Study of Russian-American Relations and the US History in Post-Soviet Russia

Abstract

The article analyzes the state of historical Amerikanistika in Post-Soviet Russia. The best results have been achieved in the study of Russian-American relations as well as the history of the US parties and the US democracy. Serious deficiencies remain in the study of economic and social history. In the study of foreign relations of the 18th–early 20th centuries more attention must be paid to the real place of Russian-American relations in the foreign policy of both Russia and the United States. First and foremost we are talking about the U.S.-Great Britain relations.

Shortcomings in the study of social history, that was typical for the Soviet historiography, have not been overcome. The Soviet historians paid groundless attention to the study of the US labor movement in order to find the “socialist” and “revolutionary” potential of the American working class and to answer the ques- tions why this potential has not been implemented in different historical periods and what mistakes and miscalculations have been made by the American Commu- nists and socialists. In fact throughout the most part of the US history the conflict between the proletariat and the capitalist class did not play any significant role. Only twice—at the turn of the 19th–20th centuries and at the 1930s—this conflict was in the focus of the social relations in the United States. But even then this conflict did not have the antagonistic character. In other epochs of the US history the main social tensions in the USA have been created by other social forces and groups. These social divisions are waiting for more attention of the post-Soviet historical Amerikanistika.