The Foreign Historical Thought and the Historiographical Realities

The article deals with the problems related to the nature and significance of the impact exerted by the foreign historical thought on the historiographical process in Russia. The perception of the ideas that emerged in the Western European historical studies was not a simple matter. The desire and will were not enough. There was a necessity for a more extensive and free system of thinking, the removal of ideological prohibitions and restrictions from the sources, the advanced ability to conduct a scientific dialogue, the emergence of a new "population" of historians capable of thinking in contrast to the established tradition, and the development of an international system of scientific communication (international scientific conferences, system of grants, etc.). Today, when the community of Russian historians reaches a new level of understanding of the basic theoretical and methodological problems, it is especially important for the hard won surveys of the recent decades not to lead to the formation of new labyrinths, and, what even worse, dead ends. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n5s1p50