Historical science, Petersburg school and historian Froyanov. Part 1.

Abstract

This arcticle is devoted to the scientific work of the prominent Russian scholar Igor Iakovlevich Froianov who died last December. He is a brilliant representative of the Petersburg Historical School and in the first place is a well-known specialist in the history of so called Kievan Rus. He created a grand conception of the “obcshinno-vechevaia” civilization of Old Rus. His conception is some kind of a system, because he studied in consecutive order practically all sides of such phenomenon as Kievan Rus: economy, political life, social struggle, culture. His conception appeared in struggle with prevalent soviet vision of this history and at the same time from the very beginning it has been some creative continuation and development of pre-revolution Historiography. He also devoted several interesting and important works to the period of Moscow Rus particularly to the process of formation of Russian monarchy. These works made an excellent foundation for new few of this epoch of Russian history. Froianov’s legacy is divided into two parts: before and after the middle of the 90^th when so called “perestroika” took place in USSR. On the one hand he continued to study the old time. But on the other hand, a number of his later works are devoted to the history of Russian revolution (1917) and just this above-mentioned “perestroika”. These works are closely connects with a publicistic genre which was his new flame in those years. But it is also a certain continuation of his previous works and these works devoted to the same Russian- Orthodox Civilization. 

Keywords:

I. Ya. Froyanov, Kievan Russia, “obcshinno-vechevaia” civilization of Old Rus, Moskow Rus, “Red October”, “submersion in the abyss”