Nikolai Polevoy: forgotten russianhistorian

The given article is dedicated to Russianhistorian Nickolai Polevoy (1796-1846) and the most considerable of his transactions «Histories of Russian people». The first part o f t hearticle gives a biography o f t h e writer, a total characteristic of the book by Polevoy, his most interesting reasoning on Russian history isadduced. Development of views o f t h e writer on historical process, inconsistency between him and his forerunners is noted here. Thesecond part ofthe article is dedicated to reasoning of Polevoy about mentality of Russian people. The modernity of his views is demonstrated;in particular, Polevoy's application of a principle of historicism to national nature, comprehension by him of difference of the way ofthinking for different generations is noted. The scientific value of his activity, in the light of modern conceptions about an advancement ofscience is further demonstrated. In the article the domestic literature is basically used.

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