Application of mathematical methods in researches on the Russian agrarian history of the post-reform and Soviet periods: historiographical aspects of the problem (the 1960s - the beginning of the 1990s.)

The basis of this article is the study of our historians' scientific contribution to the historiography development of the problem of mathematical methods application in specific historical researches on the Russian agrarian history of the post-reform and Soviet periods. The chronological scope of the study covered the period of the late 1950s - early 1990s. It is worth noting that the reference in the subject matter is not accidental due to the fact that the works of agrarian historians contain not only the first results of specific historical research based on the use of mathematical methods and "electronic machines" in the processing of information of different types of mass historical sources, but they also mark the historiographical subjects in which scientists estimated the accumulated to a certain period of time experience of research on Russian agrarian history, based on the methods of mathematics and computers. A feature of historio-graphical analysis of the stated research problem was, first of all, the reflection in the works of historians as the founders of a new direction in historical scholarship - quantitative history (cliometrics). Secondly, the historiographical review is specific and due to the fact that it comprises a block of the scientific literature is defined as "the historiography of historiography". The author based the analyses on various types of sources: monographs and doctoral research, some publications. In addition, the historiography of the problem of mathematical methods application in history has been widely discussed and presented at conferences, congresses, symposiums at various levels. As a result, the analysis of the scientific literature allowed distinguishing four main historiographical stages. Each of them is due to specific historical issues at the center of Russian researchers' attention, the nature of historical sources, methods of processing and analysis, and, importantly, the development of the trend towards interdisciplinarity of historical knowledge: Stage 1 - the end of the 1950s - the 1960s; Stage 2 - the 1970s - the first half of the 1980s; Stage 3 - the second half of the 1980s - the beginning of the 1990s; Stage 4 - the 1990s - present. At each stage, Russian scientists paid a lot of attention to the analysis of problems of the theoretical and methodological basis of the application of mathematical methods in historical research, identified the key trends, summed up the results of the application of these methods in research. Meanwhile, today we can say that the interest in the possibilities, assumptions and limitations of the application of mathematical methods and modern computer technologies in historical research has been resumed in a new, qualitative level, which requires further evaluation, based on modern methodological situation in historical science.

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