The New History of Nations and States of the Central and Eastern Europe in Historiography at the End of 20th – the Beginning of 21st Centuries: Between Traditional and Postmodern Interpretation

Abstract

The paper deals with one of the most important problems of the historiography of the Modern Period of the Central and Southern-Eastern Europe, especially such countries as Belorussia, Lithuania, Russia and Ukraine in compare with modern Polish historiography and main tendencies of historical studies in the Western Europe and the USA. Resting on the grounds of the common theory of principles of history, the author opposes the “traditional” methodology to the postmodern one. Remaining a follower of the traditional History he admits some achievements of the postmodern historiography that embraces the new challenges as well as deepen and widen some traditional topics. Postmodern methodology has helped countries of the Central and Eastern Europe to overcome the dogmatic legacy of the Communist ideology, although this task remains topical. By analyzing the modern historiography of the post-Soviet countries of the Eastern Europe the author concludes, that the latter, on the one hand, develops within the frameworks of traditional History, but on the other hand, being affected by postmodern methodology, it integrates into the general world system of historical studies.