Tradice a nové přístupy ke kulturním dějinám v české historické rusistice
Past Tradition and New Approaches to Cultural History in Czech Historical Russian Studies

Summary/Abstract: The aim of this paper is to address the traditions associated with studying cultural history as shaped by Czech Historical Russian studies, and to outline the steps being taken in current research. Its ambition is to point out that the study of cultural history provides an obvious enrichment to the holistic knowledge of the Russian (Soviet) past. This work is conceived as an analytical one with certain elements of synthesis. The defined topic has not been dealt with thus far, and it therefore relies on overviews and analytical probes into past Czech historical Russian studies or possibly Czech historiography as a whole. As regards how, to what extent, and the approaches that may be used to examine cultural history, this paper aims to be a case study and not only outline the state of research in this field, but also the possibilities for expanding knowledge in other areas of historical Russian studies. In order to explain the author’s intentions more clearly, the first part of the paper focuses on the definition of the subject of cultural history. It is primarily based on the standpoint of Peter Burke, a British historian, and his somewhat negativistic formulation of what cultural history is not. He warns about situations, by no means unique ones, where cultural history has been confused with the history of culture. He does not address any Czech studies about the history of culture. Because Czech Historical Russian studies have not yet processed the cultural history of the Russian past in a synthetic manner, the role of this discipline is to draw attention to such works and key individuals, who within their professional historiographical sphere of interest examined the more widely understood non-political level of the Russian past, or at least some of its aspects (but no clearly definable economic, social or legal history, or the history of ideas and ideologies). It is essential to be able to define them as a part of or, at a minimum, a borderline area of cultural history. To clarify the approach, this study mentions in more detail the author’s view of the paradigms of Czech Historical Russian studies and the paradigm of Russia.

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