A Modern Domestic View of the “Black Death” and Major Epidemic Outbreaks of the Plague in the Historical Past

Abstract

Research objectives: To analyze the main research trends of the last thirty years in the national historiography on the topic of the Black Death and major epidemic outbreaks of plague in the historical past. Research materials: The historiographic analysis was conducted based on both original domestic studies of the topic and those written in co-authorship with Western colleagues. To outline the main theoretical base of the topic, the author used major works on the historical theory, demography, climatology, paleogenetics, and phylogenetics of the plague bacterium Yersinia pestis. Results and novelty of the research: The analysis showed that until the 1980s, the views of Russian historians on the epidemics of the historical past were based on the study of a major German epidemiologist in the second half of nineteenth century, H. Häser. At the same time, the main directions in the research of domestic historians on the topic were developed within the framework of an order from domestic biologists and epidemiologists. This situation began to change when, in the 1980s, Russian historical research took a course towards geographical determinism. From the second half of the 1990s to the 2000s, in connection with the publications of the American Turkologist U. Schamiloglu and French historians, new topics in the field of anthropology, cultural studies, and historical demography began to be addressed in the research of domestic authors. At the same time, all theoretical considerations continued to be formed within the framework of the Marxist theory of the “crisis of the Middle Ages”. Therefore, the “Black Death” was considered exclusively as a concomitant theme attached to the main events. Only in the 2010s, in the light of the growth of joint research with Western specialists in the field of archaeology, paleogenetics, and climatology was it possible to start moving towards the development of a new theoretical and methodological basis for research on the topic in Russian historiography. The result of this process was the publication of new studies which are likely to determine the predominant course of scientific research in the field of historical epidemiology in Russia in the coming years.