Home – Home – Jornals – Humanitarian sciences in Siberia 2014 number

The importance of local history studies for preservation and reproduction of socio-cultural values actualizes the problem field of methodological and historiographical reflections on studying the native land. Russian local history studies have been thoroughly reviewed in historiography, however the formative stage of the local lore research in Russia and its epistemological foundations remain understudied. On the basis of geo-historical approach the paper analyzes the role of the XVIII century academic expeditions in the development of local history studies in Russia. It also considers ontologically-cognitive strategy of local history research during that period. The need for a comprehensive study of the country impelled the reformer’s genius of Peter the Great to create the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, which became a basis for the new Russian science. Formation of the local history studies in Russia took place in the framework of the principle research project of the academic community - drawing up a general map of the country. The natural history research was focused on the eastern regions (Siberia) to which the Kamchatka expeditions were sent. Monadology of G.V. Leibniz and logical-mathematical principles of Ch. Wolff epistemology presented theoretical and methodological basis of the expeditionary research that implemented the concept of geo-historical study of a particular area, i.e. local history research, in the Eastern peripheral territories. Local geo-historical aspect acquired academic status and nationwide scale due to the second Kamchatka expedition and was manifested in the most complete form in local history studies by G.F. Miller and S.P. Krasheninnikov. Born in the “bowels” of St. Petersburg academic community, the practice of local history research inherited classical scientific and organizational principles of the supreme scientific institution of Russia.