Ролята на личността в историята
The Role of Personality in History

Summary/Abstract: The text begins with the statement that historians since antiquity to the 18th century have considered historical events as the result of the actions of human individuals (“heroes”, “leaders”), followed by the “crowd”. During the 19th century, history began to be written in a different way: it tended to become impersonal, anonymous. There are three reasons for this: first, the changed political conditions (from “objects” “nations” became “subjects”); second, the impact on historical science of the natural and scientific views applied to the doctrine of development in history; third, the importance acquired in life and in scientific thinking by socio-economic relations where superpersonal factors prevailed. During the 19th century history became a science,i.e. a system of concepts. However, a dangerous aspect appeared in that development of historiography. Concepts were hypostasized and declared “more real” than the individual considered to be not a real quantity by some historians. The personality was completely “decomposed” into its “factors”, such as “race”, “environment” and “moment”. Thus a specific historiographical problem arose about the role of personality in history: What is essential in history - the personality or the superpersonal factors? The “heroes” or the “environment”? One answer is that the historical process is necessary and that it develops as it has in fact developed independently of the activities of individuals. The author defends the thesis that “great men” have always existed and will exist and that their role has always been and will be significant whereby the extent of their importance is determined by the degree of their greatness. Their influence is greatest in the “spiritual” culture, to a lesser extent in “politics” and least in the “economy” as a field of human activity

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