Written sources about Muscovy of the second half of the XVI century in French Russika: the Historical View of P.-S. Leveque

As the purpose of the study in this article, the author formulated the question - what is the source base of the third volume of «Russian History» of P.-Ch. Levesque, with a description of the era of the reign of Ivan IV the Terrible? The indicated question accompanies the discovery: a reflection of the political views of the French scientist in considering the socio-political development of Russia during the reign of Ivan IV. In general, the search field consists in the reconstruction and analysis of historical sources as guides, revealing the main circumstances of life, the political activities of the monarch and society, the embodiment of the monarchical will in the political processes of the second half of the 16th century in Russia. The methodological basis of the study is a combination of general scientific and special historical methods of scientific research. The study was based on the principles of scientific objectivity and historicism. The methods used were chronological, comparative historical, historical systemic and biographical. The third volume of «Russian history» of P. -Ch. Levesque was translated into Russian and introduced into scientific circulation for the first time. Historical sources for research were chronicles, legislative acts, historical-geographical descriptions, epistolary literature, which is reflected in a special issue The explanatory catalogue of the main works, which served the writing of "Russian history" with the description of each of the submitted manuscripts. In the result of the research the author came to the following conclusions: despite the finding of exceptional rigidity in implementing the «autocrat on the throne» policy, entailing numerous sacrifices by the «political line» to strengthen personal power, in general, P.-Ch. Levesque has an objective assessment of the activities of the Russian sovereign. Among the additional advantages and distinguishing points from the works that appear before and after Levesque's «History» is the desire of the French author to dispel stereotypical ideas about the figure of Ivan IV. The French historian recognizes in Ivan Vasilievich an extraordinary statesman, an extremely controversial personality. Throughout the entire historical analysis, the Russian Tsar appears on the pages of «Russian History» as a «colorful» figure and ambiguous for the perception of both contemporaries and descendants. The author declares no conflicts of interests.

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