Historiographical Paradigm Research Articles

В.С. Соловьев и современные проблемы историографии и источниковедения русской философии

The article presents answers to the following questions formulated by the editorial board of the journal “Solovyov Studies”: How do you assess the current state of research in this field and, in particular, the heritage of V.S. Solovyov? Is there obvious success in publishing the heritage of Russian philosophers and rather sufficient activity of relevant studies? What are the failures and what, in your opinion, are the reasons for them? In recent years in the community of researchers of the history of Russian philosophy one can hear the opinion that the philosophical heritage of V.S. Solovyov is irrelevant. In your opinion, has Solovyov lost his relevance? What aspects of his philosophical, literary and journalistic legacy have not yet been sufficiently developed, are there prospects for the development of the philosophy of unitotality, or does it belong entirely to history? The significance of V.S. Solovyov's legacy as the first, most developed philosophical system and the relevance of his teachings as the most successful example of philosophical thought in Russian are considered. The contribution of V.S. Solovyov to the development of philosophical terminology in Russia is pointed out. A brief outline of the historiography of Russian philosophy is given. It is noted that there is not a large number of critical editions of the sources of Russian philosophy, that the research of the history of Russian philosophy is not a priority in national science and educational policy, that there is not enough historiographical reflection. Modern researchers of Russian philosophy have not formulated fundamentally new approaches and belong to the same historiographical paradigm as the authors of the early 20th century. The situation can be changed by creating a new historical and philosophical narrative.

Rethinking Technology Transfer in a Colonial Milieu: Railways and Shifting Meanings of Travel in Late Colonial India

ABSTRACT The article reappraises nature of technology transfer in a colonial context by underlining how the colonised mediated and shaped what was ostensibly an imposition by the imperial administration. This wider point is illustrated by demonstrating the ways in which in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, different groups of Indians used newly introduced railways to reconceptualise meanings of travel by adding new categories of travel while significantly modifying the extant ones. Crucially deviating from both ‘technology as imperialism’ and ‘technology as subversion’ historiographical paradigms, this article argues for a more nuanced appraisal of technology transfer, especially emphasising the role of users in shaping the impact of technology. Examining a diverse range of sources, viz., railway records (Annual Railway Reports and railway passenger statistics), newspaper reports and travelogues and pamphlets written by Indian railway travellers, the article claims Indians not only mediated the impact of trains on travel in late colonial India; but they shaped the outcome of this technology transfer in ways that reveals agency and remarkable involvement with a new mode of transit. In short, the article demonstrates dynamic interaction between imperial policies and responses of the colonised through the lens of technology transfer.

Photoplay Music as a Key Source for a New Historiographical Paradigm

Photoplay Music as a Key Source for a New Historiographical Paradigm

The Contribution of Czechoslovakia to Creation of the Independent State of Israel

This article examines the diplomatic relations between Czechoslovakia and the Zionist movement during the late 1940s in regard to Czechoslovakia's contribution to the establishment of the State of Israel in May 1948. The support provided by Czechoslovakia, both diplomatically and militarily, played a pivotal role in the formation of an independent Jewish state. Notably, this assistance continued even after Czechoslovakia underwent a political regime change following the communist coup d'état in February 1948. The article aims to unravel the reasons behind this exceptional cooperation between two seemingly distant actors, both geographically and ideologically. Drawing upon recently disclosed archival collections from the relevant Czech archives and providing the insight to the foreign policy of a Soviet satellite, this research aligns with the historiographic paradigm known as the New Cold War History. By focusing on the contributions of satellite states to Cold War history, it sheds light on Czechoslovakia's significant role in shaping the geopolitical landscape of the Middle East in late 1940s. Even though it might have been a somewhat marginalized story in the later decades of the Cold War due to the affiliation of the two countries with opposite ideological blocs, the history of Czechoslovakia's contribution to the creation of the State of Israel is now recognized as one of the significant narratives in the mutual relations between the two states, demonstrating the importance of past-present linkages.

Esotericism between Europe and East Asia: How the “Esoteric Distinction” Became a Structure in Cross-Cultural Interpretation

Abstract Different understandings of “esoteric” are the main subject and the demarcation line of several fields of study. However, the history of this term is either neglected or distorted by specific historiographical paradigms. Tracing European writings on China and Japan from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries, this article demonstrates that “esoteric” language was central to scholarship on Asia, shaping common terms that remain in use today. By showing how the emergence and development of an “esoteric distinction” between teachings and practices was linked to cross-cultural interpretation and translingual practices, the article argues that this distinction was not a mere projection of European concepts, but rather the result of cultural exchanges that need to be carefully studied on a case-by-case basis within their concrete historical contexts. To better understand the negotiations of what many today would call “esotericism,” a decentered historiography is needed that considers the global history of general terms.

The positivist and Annales schools: an analysis of their complex relationship

Examining and scrutinizing historiographical paradigms are pivotal for the epistemology of historical studies, as fluctuations in the scientific discourse shape and echo through diverse interpretations within this intellectual domain. Hence, this study sought to dissect the intricate interplay between the positivist and Annales schools. This investigation is warranted by its potential to broaden the spectrum of understanding within historical epistemology, facilitated by exhaustive literature reviews and historiographical analyses. Notably, this study challenges the conventional dichotomy that portrays these two schools of thought as inherently antagonistic. The paper posits the following research query to elucidate this nuanced landscape: "To what degree do elements of synergy, antagonism, and rivalry manifest between the Annales school and the positivist school?" The overarching aim of this article was to unpack these multifaceted interactions using a qualitative exploratory approach, an extensive bibliography, and methodological and theoretical standards outlined in the literature by various scholars. A meticulous analysis was undertaken to gain relevant insights contributing to a coherent argument that addresses the central research question.

АРХИВЫ, МУЗЕИ, БИБЛИОТЕКИ КАК СОКРОВИЩНИЦА ДОКУМЕНТАЛЬНОЙ ПАМЯТИ БЕЛОРУССКОГО НАРОДА

The article considers the process of accumulation, recording, keeping and use of the documentary monuments created on the Belarusian land, from ancient times to the present. It is noted that the regulatory and legal framework that existed in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the form of the “archival articles” of statutes, the Sejm resolutions and constitutions contributed to the preservation of documents, primarily of a legal nature. The magnates and gentry of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania took care of their family archives, inviting specialists who were experts in archives to organize them. With the inclusion of the Belarusian lands into the Russian Empire, the local administration was initially indifferent to the preservation of the archives of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, using them only as a means to fight political and ideological opponents. That was particularly evident in the case of the Vilna Museum of Antiquities with the attached Archaeological Commission – the museum suffered detriment as the administration considered its activities to be “polonophile”. One of the reasons for the closure of the museum and the commission in 1864 was the publication of the collections of documents that did not fit into the official historiographical paradigm. On the basis of the museum, the Vilna Public Library, loyal to the administration, was created with the Manuscripts Department, which began to be completed with the documents and materials found both on the territory of the Lithuanian and mainly Belarusian provinces, and it caused an outflow of documentary monuments from the places of their origin. The Vitebsk Scientific Archival Commission, founded in 1909, played a positive role in the collection and preservation of the documentary monuments in the region; the Commission contributed to the formation of the archives, museum and the library, which, after 1917, acquired the status of the institutions of a provincial level. With the creation in 1922 of the archival service of the republic, the formation of a network of state archives, libraries and museums, the issue of distributing archival documents and materials between them acquires particular urgency. It was discussed at the Second Meeting of Archival Workers of Belarus in December 1927, and also at the meeting of the representatives of archival, museum and library institutions in December 1929. Belarusian archivists D.I. Dovgiallo, M.V. Meleshko and others took part in the discussions on the interaction of archives, museums and libraries in collecting and keeping the archival materials. Currently, the republican museums and libraries keep about 10% of the National Archival Funds of Belarus. On April 18, 2022, the Law of the Republic of Belarus “On the Amendments to the Law ‘On Archives and Records Management in the Republic of Belarus’” was adopted, according to which the right to permanently keep the documents of the state part of the National Archival Funds of the Republic of Belarus was only granted to the state archives, while previously, along with archives, museums and libraries had the right to keep such documents. In the context of the “digital revolution” taking place in the world, the issue of interaction between archival, museum and library institutions in the preservation and use of documents and materials is of particular relevance

Ut Poesis Historia? A Computational-Hermeneutic Approach to the Renaissance Art of History

This article aims to reopen discussion of the Renaissance ars historica, a genre that has garnered little attention in modern scholarship. It does so by using a set of computational tools to measure the quantitative occurrence of terms related to artistry and cognition in Johann Wolff's collection of historical-method texts entitled “Artis Historicae Penus” (1579). Like the period's historical writing, which amalgamated aesthetics and historiography, the Renaissance artes historicae belonged to a historiographical paradigm in which the skillful construction of discourse went hand in hand with the search for historical truth. The title of Wolff's anthology accordingly draws an overt connection between the concepts of “ars” and “historia,” yet what did sixteenth-century theorists mean by “art”?

The making of citizenship via tea production: State‐sponsored economic growth, nationalism and state in Turkey

AbstractThe conventional historiographical paradigm depicts the consolidation of nation‐state and nationalism in Turkey as a top‐down political project characterised by the domination of the ‘center’ over the ‘periphery’. In this narrative, the masses are portrayed as either passive recipients or silenced opponents of the nation‐state project. Based on a historical and contemporary analysis of the state‐sponsored tea production in Rize, this article contends that this perspective neglects the agency of the provincial population in the reproduction of the nation‐state and nationalism in Turkey and in influencing the decisions made by the state elite. The economic interventionist measures of the ruling authority to extend its nationalist hegemony across Anatolia also opened a field of action for rural/provincial populations to negotiate their interests with the state and thereby influence its policies. The main contours of this relationship have remained salient during the Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi (AKP) period, and it needs to be taken into account to explain this party's large ideological appeal in the Black Sea region. This argument builds on a fieldwork conducted in Rize that included in‐depth interviews with local tea workers and farmers as well as extensive archival research.

Historiographical Paradigms of Late Antiquity: from Gibbon to the (Old) New late Antiquity

Pese a que Gibbon sigue siendo ampliamente reconocido como un historiador excepcional, además de como un escritor magnífico, pocos historiadores de la Antigüedad tardía comparten hoy el paradigma interpretativo del decline and fall del Imperio romano. Autores como Peter Brown y Henri-Irenée Marrou combatieron con éxito el “prejuicio decadentista” a la hora de abordar el estudio de la Antigüedad tardía. Si tuviéramos que resumir en un solo término el paradigma interpretativo predominante en nuestros días en el estudio de este período, este sería el de “continuidad”: continuidad (en los niveles administrativo, jurídico, cultural, etc.) entre los reinos post-imperiales del Occidente latino y el precedente imperial y continuidad también entre la cultura cristiana (cultura popular y cultura de los Padres de la Iglesia) y la cultura grecorromana.

Ghost of Colonies Past and Present: Spanish Imperialism in the Fiction of Benito Pérez Galdós by Mary L. Coffey

Reviewed by: Ghost of Colonies Past and Present: Spanish Imperialism in the Fiction of Benito Pérez Galdós by Mary L. Coffey Ana Mateos MARY L. COFFEY. Ghost of Colonies Past and Present: Spanish Imperialism in the Fiction of Benito Pérez Galdós. Liverpool, Liverpool University Press, 2020. 344 pp. In Ghosts of Colonies Past and Present, Mary L. Coffey contests the prevailing view that Spain systematically ignored the independence movements of its colonies in continental America until finally forced to acknowledge its diminished role in the new political configuration brought about by the independence of the last remaining overseas territories in 1898. Coffey attributes this opinion in large part to two "dominant explanatory paradigms" in historical studies (23). First, modern academic historiography, which first developed in France and Great Britain, privileged their own imperial histories, and neglected Spain's unique history, something still felt in the so-called imperial turn in today's academic scholarship. Second, guided by traditional historiographical paradigms, scholars have been looking for the wrong types of collective responses to the independence movements and thus have, for the most part, failed to appreciate a collective trauma in the works of nineteenth-century Spain's leading author, Benito Pérez Galdós, one that is of a completely different nature from the "disaster" of 1898 and which "historians might not always recognize" (22). Why should Galdós hold the key to Spain's engagement with its colonial past? Coffey's answer is clear: Galdós is significant not only as a fiction writer but also because his novels played an extraordinarily influential role in constructing modern Spain's national identity. The book offers an impressive and unprecedented journey through Galdós's enormous fictional output, which exhibits the writer's "lifelong engagement with Spain's imperial past" (4), and more specifically, the different forms that this engagement took on, depending on how tumultuous political changes variously affected Galdós's perceptions of the past. Particular attention is given to the writer's early and less studied works since, according to the author, they provide the fundamental framework in which his later fiction addressed Spain's imperial past and present. The six main chapters of the book alternate between general presentations, generally of better-known novels––occasionally, as with the novelas contemporáneas, focusing primarily on previous scholarly interpretations––and original close readings, generally of lesser studied novels. The Introduction, "Managing the Loss of Empire", analyzes the historical complexities and peculiarities of Spain's experience of the "imperial losses" of the 1820s, which not only made Spain the first European power to face the loss of its empire but also, as Coffey maintains, had an intense emotional effect that was felt in a psychologically idiosyncratic way. Coffey supports this central thesis, which draws on a Freudian framework, by appealing to two factors. First, Spaniards largely regarded Americans as part of the same Spanish family and implicitly viewed the wars of independence as "family quarrels." As in family quarrels, the early imperial losses were felt as incredibly profound, but also could not be immediately acknowledged or openly discussed (22). Thus, Coffey's main methodological approach is to look beyond the more immediate national discourse at the surface, on which scholars have traditionally focused, to an underlying imperial theme coded in allegories and metaphors and sometimes [End Page 239] interwoven with the stories of the secondary characters, less visible to the reader. In this coded language that says one thing on the surface but has another meaning at a deeper layer, Galdós found a way of dealing with a pain that was too profound to be directly confronted and accepted. Second, Spaniards did not experience the independence of the American territories immediately, mostly due to the censorship imposed by Fernando VII on news coming from overseas during the 1820s. Spain became aware of those changes after 1833, nine years after the 1824 battle of Ayacucho (37). This belated awareness softened the initial emotional impact of the imperial loss but enabled a decades-long awakening to a new political reality. It is not surprising, then, that fifty years after the Spanish defeat in Ayacucho, Galdós is still...

Studies on World History, International Relations and Foreign Policy of Ukraine at the Institute of History of Ukraine of the NAS of Ukraine: Traditions and Contemporary Development

The article summarises the results of almost 75-year old research activities on world history, international relations and foreign policy of Ukraine by one of the leading departments of the Institute of History of Ukraine of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. The history of structural reorganizations of the institute and department, its staff composition, research problems and innovative manner of many scholarly works of the department in the Soviet period on the history of foreign countries and international relations of Ukraine, despite the political and ideological engagement of historical science in the USSR, are investigated. The author focuses on changes in methodological and historiographical paradigm, in the department's research issues following the crash of Communist regimes in Europe, the collapse of the Soviet Union and the break-up of the socialist camp, the end of the Cold War, Ukraine’s declaration of independence. The paper emphasises that for thirty years of Ukrainian independence the researchers of the Department of the History of International Relations and Foreign Policy of Ukraine have prepared over 100 original scholarly publications (individual and collective monographs, thematic collections of scientific papers, historical chronicles, collections of documents and materials, etc.). These scholarly works are a significant achievement of the department and a substantial contribution to the development of national historiography at the present time. The department’s participation is also crucial in training of highly qualified professionals in world history, as evidenced by the preparation and successful defence of about 50 pre-doctoral dissertations and doctoral theses, as well as in developing international scholarly relations among historians and coordination of scientific activities in Ukraine focusing on world history and international relations

What to expect when expecting: waiting for the Russians in the eighteenth century Ottoman Empire

ABSTRACT This article surveys recent work on oracular prophecies and their role in Greek perceptions of Russia in the early modern period. Drawing on this survey, the article provides a critical assessment of the historiographical paradigm of the ‘Russian Expectation’ offered by Paschalis Kitromilides for the analysis of Greek-Russian relations. Finally, the article proposes that scholars should focus on the concept of protection as an aspect of political language, this providing an explanation for particular Greek and also Russian interpretations of the Treaty of Kuçuk-Kaynardja of 1774.

On Second Thought

On Second Thought

Economic history into the perspective of economic thought and historiography: Between the Symplegade Manolis Manioudis

The relation between economic theory and history, as is crystallised in the history of economic thought, determined the evolution of economic history proper. The twin events of the Marginalist Revolution and the Methodenstreit were crucial in exiling history from economic theory. Moreover, the dominance of the narrative historiographical paradigm in historiography, till the first decades of the twentieth century, determined the absence of theory from economic history. This twofold hiatus is decisive in the short history of economic history. This paper attempts to delineate this gap by showing that an organic symphysis between economic theory and history is indispensable in the understanding economic phenomena.

CHRISTIAN CLERGY IN THE UKRAINIAN NATIONAL REVIVAL OF THE SECOND HALF OF THE XIXth – THE FIRST THIRD OF THE XXth CENTURY: MODERN HISTORIOGRAPHY

The purpose of the research – to represent and analyze the latest studies on the history of cultural, educational, social and national organizing activities of the clergy during the period of the Ukrainian national and cultural revival of the second half of the XIXth – the first third of the XXth century. First of all, attention is paid to the coverage of the content of scientific works dedicated to the elucidation of the Orthodox, Greek-Catholic and Protestant clergy's contribution to the rise of the Ukrainian national movement and spiritual, religious revival. The study is based on a civilizational and socio-cultural methodology, a systematic scientific and conceptual approach to a historiographical analysis, the tools of which made it possible to achieve the priorities of scientificity and objectivity in the coverage of the historiographical facts, historicism and continuity in the formation of a historiographical narrative, interdisciplinarity and integration of historiographical conclusions. The scientific provisions are based on the principles of a confessional neutrality and worldview pluralism. The research methodology is inspired by the interpretation objectives of the historians' scientific achievements in analyzing the interactions of religious, ecclesiastical and cultural educational activities of the clergy of different denominations, clarification of their contribution to the spiritual revival of the Ukrainians. The scientific novelty of the presented study consists in the actualization, systematization and analysis of the latest historical researches, which deal with the cultural, educational activities of the clergy during the period of the Ukrainian national revival. To systematize the relevant historiographical narrative the thematic metaphorical concept of “Department of Historiography” has been introduced; the heuristic potential of modern historical studies for confessionally neutral and scientific interpretation of the place and role of the clerical factor in the Ukrainian national history has been considered. The Conclusions. In modern historiography the idea is traced that the religious, ecclesiastical and cultural educational activities of the clergy played an important role in the development and rise of the Ukrainian national movement during the second half of the ХІХth – the first third of the ХХth century. The process analysis of knowledge accumulation on the history of the clergy illustrates the following: historians focus on the study of cultural, educational, social work of the Orthodox, the Greek-Catholic and the Protestant clergy. It is on the basis of this principle that the historians are united into three so-called “Departments of Historiography”. The historians consider the social mission of the Orthodox priests in a dualistic way, noting both their commitment to the Russian hierarchy as well as the national aspirations of some Orthodox priests to fight for the autocephaly of the Ukrainian Orthodoxy. The historians analyze the activities of the Greek-Catholic priests in the context of their orientation to an active socio-political activity, emphasizing the Ukrainian priorities of their ecclesiastical and national identity. Instead, the historians elucidate the initiatives of the Protestants in the context of the new socio-economic realities of the imperial era (ethics of capitalism), emphasizing the significant contribution of the Protestant pastors to the development of interreligious relations in Ukraine during the period under analysis. A positive feature of a modern historiography is the erosion of the Soviet atheistic historiographical paradigm and historians' refusal from the one-sided reception of the historical process. The fact is also important that the vast majority of historians, who specialized in religion and church, did not mechanically change their atheistic approach to a confessional one, but they still adhere to a rationalist research paradigm, forming scientific postulates on the priorities of scientificity, objectivity and a confessional neutrality

"Documentalism" of the "Long 1980s" Poster as a Visual Historical Source: "Artistic" and "Non‑Artistic" Forms

The article studies posters of the late 1980s – early 1990s (the so‑called period of the “long 1980s”) as a visual historical source. In analyzing the problem, the author points out that the illustrative model dominates among the visual representation models of the history at that time. In the historical and cultural focus, it is a parallel story that has no narrative tasks of its own and acts as a visual “animator” of the text. Its characteristic features are low representativeness and “closeness” of visual ideas. As a consequence, the text replaces the meaning and significance of the poster’s illustrative material. The poster becomes a starting point for creating parallel text that does not consider its artistic basis and principles. Pseudo‑text provokes the artificiality of the visual in relation to the text. During this period, the attitude towards the poster as a “silent” source is established. Historians are practically not interested in the artistic nature of the poster, since it does not become an object of analysis. This method is generally common in the traditional historiography of the second half of the twentieth century. The facts established on the basis of a documentary “trace” are interpreted as self‑sufficient (that is they do not require an artistic imperative). Such practice downgrades the documentary status of visual historical sources within the framework of historical analysis. The author is considering some new models for the analysis of the visual historical source that are oriented towards the historiographical paradigm of poster research. The present study analyzes the poster as a source of interpretation of events. Thus, the meaning of a visual document has several levels: 1) the level of fact (it indicates the existence of a certain segment of reality); 2) the level of context (it describes reality through facts, events and phenomena); 3) the level of interpretation (it gives an assessment to the events and expresses a certain attitude towards them).

The Cistercian Mission in Transylvania

Abstract Just before 1200 and just after 1240 two Cistercian abbeys, first a male house at Cârța, not far from Sibiu (Sancta Maria in Kerz), and then a nunnery in Brașov (Sancta Katherina), were established in Transylvania, a borderland of the territories ruled by the Hungarian crown inhabited by Eastern-rite Christians, especially Romanians. Conventionally, often following the model of older historiography on Frankish Greece, modern scholars have understood the arrival of the Cistercian Order in this remote area as an effort at conversion initiated by the papal see. Reassessing older evidence within a new historiographical paradigm and adding newly discovered documentary sources, this paper argues instead that the Cistercian mission in Transylvania was tied to local factors, cultural, social, and economic, and thus the White Monks endured as long as their cooperation with the elite of the German colonists in southern Transylvania remained fruitful. In the light of the evidence, and similar to parallel developments in Frankish Greece, neither ethnic conflict nor a desire to convert non-Latins played a determining role in the historical evolution of the Cistercian presence in Transylvania.

The Russian Holy Synod and the Greeks

Abstract The article first surveys Greek interpretations of the creation of the Russian Holy Synod by Peter the Great. It provides a critical assessment of the historiographical paradigm offered by N.F. Kapterev for the analysis of Greek-Russian relations in the early modern period. Finally, it proposes that scholars should focus on a Greek history of Greek-Russian relations as a complement and possibly corrective to the Kapterev paradigm.

Geoff Eley: sociedad, política e ideología en la historiografía alemana (1974-1984)

Este trabajo aborda la trayectoria intelectual del historiador británico Geoff Eley para dar cuenta de los debates contemporáneos de los historiadores sobre su disciplina. Hace hincapié en la etapa en que éste ingresó al campo historiográfico analizando su práctica y experiencia como historiador del pasado alemán. Para ello toma en consideración sus producciones iniciales, desde la tesis doctoral presentada en 1974 –todavía hoy inédita-, pasando por la serie de artículos críticos aparecidos en revistas especializadas durante la segunda mitad de esa década, hasta su opera prima publicada en 1980 y ampliada en la edición inglesa de 1984. Este estudio de caso permite considerar de primera mano el modo en que un historiador en formación afrontó los problemas de la historia social, en el plano conceptual tanto como en el metodológico, en momentos en que ésta se consolidaba como nuevo paradigma historiográfico en los países occidentales. Nuestra hipótesis es que a consecuencia del doble frente de sus «batallas por la historia», de un lado con la nueva ortodoxia post-Fischer en Alemania Occidental y del otro al interior de la variada tradición marxista (en especial británica), su consolidación en los medios académicos a fines de la década de 1970 se dio no ya en tanto «historiador social» sino como temprano mediador entre una historia social en crisis y una historia cultural que emergía incipientemente.