The estimates of the historical concept and personality of V.O. Klyuchevsky in pre-revolutionary Russian historical journals

Vasily Osipovich Klyuchevsky was an outstanding figure in the Russian pre-revolutionary historical science and in the sphere of high education. He was a talented representative of the Moscow Historical School, a professional, a hard worker, the author of the popular course of lectures on the Russian history. Of course, such an extraordinary person could not lack attention of colleagues. The scientific outlook of V.O. Klyuchevsky provoked various assessments and discussions. This was especially clearly manifested in the reviews of his historical works, his famous studies The Boyar Duma of Ancient Russia and The Course of the Russian History in particular. The object of this paper is to analyze the assessments given to the historical outlook and the very personality of V.O. Klyuchevsky in Russian pre-revolutionary historical periodicals. This will allow us to outline the role of V.O. Klyuchevsky in the Russian historical and pedagogical scientific thought of the second half of the 19 - beginning of the 20 centuries. The article deals with the reviews of V.O. Klyuchevsky's works by such famous scholars as V.S. Ikonnikov, D.A. Korsakov, V.M. Gribovsky and others. Reviews of V.O. Klyuchevsky's works were published in the leading pre-revolutionary historical journals (Russian Antiquity and Historical Bulletin). They repeatedly emphasized the scholar's breadth of views and encyclopedic knowledge, his scrupulousness in studying the sources, his boldness in making assumptions and conclusions. At the same time, the reviewers noted that V.O. Klyuchevsky did not always take into account the works of his predecessors on the problem under study. As, for example, in the case with N.P. Zagoskin and V.I. Sergeevich. V.O. Klyuchevsky's lecturing and teaching skills are mentioned by V.E. Rudakov, A.M. Belov, A.A. Tankov and others. One interesting characteristics of V.O. Klyuchevsky's scientific approach noted by his contemporaries is the desire to create for his listeners the atmosphere of a certain historical period and make them feel it. This, according to V.O. Klyuchevsky, allowed to get comfortable with the historical material and the historical period studied. In conclusion, the author states that the works of V.O. Klyuchevsky were constantly in the center of attention of the scientific community. As a rule, the reaction to them was positive, with bits of reasonable and benevolent criticism. In general, reviews clearly cut out the role and place of V.O. Klyuchevsky in the Russian historical science of the second half of the 19 - the beginning of the 20 centuries.

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