KAZAN STATE UNIVERSITY

As a manuscript

1 V DVG 1998

Marina Borisovna Mogilner

FICTION AS A SOURCE ON THE HISTORY OF THE RUSSIAN RADICAL INTELLIGENCE OF THE BEGINNING OF THE XX CENTURY

07.00.09 - Historiography, source studies and methods of historical research

Kazan - 1998

The work was carried out at the Department of Historiography, Source Studies and Methods of Historical Research at Kazan State University.

Scientific supervisor - Doctor of Historical Sciences,

Professor A.L. Litvin.

Official opponents - Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Doctor

Historical Sciences, Professor S. M. Kashtanov, Candidate of Historical Sciences, Associate Professor I. A. Gilyazov.

Leading organization - Samara State

university.

The defense will take place on June 11, 1998 at 10 o’clock at a meeting of the dissertation Council D.053.29.06. for the award of the academic degree of Candidate of Historical Sciences at Kazan State University at the address: 420008, Kazan, st. Kremlevskaya, 18, second building, room. 1112.

The dissertation can be found in the scientific library named after. N.I. Lobachevsky Kazan State University. Abstract sent out "_[_" May 1998

Scientific Secretary of the Dissertation Council, Candidate of Historical Sciences,

Associate Professor L9 "--" R.G. Kashafutdinov

1. GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE WORK

Relevance and rationale for choosing the topic. Among the many sources on the history of the Russian intelligentsia, fiction occupies a special place. Due to certain historical and political circumstances, literature assumed very special functions: while fulfilling a religious and ethical mission, it also spread into the sphere of philosophy, journalism, and politics, taking on the “universal function of the universal language of culture.”1 This role of literature was especially clearly manifested on the historical fate of the radical left wing of the Russian intelligentsia. Through literary activity they compensated for natural political and social frustration, turning literature not only into a means of self-identification as a separate socio-cultural community, but also into a weapon of struggle against the existing order.

Chronologically, the study is limited to two incomplete decades - 1900 - 1914. This short time period turned out to be extremely rich in both cultural and political events in which the radical intelligentsia took an active part, and which were uniquely reflected in the creation of literary texts written by her. According to V.V. Shelokhaev, at the beginning of the 20th century, the radical intelligentsia reached the peak of its |organizational maturity and ideological standardization.2 Despite party and program divisions, opposition parties, together with periodicals and literature close to them in spirit -

oh, and their wide audience, they spoke the same

om language - the language of a certain unity that opposed itself to re-sim. At the same time, this unity received the name “Underground Russia”

1 Lotman Yu. M. On the dynamics of culture // Semiotics and history. Works on sign systems XXV. - Vol. 936 - Tartu, 1992. - P. 21.

2 Shelokhaev V.V. The phenomenon of a multi-party system in Russia // Extreme history and extremes of historians. Sat. articles. - M., 1997. - P. 11.

this" (borrowed from the fictional essays of the same name by the terrorist and writer S. M. Stepyak-Kravchinsky, 1882): capacious characteristic, often found in the press of those years, describing the world of professional revolutionaries, members of the left political parties and the socio-cultural environment that fed radicalism. The policy of the period of “Underground Russia” was finally realized as a systematic forceful influence on the state. The intelligentsia, whose humanistic values, in principle, contradicted violence, and even systemic one, was forced to work on self-justification, and that is why the concept of “Underground Russia” should include not only professional revolutionary groups and parties, but also texts that described these organizations and their members, imposing them an image both for the radicals themselves and for legal Russia.

An additional factor that determined chronological framework research, the state of historiography on the chosen topic was revealed. Unlike the radical intelligentsia of the 20th century, their predecessors - commoners and populists - are presented in historiography as deeper and more large-scale research. The importance of the cultural-psychological context, and therefore literary sources, for understanding the essence of these stages in the history of the intelligentsia, has been widely recognized by historians.3 Moreover, in relation to the intelligentsia, the second half of the 19th century century in domestic historiography, a direction has developed related to

3 See: Russian literature and populism. Collection of articles / Rep. Ed. I. G. Yampolsky. - JI., 1971. - 191 e.; Sokolov N.I. Russian literature and populism. Literary movement 70s XIX century. -L., 1968. - 254 euros; The revolutionary situation in Russia in 1859 - 1861 / Ed. M. V. Nechkina. - M., 1970. - 375 euros; Essays on the history of the revolutionary movement in Russia in the 60-80s years XIX century. - Kirov, 1979. -102 e.; The development of revolutionary morality from noble revolutionaries to proletarian ones // Political exile and revolutionary movement in Russia. The end of the 19th - the beginning of the 20th century. Sat. Scientific works. - Novosibirsk, 1988. - P. 152 - 164; Alekseeva G. D. Populism in Russia in the 20th century. Ideological evolution. - M., 1990. - 246 p. ; Wortman R. The Crisis of Russian Populism. -Cambridge, 1967; Ventury F. Roots of Revolution: A History of the Populist and Socialist Movements in Nineteenth Century Russia. -New York, 1960, etc.

oe with the historical development of fiction. Naiad with literary polemics those years and the activities of various literary circles and student libraries, where “the political education of raznochintsev students took place”4, researchers studied the history of the creation and social existence of individual works of revolutionary literary creativity.5 We are trying to apply and develop the social-science accumulated by our predecessors. oriented analysis of artistic technologies to study the next generation of radicals.

Wulfson G. N. Raznochinno-democratic movement in the Volga region and the Urals during the years of the first revolutionary situation.

Kazan, 197 4. - 352 p. See also: Litvina F. Legal propaganda of common democrats of the 60-70s. XIX. - Kazan, 1986. - 133 e.; Her same: Literary evenings “The fall of serfdom (From the history of social movement and cultural life in Russia / Dissertation for the degree of candidate of historical sciences. - Kazan, 1970. - 260 p.

The historical and literary study of the anti-nihilistic Human has emerged as a special interdisciplinary direction. See: Belyaeva L. A. “Iskra” and “Anti-nihilistic humane // Russian literature and the liberation movement. IV

Vol. 129. - Kazan, 1974.-S. 17 - 35; Sorokin Yu. S. Dtinigilistic novel // History of the Russian novel. - T. .1. - M.-L., 1964. The social functions of illegal poetry: the end of the 19th century were comprehensively studied in the works of Kazan [researcher E. G. Bushkanets. See the following works of this 1st: Revolutionary poems - proclamations of the late 850s - early 1860s // Revolutionary situation in > Russia in 1859 - 1961. - M., 1962. - P. 389 - 417; [legal poetry of revolutionary circles of the late 50s -[early 60s of the 19th century. - Kazan, 1961. - 41 e.;) features of the study of monuments of illegal revolutionary yueziya of the 19th century. - Kazan, 1962. - 53 e.; In search of a curtain (On the attribution of monuments of free Russian poetry I about documentary data // Russian literature and liberation movement. Scientific notes of the KSPI. - Issue. SSU. - Collection 1. - Kazan, 1968. - P. 3 - 24; Revolutionaries 1.870 's and the magazine "Slovo" // Russian literature and yawning movement. Scientific notes of the KSPI. - Issue ¡5. - Collection 2. - Kazan, 1970. - P. 29 - 45; and other works. The same The topic received an interesting embodiment in the collection “The Revolutionary Situation in Russia in mid-19th centuries: figures and historians" edited by M. V. Nechkina (M., 1986).

In the same way, the dissertation critically used the experience of pre-revolutionary intellectual self-reflection, which in Russia traditionally had much in common with socially oriented literary criticism.6

And yet, methodologically, we cannot rely on the attempts of pre-revolutionary authors to replace history real people the history of literary types,7 nor the study of literature practiced in Soviet historiography from the point of view of its reflection of objective reality (this is what the source study adaptation of Lenin’s theory of reflection looked like). In domestic source studies, interest in literary texts arose sporadically, since, in principle, the question of its auxiliary

6 Avdeev M.V. Our society (1820 - 1870) in the heroes and heroines of literature. - St. Petersburg, 1874. - 291 units; Social consciousness in Russian literature. Critical Essays. - St. Petersburg, 1900. - 302 e.; Pyin A. N. Characteristics literary opinions from twenties to fifties. Historical essays. - Ed. 4th, add. - St. Petersburg, 1909. - 519 p.; Voitolovsky JI. Current moment and current literature: Toward the psychology of modern public sentiment. - St. Petersburg, 1908. - 48 e.; Ovsyaniko-Kulikovsky D.N. History of the Russian intelligentsia // Ovsyaniko-Kulikovsky D.N. Collection. Op. - vol. 9. - St. Petersburg, 1911. - 224 e.; Ivanov-Razumnik. History of Russian social thought: individualism and philistinism in Russian literature and life of the 19th century. - T. 1.-SP6., 1911 -414 e.; T. 2- 520 e.;

7 In this sense, academic historiography did not differ methodologically from the tradition of intellectual self-reflection. Social and psychological characteristics, “ideas, views, feelings, impressions of people of a certain time” were sought in fiction by V. O. Klyuchevsky, followed by N. A. Rozhkov, S. F. Platonov, V. I. Semevsky and others And although their methods of working with literary texts are outdated today, and sometimes do not stand up to criticism, general understanding the possibilities of a literary source proposed by these historians dominates modern Russian historiography. Klyuchevsky V. O. Review of the research by S. F. Platonov " Old Russian legends and the story of the troubled times of the 17th century as a historical source" // Klyuchevsky V. O. Works. In 9 volumes - M., 1989. - T. 7. - P. 124. See also: Klyuchevsky V. O Evgeny Onegin and his ancestors // Ibid. - T. 9. - P. 84 - 100; Fonvizin’s minor: experience of historical explanation of the educational play I Ibid., P. 55 - 76; Rozhkov N. A. Pushkinskaya Tatiana and Griboedovskaya Sophia in their connection with the history of Russian women of the 17th - 18th centuries And a magazine for everyone. -1899. - No. 5. - P. 558 - 566; Semovsky V.I. Serfdom and peasant reform in the works of M.E. Saltykov (Shchedrin) // History of the USSR. - 1978. - No. 1. - P. 130.

telny character was decided. In the 1930s, source scholars recognized the independence of literary sources only in relation to eras that left few other sources.8 Then the thaw of the 1960s touched on this problem, and the potential of literary texts in the field of psychological generalizations received limited recognition in the context of the history of the Soviet period.9 Finally, perestroika stimulated the creation of “history with human face", which in turn contributed to the awakening of interest in literary sources.10 During these years, the famous Russian source scholar S.O. Schmidt began work on a series of reports and articles, which today are the last word academic source study on the issue of literary text. Unlike other historians who turned to literary sources (N.I. Mironets, who emphasizes the educational and propaganda role of literature, and N.G. Dumova, who develops the tradition of studying " psychological types"), Schmidt takes into account the experience of the history of mentalities, considering works of literature

8 Saar G.P. Sources and methods of historical research. - Baku, 1930. - 174 p.; Mironets N. I. Fiction as a historical source: towards the historiography of the issue // History of the USSR. - 1976. - No. 1. -I 125-176.

9 Mnukhina R.S. On teaching source studies of modern history // Call and recent history. -1961. - No. 4. - P. 127 -132; On the source of modern and contemporary history: to the results of the discussion // New and modern history. - 1963. - No. 4. - P. 121-125; Varshavchik M.A. About some “surveys of the source study of the history of the CPSU // Questions of the history of the CPSU.

1962. - No. 4. - P. 170 - 178; To the results of the discussion of some issues in the history of the CPSU // Questions of the history of the CPSU. - 1963. - No. >. - P. 101 - 105; Seleznev M. S. On the classification of historical sources in connection with the construction of a course on source studies at universities. - M., 1964. - P. 322 - 340; Ztp<"л,.с:::;й а. И. Теория и методика источниковедения истории СССР. -Сиев, 1968 . - С. 51 - 52.

10 Mironets N.I. Revolutionary poetry of the October Revolution and the Civil War as a historical source. - Kyiv, 1988. - 176 s; Dumova N. G. About artistic literature as a source for the study of social psychology // On the authenticity and reliability of a historical source. -Sazan, 1991. - P. 112 - 117.

ry and art “an important source for understanding the mentality of the time of their creation and subsequent existence...” It is obvious that when working with literary texts today, it is impossible to ignore the experience of world historiography, the research of cultural scientists and literary theorists - in a word, the entire complex of interdisciplinary knowledge , which was formed in the humanities in the post-war period.

Methodological basis of the study. Against the backdrop of the blurring of disciplinary boundaries between history, anthropology, linguistics, literary criticism and philosophy, the literary text has emerged as the object of a new interdisciplinary search. In the 1960s, structuralism, which dominated in philosophy, linguistics and history (the Braudelian generation of the Annales school), brought to the fore the study of static processes, which, in relation to literary documents, was expressed in the dictates of the literary approach (absolutization of the text; taking it out of context, etc. ). But at the end of the 1970s, a change in philosophical paradigms took place, and the diachronic side of historical documents was rehabilitated. At this stage, actual historical methods of working with literary texts emerge and works that have already become classics are created, based on literary sources.12 In methodological terms, the very possibility of asking literary texts “historical questions” arose as a result of the rethinking of both positivist literary criticism and structuralism, in favor of semiotics.13

11 Schmidt S. O. Fiction and art as a source of the formation of historical ideas (1992) // Shmidt S. O. The path of a historian. Selected works on source studies and historiography. -M., 1997. - pp. 113 - 115. See also: Schmidt S. O. Historiographic sources and literary monuments // Ibid., pp. 92 - 97.

12 Ginzburg S. The Cheese and the Worms. The Cosmos of a Sixteenth-Century Miller.-London and Henley., 1981; Darnton R. The Great Cat Massacre and Other Episodes of French Cultural History.-New York., 1984; Hunt L. The Family Romance of the French Revolution. - Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1992.

This study develops this methodological tendency in relation to the history of the Russian radical intelligentsia. The semiotic model is based on the idea of ​​the text as the intersection of the points of view of the creator of the text and the audience. The third component is the presence of certain structural features, perceived as signals of the text.14 In this way, the historian’s interest in what in literary studies was somewhat disparagingly called “context” is legitimized. If the text is thought of as a communicative event, then the context is an organic part of the text. Accordingly, the thesis about the mechanical reflection of the context in the text is removed, and the historian faces the problem of the functioning of the text in the context, the problem of the literary text as a reality that shapes the ideas and perceptions of people.15 Any literary text appears to the historian as a value-based compaction of the world (M. Bakhtin’s expression ), built around literary heroes. Interpretation

13 In the West, this transition can be personified by the talented historian and writer Umberto Eco, while in Russia a parallel process is associated with the name of Yu. M. Lotman. See: Eco U. A Theory of Semiotics. -London., 1977; Idem. The Role of the Reader. -Bloomington., 1979; Idem. Six Walks in the Fictional Woods. - Cambridge, Mass. and London., 1994; Yu. M. Lotman and the Tartu-Moscow semiotic school. - M., 1994. - 547 pp. by the talented historian and writer Umberto Eco, while in Russia a parallel process is associated with the name of Yu. M. Lotman. See: Eco U. A Theory of Semiotics. -London., 1977; Idem. The Role of the Reader. - Bloomington., 1979; Idem. Six Walks in the Fictional Woods. - Cambridge, Mass. and London., 1994; Yu. M. Lotman and the Tartu-Moscow semiotic school. - M., 1994. - 547 p.

14 Lotman Yu. M. Culture and explosion. - M., 1992. - P. 179; Uspensky B. A. History and semiotics: the perception of time as a semiotic problem. Article one. // Mirror. Semiotics of mirroring. Works on sign systems. - Vol. 831. - Tartu, 1988. - P. 67.

15 In Russian historical science, this approach was first substantiated by M. V. Nechkina, who proposed studying “not just the artistic image as such, but precisely the function artistic image in the mind of the reader." Nechkina M.V. The function of the artistic image in the historical process. - M., 1982. - 318 pp. See also: Literature and history (Historical process in the creative consciousness of Russian writers of the 18th - 20th centuries). - St. Petersburg, 1992. - 360 pp. Bely O. V. Secrets of the "underground" man. Artistic word - everyday consciousness - semiotics of power. - Kiev, 1991. - 312 pp.

tational intrigue consists in “unwinding” this value compaction, in building a system of value orientations of the author, characters and readership within the framework of their cultural and historical context.16 This is how the main methodological thesis of this study, built on the semiotic understanding of the literary source, can be formulated.

Accordingly, we do not consider it possible to talk about the secondary, auxiliary nature of literary sources. The nature of a particular study determines the relative importance of sources, and in our case, literary texts are the main element of the source base of the work. It is necessary to make a reservation that by literary sources we mean only those works of fine literature that, in terms of the time of their occurrence, are contemporary with the events under study, i.e. made “as if from within the described state..., using exclusively the metalanguage that was developed within a given tradition...” and a given time.17 Works of fiction that, in relation to the period under study, represent a later reflection (historical novels, literary biographies, literary and philosophical essays) are historiographical sources and should be considered in a completely different context.18 Actually, a literary source is a special type of written sources, differing in the type of information encoding inherent in artistic discourse.

Since the historical use of literary sources is meaningless without taking into account the context, literary studies

16 Tyupa V.I. Towards a new paradigm of literary knowledge II Aesthetic discourse: semiotic studies in the field of literature. -Novosibirsk, 1991. - P. 4 - 16; Fukson L. Yu. The world of a literary work as a system of values ​​// Ibid., pp. 17 - 24.

17 Toporov V. N. On the cosmological sources of early historical descriptions II Collection of scientific articles in honor of M. M. Bakhtin. Works on sign systems. VI. - Vol. 308. - Tartu, 1973. - P. 109.

18 Schmidt S. O. Historiographic sources and literary monuments // S. O. Shmidt. The historian's path. - P. 92 - 97.

sifications that ignore context and are based solely on the structural and genre characteristics of the works of art themselves are unlikely to be useful. In our opinion, the most instrumental in the context of historical research is the typology of texts in terms of the possibility of their functioning, developed by Yu. M. Lotman.19 Such a typology sets the limits to which the historian is free to ignore the aesthetic features of the text; it also immediately sets up a dialogical model of thinking, taking into account intentions of at least two poles: the author and the reader. The relevance of this typology for this study is obvious, since we are dealing with a special literature and a special readership. As noted above, the radical intelligentsia attributed functions to literature that went far beyond the aesthetic. Accordingly, in most cases we can talk about a fairly direct connection between the authors of the literature of Underground Russia and its readers. Thus, we methodologically justified our right to emphasize those aspects of this collaboration that are far from purely aesthetic.

Purpose and objectives of the study. The formulation of the purpose of this dissertation work - studying the possibilities of a literary source in the context of historical research dedicated to Russian radicalism of the early 20th century - involves solving the following problems:

Development of the concept of a literary source and the methodology of its analysis in the context of historical research;

Identification and source study interpretation of literary texts generated by the subculture of Russian radicalism of the early 20th century;

Involving them to create a history of the radical intelligentsia of the beginning of the century as a history of the formation and evolution of the

19 Lotman Yu. M. The structure of a literary text. - M., 1970. - P. 347.

lexus of ideas, values ​​and stereotypes of thinking that defined Russian radicalism.

Scientific novelty. The novelty of the dissertation essay, which is based on literary texts, is obvious from the point of view of the theory and practice of domestic source studies. Having given literary texts the status of literary sources and proposed a multidisciplinary methodology for understanding them, we studied the possibilities of literary sources in relation to the history of Russian radicalism of the early 20th century. This made it possible to take the study of values, ideas, and ethical preferences of a social group from the sphere of speculation and conjecture into the sphere of strictly scientific analysis, verified within the framework of a source study approach.

Source base of the dissertation. The understanding of a literary text as a communicative event determined the source base of the dissertation. In addition to literary sources, the dissertation uses: newspaper and magazine journalism and criticism; memoirs and diaries of individual representatives of the radical intelligentsia; documentary sources (protocols of police investigations into cases of underground printing houses, lists of prohibited literature, medical histories, etc.). When working on the dissertation, materials from the following archives were used:

State Archive of the Russian Federation (GARF): f. No. 1167 (Collection of material evidence seized by Gendarmerie agencies during searches of the editorial offices of magazines, newspapers and individuals); f. 6753 (Konchevskaya Nadezhda Viktorovna); f. 5831 (Savinkov Boris Viktorovich); f. 328 (E. Sakharova-Vavilova). These funds contain documents covering the creative history of the creation of certain literary works, diary entries, as well as manuscripts confiscated during searches in the editorial offices of popular magazines of the early 20th century.

National Archives of the Republic of Tatarstan (NART): f. 199 (Kazan Provincial Gendarmerie Directorate); f. 977 (Kazan Imperial University). The NART documents we attracted are protocols of searches of underground printing houses, lists of prohibited and confiscated literature.

Archive of the Republican Psychiatric Hospital, Kazan. This archive preserves case histories from the period of the first Russian revolution, containing information about the reproduction, even at the level of uncontrolled mental manifestations, of a normative behavioral pattern, vocabulary and imagery set by revolutionary fiction.

Bakhmeteff Archive (New York, USA), collection "S. R. Party". The materials of this collection were used to study the fate of one of the most famous characters of Underground Russia, the terrorist and writer B. Savinkov (literary pseudonym - V. Ropshin).

Slavonic Library, Helsinki University, manuscript department (formerly "Storage of the Russian Library of the Alexander University in Helsingfors"). The manuscript collections of this library contain autographs of student poems and songs. late XIX centuries, necessary to understand the origins of the specific literary creativity of the radical intelligentsia. In the dissertation essay we offer a more detailed description of the historical sources we use.

The bulk of the literary sources used in the work are fiction and poetry published in numerous magazines and literary collections of the beginning of the century. As a rule, the artistic level of these works is low, although there are exceptions. Most of the works of art we used have never been involved in scientific circulation either by literary scholars (due to lack of artistic value) or historians (due to lack of interest and adequate methods). The authors of these works are characterized by varying degrees of involvement in Underground Russia: from

direct membership in any political party to ideological support of the left opposition to the regime. Most party authors acted under pseudonyms, which gave them the opportunity to overcome party censorship and the self-censorship of intellectuals, using the form of a work of art to express their individual attitude to the world around them. In some cases (primarily this concerns manuscripts discovered in the archive), it was not possible to establish the authorship of the texts, but this did not deprive the texts themselves of source value, since we consider a literary source as a mass source. Only the identification and mastery of a significant number of fictional and poetic texts allowed us to talk about the thinking stereotypes and sustainable values ​​of the radical intelligentsia.

The most “transparent” for a historian is that part of the literary documents we collected that was created on the eve and during the years of the first Russian revolution - i.e. the actual classic works of Underground Russia. “Classical” in the sense that they most fully corresponded to the canon: the positive hero of these works was almost always the core of the plot, literary characters were identified with a specific function, positive and negative poles were clearly defined. Our method of working with this kind of literature is partly reminiscent of the approach proposed by V. Propp in his famous “Morphology of the Fairy Tale.”20 We also analyze the structural elements of a large group of texts of the same order, isolating the main functions of the characters and plots. But unlike Propp, we are interested in the cultural and historical context, part of which were the literary texts of Underground Russia. That is why it is so important for us to separate post-revolutionary texts into a special group, where the identity between hero and function disappears. It was on the basis of this divergence, which signaled the maturing crisis of radicalism, that new meanings, new meanings were created

20 Propp V. Morphology of a fairy tale. - L., 1928. - 151 p.

and new ideas. Literary texts of the post-revolutionary decade were a tool of cultural regulation, indispensable in times of crisis and transformation. It was precisely in the destruction of the poetics of Underground Russia and in the search for paths to a new idea, to a new tradition, that was the historical mission of post-revolutionary literary texts, which not only distinguishes them as a special group, but also puts them in direct opposition to the classical literature of Underground Russia.

Structure of the dissertation. The dissertation consists of an introduction, three chapters, a conclusion, notes, a list of references and sources.

2. MAIN CONTENTS AND CONCLUSIONS OF THE STUDY

The introduction substantiates the topic of the dissertation, its scientific relevance and novelty, offers an analysis of historiography and the source base of the research, provides a definition of a literary source, and the methodology for its use as historical evidence.

First chapter. “Literature and the Tradition of Radicalism in Russia” chronologically covers the period from the turn of the century to 1907 and is a basic description of the structural, qualitative and functional characteristics of the “classical” literature of Underground Russia. The chapter consists of three paragraphs.

The first paragraph examines the reasons and mechanism for the formation of the literary mythology of radicalism, the most influential works of art that contributed to the radicalization of the intelligentsia, and the relationship between the authors and readers of this literature. The paragraph traces how fiction imposed images and metaphors on reality, becoming at the same time an ideal, normative reality into which radical in-

the intelligentsia fit more organically than into the present. The main conclusion from Paragraph 1 is that the literature of Underground Russia did not simply reflect the existence of a radical subculture in society, but was its most important formative component.

The second paragraph examines the main value core of underground fiction - the revolutionary hero, and, increasingly, on the eve of 1905, the terrorist hero. The semantics of the sacrificial perception of the radical hero was set by the essays of Stepnyak-Kravchinsky, and later it was strengthened in many texts of different orders. The hero of radical fiction was created as a mythological hero - the first among equals, and in accordance with the logic of myth, he resolved the contradictions in the perception of the real figure of the radical movement. Behind the hero of radical fiction there was almost always a recognizable real prototype, but it was precisely the fictional template that often dictated the assessment of the activities of a real person. This was traced by comparing various texts where the heroes were based on the same prototypes (the most popular “models” were Maria Spiridonova and Ivan Kalyaev), and by comparing the images of fictional heroes with contemporary documentary publications in the illegal party and legal “directional” press . Thus, Paragraph 2 demonstrated the mechanism of romanticization and justification of revolutionary violence through the medium of a fictional hero, who was both an ideal and a justification of Russian radicalism, its creation and its myth.

The third and final paragraph of Chapter 1 depicts the collision of literary myth and real mass revolutionary movement. The paragraph examines the mass mobilization of society, the reproduction of fictional patterns of normative behavior at different social levels: from school and student protest, then specific “revolutionary” psychoses and neuroses. The first Russian revolution demonstrated for the first time the distance between literary myth and reality, between terrorist

rum fictional and real. The material presented in the paragraph allowed us to conclude that literary texts that set normative life scenarios, formed ideas about radical politics and those who carried them out, did not stand the test of authenticity.

In general, the central source study conclusion of Chapter 1 is the thesis about the fundamental importance of literary sources in studying the structure of radical consciousness. If radical philosophy or ideology should be studied on the basis of a traditional set of sources, then the basic components of radical consciousness (ideas of good and evil, heroism, normative behavior, etc.) are most fully and adequately represented in literary sources of the late 1890s - x - 1907.

Second chapter. “The literary process in timelessness (1907-1914) and the crisis of radical consciousness in Russia: hero and party” consists of 13 four paragraphs. The first paragraph analyzes works created directly in the wake of the revolution of 1905-1907, and the reader's reaction to them. In the conclusions of the paragraph, we note that it was in the reviews of fictional publications that the main themes of post-revolutionary intellectual discussions first emerged: the crisis of the political doctrine of radicalism, the oral and ethical foundations of radical politics; the essence of the phenomenon of the Russian intelligentsia.

The next paragraph is devoted to the story of the Socialist-Revolutionary terrorist B. Sa-(Inkov (who wrote under literary pseudonym V. Ropshin) “The Pale Horse” (1909). The range of reactions to the publication of the story included the suicide of militants, the regrouping of forces in the [arty of socialist revolutionaries, warm support a significant part of the radical and liberal intelligentsia, complete >denial of the other. The characters in Ropshin's story were present in all later discussions about political terrorism, [turning into signs of the decay of the radical hero. Accordingly, we made a fundamental conclusion about the need to

the attractions of the story “The Pale Horse” when studying the evolution of terrorist doctrine and the attitude of the intelligentsia to power politics after 1907.

Paragraph 3 is devoted to M. Artsybashev’s novel “Sanin” (1907) and the movement of individualists “Sanin” provoked by it. Vulgarized, reduced Sanin's Nietzscheanism was a catalyst for broad discussions about individualism, about the human right to live for today. Literary hero Artsybashev gave rise to a wave of imitators; he also offered a language, a series of images, a context for more serious reflection on the philosophy of individualism, which was alien to the radical subculture. In this sense, the literary source - the novel "Sanin" - has priority over other historical documents traditionally used to study the individualization of the consciousness of the Russian intelligentsia.

The final, fourth paragraph is devoted to the second work of the terrorist writer Ropshin-Savinkov, which was published in 1912. The novel “That Which Wasn’t” touched on the themes of the limitations of party existence and provocation as a generic feature of the underground world. In this paragraph we compare the fictional myths about Azef, created before the speech of Ropshin the novelist (among the creators of the latter was B. Savinkov’s mother), with his version, analyze the reactions of the readership, party interpretations, the influence of the popular novel on the perception of the “Azef case” and the post-revolutionary crisis of radical political parties. Thus, all the plots of the second chapter demonstrate the need to involve a specific work of art when studying one or another aspect of the political and social existence of the radical intelligentsia after 1907. A historian has no right to ignore a literary document that at one time set the perspective for the perception of reality, within the framework of which a new worldview was developed, which ultimately undermined the harmony of the world of the radical intelligentsia.

In the third chapter. "The fate of the mythology of Underground Russia in timelessness (1907 - 1914): literary revelations", three paragraphs.

The first examines imitations and modifications of V. Ropshin’s themes. We proceed from the assumption that it is possible to trace the process of adaptation, assimilation of an idea through its reproduction in other texts. In the logic of the subculture of radicalism, some fiction writers tried to mythologize the excesses of the revolution, while appealing to the authority of Ropshin. Around the “Russian Themes” a certain division of “spheres of influence” took place: for example, the Social Democrats created the most interesting works about the limitations of party existence, while the Socialist Revolutionaries continued to write about terror and provocation. Non-partisan authors have priority in creating a new genre - the “revolutionary” detective story. They were the first to allow themselves ironic notes in relation to classical heroes and plots, the apotheosis of which was a parody of a terrorist act committed, according to the author, in a psychiatric hospital. It was precisely the ironic attitude brought from outside that helped to finally overcome the hypnosis of radical mythology.

The second paragraph describes literature and semi-literary polemics around the spatial “emanations” of Underground Russia - exile and emigration. The paragraph establishes the priority of fiction in raising painful topics regarding the idealization and de-ideologization of exile and political emigration.

The third paragraph poses the problem of overcoming the crisis of a radical worldview. The material we have collected indicates the coexistence of two trends: departure from life or an attempt to reconcile with it. The epidemic of youth suicide, which we trace both statistically and descriptively, based on the notes and letters of suicides and numerous fiction and poetry about death and suicide, characterizes the first trend. Quite in accordance with the logic of the subculture of radicalism, the intelligentsia passed away with the end of Underground Russia. Without and outside of literature

She could not live and did not want to live the tour myth. Paradoxical as it may sound, the rehabilitation of the present, the attempt to build one’s own biography outside of myths and total ideological systems, sometimes required more courage than suicide. In 1912-1913, the topic of life rehabilitation came to the fore in mass intellectual fiction and criticism. Works appear that summarize the entire post-revolutionary experience, connecting all themes, synthesizing them on a new, life-affirming basis. Literature no longer stood between life and its perception as an ideal reality that could replace life. Accordingly, we have come to the conclusion that the fictionalization of reality has ceased as a mass phenomenon of radical worldview. This, in turn, indicates a relative decline in the value of literary sources for understanding the history of the intelligentsia in the period that began with the First World War. The World War, which gave the entire society an additional impetus to unite around the state idea, ended in the complete collapse of the old Russian statehood. In the fire of war, the shoots of a new attitude to life, hard-won by the intelligentsia, burned out. Wars and revolutions radicalize even moderate people, not to mention those whose adult lives were spent fighting for this very revolution. But the evolution of the radical intelligentsia of the early 20th century, which we traced on the basis of literary sources, also points to another possible outcome - less painful both for the intelligentsia itself and for the country as a whole.

In conclusion, it is stated that the conclusions of this dissertation concern both the informational features of literary sources created within the subculture of Russian radicalism of the early 20th century, and the general methodological basis for the use of literary texts in historical research.

The semiotic model of a literary text has justified itself

during testing on specific historical and literary material. We imagined the text as a function that exists at the intersection of the perspectives of the creator, the reader, and the text itself. We thought of the text as a communicative event, and accordingly, its study seemed impossible without analyzing the context, without studying social functioning a work of art, finally, without reading it in terms of the readership, the cultural environment to which it was addressed. Not the opposition of a “subjective” literary text to “objective” reality, but an analysis of their interaction, social functions, which literature performed in a specific time and historical continuum, influences artistic models on the perception of reality made it possible to overcome the difficulties associated with the type of information encoding inherent in literary sources.

Implementing this methodological approach in practice, in each chapter of the dissertation we rose from the basic and necessary level of external and internal source criticism to the level of semiotic analysis. If at the first level we analyzed external characteristics handwritten and published literary sources on the topic, established the authorship, political orientation and party affiliation of the writers, the degree of documentation of their work, then at the second level of analysis we were interested in the author’s intentions, his picture of the world, his image of reality and understanding of artistic fiction; the role of a specific work of art in the process of the formation and functioning of radical consciousness and a radical type of politics. Ultimately, we were interested in the mechanism by which a work of art turns into a stimulus for direct ideological or political action. To answer this question, we examined in detail the entire path from the appearance of a work of art to its passage through the “filters” of legal and illegal publications, critical articles in the party and non-partisan press - to a specific reader.

This study demonstrates that, from a historical perspective, a literary source is especially productive as a mass source. Creating a history of ideas and values, a history of the circulation of ideas is possible only on the basis of an analysis of the interaction of many texts: high and low, addressed to different categories of readers, etc. Carrying out this work, we again rose from the basic level of comparative source analysis to semiotic interpretation. As a result, we were able to substantiate the thesis about the existence of a literary mythological space of the radical world (“Underground Russia”), where many different literary texts were united by a single figurative structure and value scale, a common ethical attitude, and a high degree of interchangeability.

The artistic works of Underground Russia performed a certain ideological function in creating and updating radical mythology, which was fundamentally important for understanding the essence of Russian radicalism of the early 20th century. These texts required a specific audience and a special type of writer, behind whom stood an extraliterary political biography. Considering the high degree of structural and functional similarity of the literary sources we identified, we considered them as a kind of single text in which the process of semiosis took place (the development of new information and its translation into the language of a given cultural community, the process of cultural self-identification) that interests us.

Taking into account the methodological complexity of working with literary texts, we placed different methodological emphasis in each of the three chapters of the dissertation. Despite the fact that the structure of the work reflects the stages in the history of the formation and development of radical subculture in Russia at the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th, each individual chapter also acts as a testing ground for a certain methodological principle. Thus, in Chapter 1 we conducted a structural analysis of literary sources, presenting them

as a single text, and also used the methods of the sociology of reading necessary to study the readership and its relationships with writers.

In Chapter 2, we were particularly interested in the mechanism of transforming an artistic image into a subject of reality, into a stimulus for explicit political and ideological actions, into a tool for structuring and describing reality. Chapter 3 is methodologically focused on the study of the retransmission of ideas, their passage through the “filters” of other texts. It is precisely this multifaceted, multidisciplinary reading of literary texts that was necessary in order to transform them from illustrative and auxiliary historical sources into sources of information about the spiritual, moral, moral and ethical aspects of the existence of people of the past.

Thus, literary sources created by the radical intelligentsia of the early 20th century contain unique information about the spiritual and value world of its creators, about the mythological and utopian aspects of their consciousness, and about the radical understanding of politics. The literary myth, structurally and semantically defined by S. Stepnyak-Kravchinsky’s “Underground Russia” essays, removed the fundamental contradictions of intellectual radicalism by romanticizing violence and isolating only one, the sacrificial, side of terrorism. Studying the process of formation and destruction of myths about the radical hero, about pure sacrifice, exile, emigration, made it possible to see how the space of Underground Russia unfolded, controlling more and more aspects of the life of the radical intelligentsia.

An analysis of the mythology of radicalism clearly demonstrated that Russian society gave its moral sanction to the romanticized image of the underground world, accepting the literary myth as reality. The massive nature of the fiction of Underground Russia, which created this myth, its popularity among people far from the underground, corrects the idea existing in historiography that “revolutionary subcultural

tur flourished among small group radical intelligentsia and industrial workers..."21

Advances in the radical picture of the world appeared when literature overcame the symbolic, value, and genre structures set by the radical subculture. This is where creativity began, old ideas about the norm were broken, and ways out of the crisis were sought. After 1907, the radical intelligentsia learned to take advantage of this relative freedom, making literature one of the mouthpieces of their experiences, turning it from the creator of radical mythology into the destroyer of old myths. This study demonstrates that without literary sources containing unique information about the evolution of the values ​​and ideals of the radical intelligentsia of the early 20th century, it is impossible to understand either its social or political existence.

It is obvious that literary sources not only bring us closer to understanding inner world man as the main object of interest of the historian, but also humanize historical knowledge itself, offering another, albeit complex and ambiguous, but a tool for dialogue with the past. This position is quite organically woven into the fabric of modern source studies, for which “the key is the definition of culture in the broadest sense,” and which studies “not just a historical source. It studies the system of relationships: person-work-person.”22

Scientific testing. The main provisions of the dissertation were presented at the conference "Historical Science in a Changing World" (Kazan, June 1993), an international conference " Theoretical problems source studies" (Kazan, May 28 - 29, 1996), in

21 Stites R. Russian Popular Culture and Society since 1900. - Cambridge, Great Britain, 1992.

22 Medushevskaya O. M. Source study. Theory, history and method. - M.: Publishing House of the Russian State University for the Humanities, 1996. - P. 16; 20.

ode of a research seminar at the Institute of East European History of the Justus Liebig University (Giessen, Germany), as well as at the final scientific conferences of KSU 1992 - 1998.

Some topics of the dissertation are reflected in the following publications:

1. Mogilner M. Russian radical intelligentsia before the death // Social Sciences and Modernity. - 1994. - No. ¡. - P. 56 - 66;

2. Mogilner M. B. Literary text as a source of information about mentality and value orientations society // Historical science in a changing world. - Kazan: KSU, 1994;

3. Mogilner M. B. Boris Savinkov: “underground” and “legal” Russia in the vicissitudes of the same fate // Social Sciences and Contemporaneity. - 1995. - No. 4. - P. 79 - 89.

4. Mogilner M. B. Transformation of social norms in the transition period and mental disorders// Social sciences [modernity. - 1997. - No. 2. - P. 70 - 79.

5. Mogilner M. B. On the path to an open society: the crisis of radical consciousness in Russia (1907-1914). - M.: Publishing house Ma-istr, 1997. - 56 p.

A.Yu. Kovaleva

Kazan National Research Technical University them. A.N. Tupolev - KAI, Kazan

Source: collection " Problems studying the history of the 20th century in higher school <…>"(Kazan, 2011). Original in doc format

A historical source is usually called everything that can provide any information about the past. Many historians and source scholars, in the course of their research, formed definitions of the term “historical source”. Among domestic experts, one of the successful definitions of the concept of “historical source” belongs to Leonard Derbov:

“...Under the historical source in modern science understands all the remnants of the past, in which historical evidence has been deposited, reflecting real phenomena social life and patterns of development human society. In fact, these are a wide variety of products and traces of human activity: objects material culture, monuments of writing, ideology, morals, customs, language, etc.”

Any source is a product of people's social activity. Any source is subjective, because reflects the past in the form of personal, subjective images. But at the same time, it is a form of reflection of the objective world, eras, countries and peoples in their real historical existence. In this sense, historical sources can be considered as the basis for knowledge of historical reality, making it possible to reconstruct events and phenomena of social life of the past.

When extracting information from a source, you need to remember its specificity - subjectivity. Here there is a need for it scientific criticism, analysis, extraction of true and identification of false information. In order to extract the necessary information from a source that subjectively reflects the objective world, a number of conditions and rules must be observed. First of all, you need to determine the authenticity of the sources. Undoubtedly, this requires extremely high qualifications. It is necessary to know a lot: the nature of writing, writing material, features of the language, its vocabulary and grammatical forms, the specifics of dating events and the use of metric units, if we talk about written sources. But even proof of the authenticity of a source does not mean that you can safely use the information it contains. The authenticity of a source does not guarantee its reliability.

However, the reliability of information, although it is an important component of the specificity of a historical source, does not exhaust it. This also includes the fact that some evidence that is of great importance for science has not been preserved at all. Some of them were contained in sources according to various reasons has not reached us. But the problem is not only that a significant number of important materials are irretrievably lost. The thinking of people of past eras was significantly different from the worldview and worldview modern man. What seems to us random, without serious consequences, attracted their attention. Many aspects of social life, which seem extremely important to us, have not found adequate reflection in the sources.

In this work, fiction is considered as a historical source. However, works of art studied in this context have their own specifics. A fair question is: does the use of fiction have the right to be scientific in historical research? The question is not idle enough and has every right be given, because in modern history the scope of scientific issues has expanded, especially those that affect the sociocultural aspects of the development of society, individual layers and groups of the country’s population, and even individual. Many researchers are convinced that a somewhat straightforward approach to fiction does not exhaust the possibilities of using it as a source of historical knowledge. The uniqueness of literature lies in the recognition of its ability to reflect intangible, sometimes elusive, but no less effective factors of the historical process. It is this feature of fiction that many scientists see as a priority when turning to it as a source of understanding the past; it is especially important when clarifying the inner truth of eras that are distinguished, for example, by special tragedy. The interweaving of literary and source studies techniques in the analysis of works makes it possible to show their deep, moral meaning. The reliability of details of everyday life, clothing, manners, and speech allows the researcher to draw clear conclusions about the era, which only emphasizes the importance of fiction in historical research. Thus, by analyzing a certain historical era and studying the fiction of that era, one can see much more interesting facts and details.

The policy of “war communism”, world and civil wars led the country to an acute political and economic crisis. During this period, the country had a mixed economy. The leading position in it was occupied by the public sector, because in the hands of the state were the so-called. commanding heights: political power, financial system, natural resources, heavy industry, transport, foreign trade monopoly. The time period that the author is considering is the transition period from the policy of war communism to the period of the NEP. Terror and dictatorship reign in the country. The government resorted to mass and individual terror against the population, looking for communists and representatives of the Soviets, participating in the burning and execution of entire villages. In the face of declining morality, terror quickly gained momentum. Due to the fault of both sides, tens of thousands of innocent people died. Another form of revolutionary terror, as we know, were concentration camps.

The emergence of despotic power was predetermined by the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat, the presence of a single party, the prohibition of factions in it, the elimination of a multi-party system, individual rights and freedoms. Analyzing the politics of that time, and focusing on the life of the intelligentsia, which is undoubtedly related to the topic of this work, it should be noted that any influence of the intelligentsia on the life of the country, and especially ideological influence, was eradicated. The end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th centuries was marked by a deep crisis that gripped the entire European culture, resulting from disappointment in previous ideals and a feeling of the approaching death of the existing socio-political system. But this same crisis gave birth to a great era - the era of the Russian cultural renaissance at the beginning of the century - one of “the most refined eras in the history of Russian culture.” This was the era of the creative rise of poetry and philosophy after a period of decline. At the same time, it was an era of the emergence of new souls, new sensitivity. Souls opened up to all kinds of mystical trends, both positive and negative. Never before have all kinds of deception and confusion been so strong among us. At the same time, Russian souls were overcome by premonitions of impending catastrophes. The poets saw not only the coming dawns, but something terrible approaching Russia and the world.

At that time, the Bolshevik Party completely placed Soviet literature and art at the service of communist ideology, turning them into a propaganda tool. From now on, they were intended to introduce Marxist-Leninist ideas into the consciousness of people, to convince them of the advantages of a socialist community, of the infallible wisdom of party leaders. Carrying out this policy, Proletkult, the union of proletarian cultural and educational societies, acted. Proletkultists were especially active in calling for a revolutionary overthrow of old forms in art, a violent onslaught of new ideas, and the primitivization of culture.

As artistic source the author examines the novel by E.I. Zamyatin "We" novel written in 1921. The time was difficult, and therefore, probably, the work was written in the unusual genre of “utopian book”, fashionable during this period. XX century - century of the Great ideas that are too great to be fully understood by the mass of humanity not experienced in philosophical matters. When Evgeny Zamyatin wrote his novel “We,” he, who took on artistic form to study and expose the destructiveness of the totalitarian system for the human personality, life gave us the opportunity to observe with our own eyes the birth of the United State in blood and chaos. A revolutionary by his spiritual make-up, sensing the utopianism of some of the ideas that formed the basis of the country’s councils, the writer wanted to study and expose them, believing in the power of the writer’s word, in the possibility of “cure” the Russian revolution. However, the reality of the twentieth century surpassed all the most terrible forebodings of the author of the novel. Surprisingly, the author seems to foresee future events; he deliberately exposes totalitarianism with all its consequences and characteristic features, but besides this, starting, it seemed, from the exposure, he comes to conclusions that may not have been his original goal - he understands that human nature cannot stand an impersonal existence. This is the enormous value of the work; it captures not only facts, albeit skillfully disguised, but a deep philosophical thought.

Initially, the very title of the novel – “We” – arouses interest. It seems that by the title of the novel “We” the author understood the collectivism of the Bolsheviks in Russia, in which the value of the individual was reduced to a minimum. Apparently, out of fear for the fate of the fatherland, Zamyatin moved Russia a thousand years into the future in his novel. The leading theme of this novel is the dramatic fate of the individual in a totalitarian social order. “We” is a word-slogan, a word-symbol of the consciousness of the masses. The writer shows the real essence a utopia carried out ostensibly on behalf of the majority and for its benefit. The categorical “we” sounds like a ban on “I”. The starting point of the totalitarian model is the declaration of a certain highest goal, in the name of which the regime calls on society to part with all political, legal and social traditions. The novel describes many features of totalitarianism. For example, about general ideology, Zamyatin writes immediately, in the first chapter: “Long live One State, long live the numbers, long live the Benefactor! The symbol of the totalitarian state here is a single State, for the benefit of which all the “numbers” work, the Benefactor is an undeniable and inviolable authority in the Single State, a symbol of the Russian ruler. In the One State, universal “mathematically infallible happiness” reigns. It is provided by the United State itself. But the happiness it gives people is only material, and the main thing is in general, identical and mandatory for all forms. Everyone receives satiety, peace, occupation according to his abilities, complete satisfaction of all physical needs - and for this he must give up everything that distinguishes him from others: living feelings, his own aspirations, natural affections and his own impulses. In a word from one’s own personality. The permanence and inviolability of the ruler, characteristic of a totalitarian regime, which Zamyatin foresees, is reflected in the novel. Zamyatin undoubtedly pays attention to this: “I continue. Tomorrow I will see the same spectacle, repeated year after year and each time in a new exciting way: the mighty Cup of Concord, reverently raised hands. Tomorrow is the day of the annual election of the Benefactor. Tomorrow we will again hand over to the Benefactor the keys to the unshakable stronghold of our happiness.” It should be noted that in addition to the direct political regime, Zamyatin also touches on other issues, for example, the issue of revolution. This was one of the key points, taking into account which the work was banned in Russia. It is known that the country was just beginning to recover from the revolution, and any hints about it were harshly suppressed. This was especially true for works of art and journalism, where censorship reigned. From the novel: “Isn’t it clear to you: what you are starting is a revolution? - Yes, a revolution! Why is this absurd? - Ridiculous - because there can be no revolution. Because our revolution was the last. And there can be no more revolutions. Everyone knows this... - My dear, you are a mathematician. So, tell me the last number.- That is?.. What is the last?- Well, the last, the top, the largest.- But, I, this is ridiculous. Since the number of numbers is infinite, what is the last revolution you want? - And what is the last revolution you want?” This dialogue fully characterizes the situation in society at that time. Zamyatin seemed to predict in advance the events of the history of our country.

It is wrong to assume that the novel is exclusively critical; the author focuses on this is not the only thing. He does not stop at the unfounded accusation, he also sees a way out of the situation. In the novel, this is the birth of a child, symbolizing hope for victory over a totalitarian utopia. Translating this from the images and symbols of Zamyatin into a form more familiar to us, this is the birth of a new idea, a new competent ruler, and, accordingly, a new people. The writer sees the danger of the policy of war communism and its consequences, hence such images appear - a totalitarian state, strict control, dictatorship, permanence of the ruler, the danger of revolutions. “We” is a protest. Protest to the existing order, protest to a policy that does not develop, but destroys society.

Novel “We” by E.I. Zamyatin is a work that can be a historical source in which all the characteristics of society are visible. The main thing is to note that society is not shown to us from any one side, but all spheres of human life are affected, be it politics, public life, everyday life, personal relationships. Despite the fact that Zamyatin uses many symbols, various images-coverings, and even despite the fact that the events of the novel take place in the distant future, he describes precisely the era in which he lived, with all its shortcomings, quite harshly criticizing her. That is why the novel can be a historical source, albeit a rather specific one.

By the mid-20s. censorship was introduced, strict ideological control was present in all spheres of life, including culture. Military suppression was abandoned, but repression continued. All this, undoubtedly, was reflected in fiction. It is known that this is why many works were banned, like the novel “We” by Zamyatin. After all, in his novel he completely exposes the current situation in society, this inevitable path to totalitarianism. The work spells out all the prerequisites for this phenomenon, which could, as Zamyatin sees it, come true. That is why the novel “We” can be considered with full confidence as a historical source.

During the study, we can conclude that fiction can be considered as a historical source, but its specific qualities, both positive and negative, must be taken into account. It must be remembered that works, in addition to the historical era, also reflect the subjective opinion of the author. But what is important in the study of fiction is that the reader can observe the emotional side of the described event, which many other written sources cannot convey.

Works of fiction from the early twentieth century as a historical source

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Fiction as a historical source. Source analysis of literary text.

Works of fiction, as an integral part public consciousness, has always acted as the “voice of history.” Its social and moral nuances, content level and themes were often determined by the peculiarities of the philosophical and social thought of the era. That is why the development of the art of speech has at all times been influenced by the most important political events, such as wars, revolutions, popular unrest and other socio-political phenomena. In addition, fiction also reflects the everyday worries and anxieties of representatives of various strata of society. Fiction constantly breaks new ground for understanding historical realities, seeking new opportunities to reflect reality.

As noted by L.N. Gumilev, literary fiction is not a lie, but literary device, which allows the author to convey to the reader the idea for which he undertook his work.” In a work of art, reality is invariably typified, which, according to some researchers, even increases objectivity. New cultural history seeks to comprehend historical phenomena through the ideas of people of the past, through their spiritual life. The historian’s field of activity is expanding, which means that such subjective sources as fiction are becoming more and more in demand.

The final establishment of fiction as a significant historical source occurs only from the end of the 20th century. The original subjectivity of a literary text is perceived as one of the factors shaping the historical and educational value of a work of art, since the reality presented with the help of living images is inevitably typified, thereby increasing the level of objectivity.

Source research consists of two stages:

1. origin analysis ( historical stage), which, in turn, includes the following steps: a) analysis of the historical conditions for the origin of the source; b) analysis of the authorship of the work; c) analysis of the circumstances of the creation of the source; G)
2. analysis of the history of the text of the work; e) analysis of the publication history of the source;
   content analysis (logical stage): a) interpretation of the source; b) analysis of the content of the source.

Using source study methods are called methods of identifying, describing and analyzing historical sources. They vary depending on the tasks assigned to the study; in general, the following can be distinguished: techniques :

• researching the text for the presence of document creators;
• research of historical personalities of the work;
• studying the source of origin of the work - determining the author, his biography, the details of which influenced the writing of the work;
• dating of the source being studied, or the proximity of the date of its creation to the date of the events described in the work.

Among the most important stages of source analysis the following can be distinguished;

• comparison of the information contained in the source with generally known facts, the generally accepted interpretation of the phenomenon or event being studied. The result is that the source is erroneous or that there is a need to clarify the traditional point of view;
• comparison of data from the source being studied with data from other sources. This compares earlier and later evidence;
• comparison of source information with objective circumstances. Determining the truth of the described phenomenon and assessing the conditions in which this phenomenon or event occurred as described in the source;
• assessment of the adequacy and reliability of the naming and titles of the characters;
• assessment of the reliability of such details as details of weapons, clothing, everyday life, culture, etc., their correspondence to the era and time;
• assessment of the degree of documentation of the text;
• identification in the source of information that could not get there due to a discrepancy in the time of its application with the described era or according to geographical criteria;
• determining the degree of originality of the information reported - whether it corresponds to a generally accepted, stereotyped point of view or to real events;
• assessment of the origin of the information contained in the work, the source of its receipt.

Fiction 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, factual material For a historian, incidents alone cannot serve: “...ideas, views, feelings, impressions of people of a certain time are the same facts and very important...”

The author of one of the first Soviet textbooks on 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", a variety of opinions were expressed 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 the ideological life of society."

Through documents, the principle of clarity in teaching history is implemented, when students become familiar with the appearance of documents. The document makes the teacher’s story lively and vivid, and the conclusions more convincing.

The significance of the document is also that it contributes to the concretization of historical material, the creation of vivid images and pictures of the past, and a sense of the spirit of the era. When working with documents, students activate the process of thinking and imagination, which contributes to a more fruitful assimilation of historical knowledge and the development of historical consciousness. Students develop skills independent work: read documents, analyze and extract information, reason, evaluate the meaning of documents of the past and present.

Classification of documents is based on the nature of documentary texts,

two main groups - documents of a narrative, descriptive and actual nature, which at one time had practical significance. These documents complement each other well. Third additional group make up monuments artistic word.

Actual documents are legal, economic, political, programmatic (letters, laws, decrees, petitions, petitions, paintings, contracts, statistical and investigative documents, programs, speeches). Narrative_descriptive documents - chronicles, chronicles, memoirs, letters, travel descriptions. To the monuments of literary history ancient world and the Middle Ages include works of oral folk art(myths, fables, songs, popular expressions). Techniques: During the lesson, work is carried out with written sources both by the teacher in the process of explaining new things, and by students different stages lesson. The teacher gives brief analysis the content and structure of the work, indicates the main ideas, the significance of the document for assessing historical phenomena, dwells on the historical situation, time, circumstances of the appearance of the document. It is advisable to pose preliminary questions about the document and clarify unfamiliar terms and concepts. The teacher includes a document in his story if he conveys the essence of events, wants to increase emotionality in the presentation of the material, if specification of the phenomena and processes being studied is needed, to convincingly characterize a historical figure. The passage included in the explanation should be short, simple and understandable, and easy to understand by ear.

The document is analyzed by commenting on it, in the form of a frontal conversation with the class, in the process of independent work with the source. The most complex and voluminous documents are studied through careful analysis. In the process of working with a document, students analyze it, reproduce individual provisions of the text, identify logically complete parts, highlight the main ideas of each part, and conduct a comparative analysis of documents. During the analysis of the document, dictionary work is carried out.

Hood. Literary

Fiction brought into the lesson helps to concretize historical material and form in students vivid images of the past, which are an integral part of their historical ideas. The teacher uses fragments of works to introduce students to a historical setting or to recreate the color of an era, to give a picture or portrait description.

Classification: 1) literary sources of the era being studied 2) historical fiction. The sources of the era under study include works whose authors are direct witnesses or participants in the events described. They created unique documents of the era that serve to understand the past. These sources are not always clear to students, and only fragments pre-selected by the teacher are used in the lesson. Literary sources include books by M.A. Sholokhov “ Quiet Don" and etc.

2) Historical fiction includes works of art about the era under study, created by writers of a later time. Books of historical fiction that “reconstruct” historical reality are written on the basis of scientific research of the past, the study of historical sources, scientific research and monographs.

Techniques: a deeper study of the work is used to recreate a picture of everyday life and social relations. For example, in the history lessons of the ancient world, Homer's Iliad and Odyssey are studied. The teacher can organically include images from fiction into his presentation, for example, for the purpose of personifying a phenomenon. The teacher can briefly retell a work of art and give a task to clarify the details so that the students are sure to read it. The most common practice in school practice is to quote works of art.

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More on topic 22 The use of historical sources and fiction in teaching history:

1. 2.1. General concept of U.N.T. U.N.T. and its role in the system of education and training. The concept of folklore. The difference between U.N.T. from fiction.
2. Problems of periodization of world history and the history of European and American countries. Functions of historical science. Methods of historical research.