The historian usually deals with the phenomena of the past, as a result of which he does not have the opportunity to directly observe their progress. Nevertheless, research should be carried out objectively, impartially, without a market approach to their assessment. This can only be achieved through careful work with historical sources.
General information
Even at school, students pick up some historical sources (grade 5). According to the program, children are given some initial information on the subject in question. The study of historical sources involves not only acquaintance with them. During the learning process, students evaluate, compare information received from different authors.
Terminology
According to Klyuchevsky, historical sources represent a certain category of monuments. They reflect the dying life of entire societies and individuals. Thanks to this or that information, history is supplemented. Historical sources can reflect the process of formation and development of society. According to the definition that Tikhomirov gives, it can be said that information that has come down in one form or another is a remnant of life in the past. According to one of the scientific interpretations, historical sources contain information about real phenomena in public life and human activity that occurred in previous centuries. Combining the above definitions, we can make up a general concept. The historical sources of Russia are objects of culture and documents that directly reflect the processes of the past. They recorded accomplished events and certain facts. Next, consider what historical sources are.
Varieties
The study of historical sources is carried out in the framework of a special science. Discipline also explores techniques for their identification, provides an assessment. This science is called "source study." Within the discipline, several categories of information are distinguished. The following types of historical sources exist:
- Ethnographic.
- Background and photo documents.
- Real.
- Written.
These are the main historical sources. They most readily reflect past events. Speaking of what historical sources are, mention should be made of visual and behavioral varieties.
Material objects
The classification of historical sources was presented above. Depending on the category to which this or that subject belongs, the method of its research is also chosen. For example, work with historical sources of material form is carried out within the framework of a science such as archeology. This category includes any objects of the past, utensils, household items, handicrafts, tools, clothing, jewelry, treasures, burials, coins and more. It should also be said that archeology explores other types of historical sources. These include, in particular, photo and ordinary documents. Analysis of the historical source allows you to restore one or another period of the past of humanity. Exploring the information, specialists reconstruct the socio-economic development of society.
Old Russian written historical source
Literary monuments of a particular era belong to this category. An example is birch bark letters. Among the documents found in Smolensk, Nizhny Novgorod, Pskov and other cities there are letters of administrative nature from feudal lords to dependent people, complaints from peasants, reports written by village elders, usurious and household records, draft wills. Also among the found papers there are messages of military and political content, judicial provisions, student exercises.
One of the main documents of the past
The above classification of historical sources is considered common. Each category has its own subgroups. So, not only birch-bark letters, but also annals are referred to written sources. The latter are considered one of the main documents of the past. Considering the ancient Russian written historical source, it should be said that reliable information about the life of people of previous centuries has been preserved in it. The works have a text structure, presented in the form of a statement of events by year.
Writing in Russia was preceded by oral creativity. Its keeper was the people themselves. The first chroniclers who appeared in Russia were able to collect information about the past over several centuries. As a result, they recreated the previous chronology of events. The ancient Russian historical source contains information about campaigns, the foundation of cities, and agreements. The works give real characteristics to the princes, tells about the resettlement of tribes. Knowledge was passed down from generation to generation. Carrying out the analysis of the historical source, the researchers concluded that the authors drew all the information from folklore. And this is understandable. Traditions, songs, legends, fairy tales were the great unwritten history of Ancient Russia.
Old Russian annals as a historical source
In documents that have survived to this day, numerous remains of legends, songs and legends have been preserved. Using them, the scribes of Ancient Russia made up for the lack of material on the history of their land. It was folklore that became the basis for restoring the chronology of past events. The oral creativity consisted of the self-consciousness of the people, which allowed the chronicle to grow and develop. Centuries adjacent directly to the activities of the first authors of the 9th and 10th centuries gave much more material borrowed from folklore than the previous ones.
Knowledge base
It is easy to distinguish the main types of works that were used in compiling the weather description. One of the main were numerous legends. These works were associated with cities, villages, burial grounds, tracts spread throughout the Russian plain. It is characteristic that the earliest memories are very closely related to the pre-Christian, pagan cult of the ancestors. However, the closer to the authors' lifetime, the more clearly historical information is traced and the interest in the past of the country is more clearly distinguished. The self-consciousness of the people becomes more intense and is introduced into the chronological framework.
Form of works
The type and nature of the vaults in which the old Russian written source was clothed had their own characteristics. The form of the vaults, in particular, was closely connected with the consciousness of the authors themselves. Medieval works were compiled mainly to preserve the source text as a base in a new document. Readers in those days were not interested in the realism of the image, but in reality itself. They were attracted by events and documentary records. Along with this, the reader often took for reality stories about miracles, phenomena, signs and other phenomena.
Presentation Features
Old Russian historians gave new copyright texts about contemporary events for them. The narration was about the phenomena by which the author was a witness. The works were constantly supplemented, new entries were added to the text. Until the sixteenth century, history did not contain complete periods - it continued until the time in which the chronicler lived. Each author sought to bring the work to the "prince of the present." The final entries contained particularly valuable material. In them, the author did not write excerpts from previous works, but expressed his own thoughts. That is why the old Russian written historical source actually has no completion. The end of the work has always been somehow elusive, smoothly passing into the present. The continuation of history, the “living result" can be defined as a kind of perception, which affected the form of arches. This transition from the past to the present was a combination of old, documentary valuable material and new records to events contemporary to the author.
Writing Descriptions
The authors, creating the works, took care mainly that the works of their predecessors fell into their hands. Of great importance for them were various historical documents. These, in particular, included messages, treaties, princely wills, the lives of saints, novels, and more. After all the available material was collected, in some cases very diverse and numerous, and sometimes two or three works, the author made a weather description. Annals connected year to year. However, the author sought to avoid repetition. He placed the exposition under the year of his residence, the life of a saint under the date of his death. In the materials there could be a historical story, capturing several years. In this case, the author broke it into periods, placing each under a certain year. Such a construction enabled the chronicler to make changes in each described year.
This work cannot be called mechanical. In some cases, the author had to eliminate the contradictions encountered, conduct rather complicated chronological studies to accurately place information over the years. The chronicler could miss any events, for example, based on his political views, or made a selection of news. In some works you can find brief comments by the compiler. But along with this, the author did not come up with anything new. Upon completion of the work of the clerk, the chronicler proceeded to describe the events contemporary to him.
Class painting works
The Old Russian written historical source is not only a collection of past narrations. The works reflected a variety of ideologies. From the very beginning of their existence, the annals received a class coloring of a certain nature. The work was in some ways a monument. The document was compiled in the upper layers of ancient Russian society, mainly in circles close to the prince. In this regard, the central figures in the works were large feudal lords: bishops and princes. The chronicler constantly turns his attention towards the upper classes of society.
Lavrentievsky description
This chronicle dates from 1377. The monk Lavrentiy and some other authors participated in its compilation. The work is presented in the form of parchment manuscript. It contains a copy of the vault dated 1305. Under the guidance of a monk, a group of scribes in 1377 compiled this work on the instructions of Prince Dmitry (Suzdal-Nizhny Novgorod). The text begins with "The Tale of Bygone Years" and ends with 1305. Moreover, the work does not contain events of some years. The codex of 1305 contained information about events that took place during the period when Mikhail Yaroslavovich was the Grand Prince of Vladimir. It was based on the narrative of 1281, supplemented by 1282. The Lavrentievsky Chronicle was compiled in the Annunciation Monastery of Nizhny Novgorod or in the Vladimir Christmas Parish. In 1792, it was acquired by A.I. Musin-Pushkin and subsequently presented to Alexander the First. Later, the manuscript was transferred to the Public Library (today named after Saltykov-Shchedrin). There it is stored to this day.
Ipatiev arch
This manuscript is considered the oldest monument, one of the earliest chronicles. The vault received its name at the location of the list in Kostroma, in the Ipatiev Monastery. The manuscript consists of three parts. The first is the "Tale of Bygone Years", the second is the Kiev Annals of the late XII century, and the third contains mainly Galician-Volyn narratives. The Ipatiev Arch is considered a most valuable work, which contains descriptions of events in the southwestern part of the country at the end of the 13th century. A distinctive feature of the annals is the secular style of some stories. Many Galician-Volhynian narratives are characterized by a bright, figurative language, thanks to which the code can be raised to the level of a poetic work.
Novgorod I tale
This chronicle is considered the most important source telling about the socio-political history of Russians, and in particular, the Novgorod lands of the 11-17th centuries. This vault influenced the all-Russian tales of the second half of the XV and the beginning of the XVI century On the whole, the ideology of the ruling strata of society was expressed in the works. However, Novgorod authors often sided with the working people. Very interesting entries on the period of the formation of a single Russian state. They allow you to supplement and clarify the information of Tver, Moscow and other authors. Novgorod annals in publications are conventionally designated with five numbers. The oldest part is the First Code. It sets out the events brought to the thirties of the 14th century. The collection contains the Russian Truth in a short edition and a legal collection, which contains several legislative monuments. The annals predominantly contain records from the second decade of the 12th century. The significance of the Novgorod I Code is disclosed in the writings of Shakhmatov. In the course of research it was revealed that in the early works was reflected the Initial Code at the end of the XI century. He preceded the "Tale of Bygone Years."
The meaning of the vaults
It should be noted that even now the chronicle does not lose its not only historical and cognitive, but also educational meaning. The vaults continue to teach deep respect for the glorious past of the people. The chronicle today contributes to the education of patriotic noble ideas.
Other documents
Considering the historical sources of Russia, one cannot but say about the recollections of foreigners who had to visit Russian land. It should be noted that the first and rather large scientific work of Klyuchevsky was the dissertation on the legends of foreigners about the state of Moscow. This work was published as a monograph. Written historical sources should also include legislative acts, state documents, judicial investigative and statistical materials, international agreements. Researchers have gathered the most important information about past events from private e-mail messages and diaries. In later periods, the group of written sources began to include transcripts of meetings of senior officials of political parties and social movements, brochures, programs, memoirs, leaflets, periodicals (magazines and newspapers) and other documents.
The purpose of the study of information
Collections of large-volume documents on the activities of municipal and state institutions and various public organizations and individuals are concentrated in archives. They provide the acquisition, storage and further use of information. The integrated use of all historical sources enables researchers to reconstruct past events as objectively as possible.
Monuments of spiritual and material culture
Ethnographic sources include elements of traditional, everyday life and everyday life of the people. This category includes, in particular, tools, tools, devices for agriculture, pottery, dishes, housing, furniture and furnishings, food, and folk toys. This also includes farm buildings, clothes and fabrics, including a national costume, ornament, embroidery and so on. The category of ethnographic sources also includes the phenomena of folk spiritual life. These include family and calendar rituals, traditions, folk beliefs, folklore, genres and forms of national songs, dances, proverbs, tales, legends, riddles, plots, traditions.
Other monuments of the past
Fine sources include certain works of art, including cave paintings, individual objects and collections of paintings, sculptures, and graphics. The group of behavioral sources includes ceremonies (military, labor, holiday and others), fashion, customs, elements of prestige.
New documentation methods
These methods of collecting and storing information are quite widespread. New methods have appeared as a result of scientific discoveries, the development of technology, inventions, various studies. These documentary sources include, for example, film, audio, and photo materials. Such methods of collecting information are called audiovisual. They contain information for the reproduction of which the corresponding equipment is required. , . , , , . -, -, - . .