Prince Izyaslav Vasilkovich against the “filthy” (pagan) Lithuanians, who were located in the swamps along the (Western) Dvina.

And history is the forms of self-understanding, self-expression of society, their main theme is social science, human studies." S. O. Schmidt "The Path of the Historian"

How in historical research much depends on the intuition of the historian, and so do writers, literary critics at an unconscious level, they are capable of deep comprehension of life. Traditionally, researchers turned to fiction only in the absence of more reliable sources. In the study of the history of modern and contemporary times, literature was assigned only an illustrative role, however, new directions of historical thought are changing the attitude towards the source. A literary work was considered extremely subjective, but it is itself a fact of history and the biography of the author. Exist different points views on the significance of the artist’s personality in historical and cultural research: some argue that the author’s personality is not significant, since all the details of his personal life are not observable. Others, on the contrary, believe that the artist’s personality is fundamentally significant, since a typological comparison can be made between the text and the biography.

The latter position is characteristic of methodology in line with the new cultural history. For a researcher, a literary work is inseparable from its context. Knowing the biography and date of creation, we can identify the author’s purpose and his awareness of the phenomena described. A new cultural and a new intellectual history took shape within the framework of historical anthropology. Many researchers prefer not to separate them; the difference between new intellectual history is that it pays a lot of attention highly artistic texts.

Jacques Le Goff also spoke about the prospects of the following three directions in modern cultural history: the history of intellectual life, the history of mentalities and the history of value orientations. According to R. Darnton, the main principle of the new direction is to “catch otherness” (“grab foreignness”), since people of the past perceived the world differently, then the historian should consider the object of his research as “alien”, explain the “strangeness” of another culture, reproducing the logic of man of that time. The new cultural history rejects a clear division between the sensual and the rational; it focuses attention on myths, symbols, and static languages.

A distinctive feature is the recognition of the active role of language, text and narrative structures in creation and description historical reality. This approach blurs the boundaries between different areas historical knowledge, cultural anthropology, the “linguistic turn” and theoretical literary criticism merge into one. The interdisciplinary approach is intended to expand the capabilities of the historian, but the most controversial issues remain the issues of combining the methodologies of different scientific disciplines. The new direction requires a revision of methodological approaches to working with “non-traditional” sources. According to A.Ya. Gurevich, “even in those cases when the sources do not allow us to penetrate to the level of events, they can give us important information about the ideas and beliefs of the authors of these texts and, therefore, introduce us to the circle of ideological attitudes, that is, they help us understand the nature of the spiritual life of the era ..." . Reconstruction involves “decoding” a source through the widest possible disclosure of the context of its appearance.

It is impossible to completely recreate all the circumstances, but this is necessary to understand the “otherness”, the uniqueness of the person of the past. As P. Burke put it, “we are on the way to a cultural history of everything in the world: dreams, food, emotions, travel...”. An expanded understanding of culture allows us to connect art and literature with the study of everyday life. According to M.K. Lubart, author of the monograph “Family in French society XVIII- the beginning of the 20th century,” fiction is “an invaluable source for the reconstruction of ideas related to marriage, family, raising children, and intra-family relationships...”. Historical anthropology, as an independent branch of knowledge, coordinates with new cultural history in the study of the history of mentalities, which also develops under the influence of psychology. The history of mentalities is interested in hidden sides public consciousness, which a researcher can discover in sources against the will of their creators, and the events of the past are understood through the “otherness” of a person’s worldview.

The history of mentalities introduced the method of psychological reconstruction into historical science, the researcher’s “getting used to” inner world creators of history texts, which stimulated historians to turn to “subjective” sources. An example of this approach is the article by E.S. Senyavskaya "Literature of the front generation as a historical source". The author acknowledges military literature, written by direct eyewitnesses of the “most benign” in terms of reliability, based on the psychological motives of its creators, and reflects not only events, details of military life, but also the subjective perception of events, their assessment, construction of a holistic image, in in this case image of the enemy.

Also worth mentioning are the works of S.S. Sekirinsky, a recognized historian and portrait painter, who prepared a series of articles “History and Literature” in the journal “Domestic History”. In the article “Fiction by P.D. Boborykin: the history of a liberal personality in artistic sketches" he applies new technique historical hermeneutics, tracing the history of ideological movements and social life in Russia in the second half of the 19th century. based on numerous works by Boborykin and biographical information. For a historian, Boborykin is valuable as a writer of everyday life, the recognized creator of the “encyclopedia of Russian life,” who himself directly saw, heard and felt everything. His advantage over the “actors of events”, the authors of diaries, letters and memoirs, is that he, as an outside observer, did not exaggerate his importance and covered a “wide periphery”. Of course, a work of art must be approached with the utmost caution, not forgetting about external and internal criticism of the source.

Today we do not say that literature “reflects” life, we do not equate the history of literary types and real people, like historians of the pre-revolutionary academic school. As M. Blok noted, “literature drags along with it many inherited themes, formal techniques, old aesthetic conventions,” this, in his opinion, does not allow literature to embrace the “great movement of life.” At the same time, stereotypes and stereotypes of thinking can be considered within the history of mentalities as a manifestation of socio-psychological attitudes and habits of consciousness. Eg, hagiographic literature does not provide true information about events and personalities, but from it we can understand religious ideas, the peculiarities of the worldview of a person in distant eras.

According to L.N. Gumilev, “fiction is not a lie, but a literary device that allows the author to convey to the reader the idea for which he undertook his work.” Reality in a work of art is invariably typified, which, according to some researchers, even increases objectivity. So, the new cultural history strives to comprehend historical phenomena through the ideas of people of the past, their spiritual life.

The field of activity of the historian is expanding, therefore, such subjective sources as fiction are becoming more and more in demand.

List of sources and literature

1. Andreychuk V.G. Concentration camp prose as a historical source // Bulletin of the Baltic Federal University. I. Kant. 2012. No. 12. pp. 94–101.

2. Burke P. Historical anthropology and new cultural history // New literary review. 2005. pp. 64–91.

3. Blok M. Apology of history. M.: Nauka, 1973. 234 p.

4. Gumilyov L.N. Can a work of belles lettres be a historical source? // Russian literature. 1972. No. 1. P. 73–82.

5. Gurevich A.Ya. Historian of the late twentieth century in search of a method // Odyssey. 1996. M.: Nauka, 1996. P. 5–10.

6. Darnton R. The Great Cat Massacre and Other Episodes from History French culture. M.: New Literary Review, 2002. 384 p.

7. Le Goff J. From heaven to earth // Odyssey. Man in history. M.: Nauka, 1991. pp. 28–43.

8. Lubart M.K. Family in French society, XVIII – early XX centuries. M.: Nauka, 2005. 296 p.

9. Mankevich I.A. Literary and artistic heritage as a source of cultural information // Observatory of Culture. 2007. No. 5. pp. 17–23.

10. Repina L.P. Historical science at the turn of the XX-XXI centuries: social theories and historiographical practice. M.: Krug, 2011. 560 p.

11. Sekirinsky S.S. Fiction by P.D. Boborykina: the history of a liberal personality in artistic sketches // ACTIO NOVA. M.: Globus, 2000. pp. 426–455.

12. Senyavskaya E.S. Literature of the front-line generation as a historical source // Domestic History. 2002. No. 1. P. 101–109.

13. Khodnev A.S. New cultural history and new story leisure // Historical science today: Theories, methods, prospects / Ed. L.P. Repina; 2nd ed. M.: LKI Publishing House, 2012. pp. 462–473.

14. Schmidt S.O. The historian's path. Selected works on source studies and historiography. M.: RSUH, 1997. 612 p.

N.V. Dashkov Yaroslavl State Pedagogical University named after. K.D. Ushinsky, Yaroslavl Scientific supervisor: Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor Arkhipova L.M.