Historical source as a phenomenon of culture and an object of the history of the environment. On the centenary of the birth of professor S. O. Schmidt and professor O. M. Medushevskaya

Abstract

   Professor S. O. Schmidt and professor O. M. Medushevskaya of decade have worked in Russian State University for the Humanities, and earlier at the Moscow State History and Archives Institute. They have made a power­ ful contribution to preparation of several generations of experts in the field of the humanities. Article is devoted to the analysis of views of two scientists, in process of development by them of the previous historiographic experience and supervision over changing scientific reality, on a key problem of humanitarian and natural-science knowledge - a historical source as cultural object and object of history of environment, interaction of the person and the nature in historical movement. From definition of historical sources as the material objects created in the course of human activity, to the serving purposes of historical research, obtaining information on the social phenomena and processes, O. M. Medushevskaya has gradually passed to understanding them as real cultural objects which consider from the subject positions natural and the humanities. The concept of a historical source was formed by S. O. Schmidt under the decisive influence of the historical and philosophical-historical concepts of outstanding Russian scientists of the 19th - early 20th centuries, as well as the latest Western European histori­ ography. The formula “historical source-all that exhales historical information”, opened a way to free understanding of a historical material. Historical sources which are really exhaling information on mankind as parts of the nature, allow to find data and on environment history. The co-evolutionary relations of man and nature create the conditions not only for the preservation of civilization in the conditions of the global ecological crisis, but also for ensuring its overcoming. Sources, as direct evidence of these relationships, form a necessary information resource for research activities in the field of environmental history.