Vasil Kluchevsky Sociology of History: Sociological Heritage

Abstract

The scientific heritage of the outstanding Russian historian Vasily Klyuchevskiy is analyzed in the article. The particular historical views of this scholar are determined. The attention is focused on the fact that, based on the understanding of the historical process as a process of «development of the person and the human community», V. Klyuchevskiy finds the need to develop such a branch of scientific knowledge as «sociology of history» or «historical sociology». It is noted that the scholar paid special attention to studying of local history, which, in his view, allows better understanding of the differences between different peoples. The conceptual provisions of the creative heritage of V. Klyuchevskiy about mental differences of inhabitants of Southern Russia (Ukraine) and North Russia (Muscovy), which, as is proved by the historian, were inherent to them in the days of ancient Russia are given. It is underlined that V. Klyuchevskiy urged historians to the sociological view of society, in particular in relation to the multifactor conditionality of social life in its historical perspective.