Read the text and answer questions. 1. What are the historical patterns of Russian civilization and identity?

2. What is the content of the Eurasian concept of historical development of Russia?

3. Explain the words of V. O. Klyuchevsky: "Russian history – is a history of colonization." The history - is a colossal array of spiritual and moral, cultural and social experiences of humanity accumulated by generations. Taking into account the new realities are changed assessment of the past. Rethinking of history - is a continuous and natural process. «Historia magistra vita est» - the history is a teacher of life, so says the ancient Latin wisdom.
The methodology gives information about means of knowledge of the historical process. To the subject of the history is include of the laws of the historical process and historical development of the peoples. To determine what is needed of history should pay attention to functions (from Lat. functio – work, activity) - them is more than one: cognitive, educational, predictive, ideological and methodological.
In the historical knowledge is used a variety of methods, including: historico-genetical - examines the phenomenon through its origin; historico-comparative - allows to compare the historical phenomena in time and space; historico-typological - is based on classification of the historical events; historico-systemic - any phenomenon considered as a system, i. e., totality of some elements which associated with each other.
The information about the past can be obtained from a historical source - the product which created by human, the product of culture. Historical sources reflect the realities of the time, when it appeared (was created). The historical sources are not always easy to understand. But historical sources are not objective reflectors of events. They give only that information which in they looking for historian. The sources are subjective. There are different ways of grouping of historical sources - by ages, territories, themes, etc. Traditionally their are division by a process of reflection - to written, material, language, etc. They can be classified to types: chronicles, legislative sources, the sources of personal origin - memoirs, diaries, letters, etc. XVIII century - is the emergence of the Russian historical science. At this time is beginning to take shape the direction nobiliary Russian historiography, the founder of which was V. N. Tatishchev. Its distinguishing features were the identification of the country's history with the history of the state and the recognition of the will of the rulers of the driving force of history. In the XIX - early XX centuries formed the bourgeois-liberal direction of Russian historical science (S. M. Solovyov, V. O. Klyuchevsky). Characteristic of it - is identification of the country's history with the history of the people, the problem of historical specificity of Russia.
The issues of social-economic history are interested the representatives of the Soviet historical school (N. M. Pokrovsky, B. D. Grekov). In the first quarter of the twentieth century is a emerged another area in history – eurasianism, which address the problem of identity of Russia and its historical ties with the East (G. V. Vernadsky, L. N. Gumilyov).
Among the different methodological approaches in historical science is distinguished: formational, civilizational and geopolitical. At the moment, the historical science in Russia is undergoing a difficult period of transformation of the main methodological approaches. Older approaches are criticized, but the new are in the process of formation.