A HISTORIOGRAPHICAL ÉTUDE ABOUT MIKHAIL NIKOLAYEVICH MASHKIN

Abstract

The paper analyzes the study of German history, the history of international relations and the historiography of the history of German colonialism in the late 19th to the early 20th centuries in the works of the famous Soviet scientist M. N. Mashkin. The study focuses on the reseracher‘s works and documents stored in the Institute of World History of the Russian Academy of Sciences. They reveal M. N. Mashkin‘s important contribution to the methodology of historiographic analysis. It was based on polemic with the author and profound knowledge of other historians‘ viewpoints. This highlights not only the expert character of the researcher‘s historiographical études, but also their significance for the formation of the scientific tradition in the Russian science. One of the researcher‘s important conceptions washis idea of the crisis and collapse of the Eurocentrism theory. He linked it to the processes of decolonization and rebuilding of international relations in the 20th century. The polemical approach the results of M. N. Mashkin‘s researches remain up-to date in the contemporary historical science, which highlights the importance of more detailed studies of the researcher‘s heritage.