Gurevich, P. S. Spiritual Experience of the Nation

Abstract: A hundred years ago positivism ruled in the science of history. Followers of positivism believed that elements of the truth could be easily found in concrete sources and described facts about the past life. But is it actually the only way to discover the order of events in history? Positivists denied all other approaches. They believed that first historians had to discover as many facts as possible, search for different sources, if possible, and only then build the cause-and-reason relations that could help to describe laws of historical development. The book ‘Selected publications 70’ by a famous expert in Russian philosophy, history and culture Mikhail Gromov is some kind of a self-report devoted to Gromov’s 70th birthday. The book is full of facts about Russian history. But there is no positivistic manner to collect particular details, events and dates there. Even though Mikhail Gromov is a true historian, he is also a philosopher so the question about research methods appears in the very first paragraph of his book. Based on Mikhail Gromov, Russian philosophy can be viewed using different research methods while none of these methods can be the only ‘correct’ one. Yet, altogether these methods reveal a perspective for creation of broad and adequate understanding of the historical process.

Keywords: