Historiography of studying the liberal parties and their departments on the territory of Belarus at the beginning of the XX century

Abstract

An objective and comprehensive analysis of the course, results, significance and prospects of studying the history of liberal parties and their departments in Belarus at the beginning of the 20th century was carried out. When determining periods in the development of historiography of the study of political parties, pre-revolutionary, Soviet, and modern (or newest) historiography is distinguished. It is concluded that Russian and Belarusian historiography thoroughly, from different conceptual and methodological positions, studied the liberal movement of the early 20th century, noting almost all possible points of view on its role and place in the country’s social and political life. Further prospects for a scientific search on this issue lie on different planes: the identification and study of those factors of the socio-political development of Belarus that made impossible a historical compromise between the authorities and liberals; a more detailed study of political biographies and belief systems of representatives of the liberal movement, not only leaders, which has already been partially done, but also “simple” participants, as well as factors that influenced their worldview; a detailed study of the sociocultural environment in Belarus, in which liberal values were formed. The methodological apparatus of historical research requires updating: the use of macro- and micro-approaches of the new social history, psychohistory, semiotics; research problems must be solved by means borrowed from different fields of knowledge.