Uprising of Stepan Razin in the works of Russian historians of the 18th — early 20th centuries

The paper considers the pre-revolutionary historiography of the popular protest movement led by Stepan Razin, which was the most important popular anti-government uprising in Russia in the 17th century. Many problems related to that movement remain unresolved or controversial to this day. Their study began in the 18th century in works of the noble historians, writers and public figures including F.I. Soymonov, S.G. Gmelin, A.P. Sumarokov, and M.M. Shcherbatov. It was continued in the works of historians of the 19th — early 20th centuries: A.N. Popov, S.M. Solovyev, N.I. Kostomarov, S.F. Platonov, A.P. Shchapov, and S.I. Porfiryev. The paper analyzes their concepts that are generally unknown to the non-specialists, and makes a conclusion that they are characterized in subjectivity and bias. It notes that almost all the pre-revolutionary historians and writers (excepting A.P. Shchapov) were not hiding their hostility to that popular indignation, which could largely be explained by the authors’ noble origins and corporate solidarity. The paper shows that in general no attempts were made to identify social causes of the uprising. The principle of historical objectivism was not observed. At the same time, a number of interesting assumptions were put forward in works of the pre-revolutionary historians. For example, those assumptions concerned a connection between the Stepan Razin movement and the Schism, which is not losing its relevance at the present time.

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References
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