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How to study the history of Eastern Europe today? Discussion

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For citation: How to study the history of Eastern Europe today? Discussion, in Studia Slavica et Balcanica Petropolitana. 2020. № 1. Pp. 39-65. DOI https://doi.org/10.21638/spbu19.2020.103

Title of the article How to study the history of Eastern Europe today? Discussion
Authors

Alimov, Denis Evgenyevich — PhD in History, St. Petersburg State University, St. Petersburg, Russia, e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., OrcID 0000-0002-4733-4150;
Churzin, Vyacheslav Vasilyevich — Head of the Cabinet of Humanities, North-Western State Medical University named after I. I. Mechnikova, St. Petersburg, Russia, e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.;
Daniš, Miroslav — Dr. Sc., Professor of General History, Comenius University, Bratislava, Slovakia, e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., OrcID 0000-0003-4090-5579;
Dmitriev, Mikhail Vladimirovich — Dr. Sc. in History, Professor, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia, e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., OrcID 0000-0002-4101-8755, Researcher ID C-5302-2017, SPIN-code 7730-6875;
Filyushkin, Aleksandr Ilyich — Dr. Sc. in History, Professor, St. Petersburg State University, St. Petersburg, Russia, e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., OrcID 0000-0003-2456-7514, Researcher ID F-9139-2013, Scopus ID 55336577600, Spin-code 1117-2468;
Hackmann, Jörg — Dr. phil. habil., Professor, Szczecin University, Szczecin, Poland, e-mail:This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., OrcID: 0000-0002-1765-505X;
Ivonina, Lyudmila Ivanovna — Dr. Sc. in History, Professor, Smolensk State University, Smolensk, Russia, e-mail:This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., OrcID 0000-0002-7230-0518, SPIN-code 8019-3667;
Kuz’min, Andrey Valentinovich — PhD in history, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, Moscow, Russia, e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., OrcI D0000-0002-6699-3573, SPIN-code 7904-7376;
Martyniouk, Aleksey Viktorovich — PhD in History, Head of the Department, Historical and Cultural Heritage of Belarus, National Institute for Higher Education, Minsk, Belarus, e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., OrcID 0000-0002-0549-720X, SPIN-code: 2923-247;
Popović, Mihailo — PhD, Research Fellow, Institute for Medieval Studies, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna, Austria, e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., OrcID 0000-0002-3128-2210;
Selart, Anti — PhD in History, Professor, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia, e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., Reseacher ID H-2825-2012, Scopus ID 38261677500, OrcID 0000-0001-8608-9154.
In the section Disputatio / Discussion
Year 2020 Issue  1 Pages  39-65
Type of article RAR Index UDK; BBK  947.02; 63.3(2)4+63.3(0) Index DOI https://doi.org/10.21638/spbu19.2020.103
Abstract The discussion, devoted to the consideration of the papers of Alexander Filyushkin and Alexey Martyniuk, took part at the special section of the Petersburg Historical Forum. The participants are from Russia, Austria, Slovakia, Estonia, Germany etc. Participants in the discussion highlighted the problematic points in the study of the history of the Eastern European region: the difficulty of defining the geographical and chronological framework, the problems of an established terminology, the break in the historiographic tradition, the need to search for new methodological tools and, at the same time, to verify the correctness of its application. Arguments were expressed both “for” and “against” the proposed thesis of Alexey Martyniuk about the “Byzantinization” of the history of Ancient Russia. Most of the speakers spoke in favor of overcoming the situation of “national fragmentation” of the medieval history of Eastern Europe. The development of that research perspective that would allow us to see the history of this region as the history of a single space, which has its own dynamics, its own “rhythms” and its own characteristics, which are not reducible only to the common history of modern states and nations. The importance of comparative studies was emphasized - the need, when considering the history of Ancient Rus and the Eastern Slavs in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Times, to refer to the experience of studying the history of the southern and western Slavs, Byzantium and the medieval Balkans, the regions of the Baltic and Black Seas and, in the end, not to be afraid the search for typological parallels in “distant lands and eras” ― in the history of Antiquity, the medieval Latin world, classical Western European Modernity. The discussion showed the importance of historians’ reflection on the subject and method of their research, as well as the need for constant professional dialogue between representatives of different national schools and historiographic traditions.
Keywords Old Russia, Eastern European Middle Ages, Byzantium, medieval studies, global history, civilizational approach, regional studies, historiography, methodology, historical memory 
Full text version of the article. Article language  Russian
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Tags: Medieval historiography, Middle Ages, Old Rus, historical memory, memory studies, medieval studies, Byzantium, DISPUTATIO / DISCUSSION, Eastern Europe, Contemporary historian in search of a methodology, global history, Area studies, methodology of history, post-soviet space, regional studies

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