REGARDING THE PROBLEM OF SCIENTIFIC DISCIPLINE: “HISTORICAL DOCUMENTOLOGY”

Abstract

In a the theoretical article by the famous Russian historian, documentologist and archivist V. P. Kozlov, a new complex scientific discipline “historical documentology” is proposed as an integrated knowledge of a document developed within the framework of documentary studies, archival studies, documentary editorial studies (archeography), and documentary source studies. The object, subject, principles, methods and objectives of this discipline are considered. The author of the article seeks to show that historical documentology brings together four “lives” of a document: as a regulator of human activity, in an archive, in a documentary publication, and in a documentary source study. As a result of such integration, new opportunities open up to approach the understanding of the document not only as a special information product, but also as a unique civilizational phenomenon. The author explains the property of remembering of what is happening which is inherent to the document, substantiates the fundamental approaches associated with the formation, ordering, and translation of documentary historical memory as a set of an infinite number of messages (evidence) of the document. The author also considers the peculiarity of the archive that stores documents as one of the depositories of historical memory, which is not only an institution, but also an information system with primary and secondary documentary information, a system ultimately aimed at ensuring both the eternal preservation of documentary historical memory and its publicity.