Birthday anniversary of Alexander S. Lappo-Danilevsky, Russian historian

27 January 1863

15 (27) January, 1863 in the village of Udachnoye, Gulyaypolskaya volost,  Verhnedniprovsk County, Yekaterinoslav province was born Alexander Lappo-Danilevsky, Russian historian, philosopher, sociologist, one of the founders of the methodology of historical science in Russia.

In 1882 Lappo-Danilevsky graduated with honors from the Simferopol gymnasium and was admitted to the History & Philology Faculty of the St. Petersburg University. After defending his master's thesis, "The Organization of direct taxation in the Moscow State from the unrest to the era of reforms", the young investigator stayed at the Department of Russian history in the position of docent to continue his research and teaching.

At the University Lappo-Danilevsky delivered lectures on Russian history and historiography, as well as organized seminars on diplomatics of private acts, theoretical problems of historical source research, philosophical problems of social sciences: "The main problems of social science," "The systematization of social phenomena of different orders," "Practical training in the theory of evolution as applied to social studies and history ","Critical analysis of the main doctrines of fortuity."

In 1894 Lappo-Danilevsky was elected a member of the Archaeography Committee. He devoted much attention to the study of scribal books as historical sources, and was also engaged in the theoretical development of the bases of Russian archaeography.

In 1903 he headed the department of Russian history, the Historical Society of the St. Petersburg University. Three years later, the scientist began lecturing the compulsory course, "The methodology of history" at the University. In 1905, the historian became an ordinary academician of the Academy of Sciences.

Lappo-Danilevsky was the creator of the original concept of the methodology of history - the study of methods to ensure strict scientific character of historical knowledge. The essence of this concept is a kind of interpretation of the object of historical knowledge and the construction of a coherent logical system of methods of its cognition. The researcher interpreted the methodology of history in the broadest sense as the methodology of the humanities.

In the field of historical research Lappo-Danilevsky singled out two major methodological levels - a source study and a historic building. In the first case, a scholar-humanist (not necessarily a historian), referring to the past, "recreated" a source in cultural and historical context of the era. In the second, a holistic reconstruction of the era the source "told" about, was considered.

The methodology of source study occupied a special place in a culturological concept of Lappo-Danilevsky. The scientist regarded the source study as an independent scientific discipline with its own object and method. Defining the subject of source study as a historical source, the historian researched methods of its interpretation. Definite influence on the views of Lappo-Danilevsky had ideas of positivism in the sociology of Auguste Comte. In the early 20th century, influenced by the works of German philosopher and sociologist H. Rickert, he adopted the position of neo-Kantianism and supported the view that historical study of a source should be made by methods of psychological, individualizing interpretation. The scientist believed the penetration into the psychology of the source’s author was essential.

In 1916 Lappo-Danilevsky was unanimously elected president of the first Russian Sociological Society. That same year, historian became an honorary doctor of law at Cambridge University and a member of the International Union of Academies, the chairman of the department of cultural relations of the Russian-British society. In 1917 he was appointed chairman of the Union of Russian archival officials, was a supporter of large-scale reform of archives.

In early 1919, Alexander Lappo-Danilevsky underwent a major surgery and 7 February died in Petrograd.

 

Lit.: Болдырев И. С. А. С. Лаппо-Данилевский // Мысль: журнал Петербургского философского общества. 1922. № 1; Лаппо-Данилевский Л. Д. История русской общественной мысли и культуры XVII–XVIII веков. М., 1920; Он же. Методология истории. М., 2006; Он же. Организации прямого обложения в Московском государстве со времён Смуты до эпохи преобразований. СПб., 1890; Малинов А. В., Погодин С. Н. Александр Лаппо-Данилевский: историк и философ. СПб., 2001; Материалы для биографии А. С. Лаппо-Данилевского, Л., 1929; Пресняков А. Е. А. С. Лаппо-Данилевский. Пг., 1922; Ростовцев Е. А. А. С. Лаппо-Данилевский и петербургская историческая школа. Рязань, 2004 (Сер. «Новейшая Российская история: исследования и документы». Т. 7); Сорокина М. Ю. Академик А. С. Лаппо-Данилевский и его «История политических идей в России в XVIII веке в связи с общим ходом развития ее культуры и политики» // Вестник Российского гуманитарного научного фонда (РГНФ). 2003. № 3. С. 106–117; То же [Электронный ресурс]. URL: http://arran.ru/?q=ru/lappo1; Трапш Н. А. Эволюция научных взглядов А. С. Лаппо-Данилевского и актуальные проблемы отечественной истории XVII-XVIII вв.: дис. ... к. и. н. Ростов-на-Дону, 2001.

 

Based on the Presidential Library’s materials:

Лаппо-Данилевский Александр Сергеевич // Энциклопедический словарь / под ред. проф. И. Е. Андреевского. Т. 17. СПб., 1896;

Лаппо-Данилевский А. С. Очерк внутренней политики императрицы Екатерины II. Пг., 1898;

Лаппо-Данилевский А. С. Очерк и история главнейших разрядов крестьянского населения в России // Крестьянский строй : сб. статей. Т. 1. СПб., 1905. С. 1–156;

Лаппо-Данилевский А. С. Писцовая и Переписная книга XVII века по Нижнему Новгороду изданные Археографической Комиссией. СПб., 1896;

Лаппо-Данилевский А. С. Поверстная и Указная книги Ямского приказа. СПб., 1890 ;

Лаппо-Данилевский А. С. Русская промышленная и торговая компании в первой половине XVIII столетия : исторический очерк. СПб., 1899;

Разыскания по истории прикрепления владельческих крестьян в Московском государстве XVI-XVII вв. : Отзыв А. Лаппо-Данилевского о книге М. Дьяконова «Очерки из истории сельского населения в Московском государстве» (XVI-XVII вв.). СПб., 1898 г. СПб., 1900.