Периодизации Российской истории

Periodisation, by its very nature, reflects historical concepts used by particular historians or historical trends. It also clearly defines the place, significance, and degree of importance of particular periods, events or persons in history. With the aim of being representative, while naturally not claiming to be exhaustive, this article o ers a selection of twelve wellknown overviews by Russian and international academic historians in order to give an idea of the factors determining periodisation and illustrate the opportunities it o ers as well as its contradictions. Given that the reigns of Ivan IV and Peter the Great, the Great Patriotic War, the Tatar invasion, the death of Stalin and the collapse of the USSR were all decisive events for their era, these are included in almost all periodisations. This study shows that by examining the structure, periodisation and terminological tools used in large, general overviews, it is possible to get a picture of the various stages and changes in the development of academic history writing. One thing is certain: while it is unnecessary to mystify certain dates, they can be very useful as signposts through the profusion of events.