Criticism of the “Revolution of Slaves” and the Thesis of the Union of the Oppressed Masses of the Roman Empire and the Barbarians According to Soviet Antiquarians and Medievalists (according to the materials of V.T. Sirotenko)

Abstract. Taking into consideration the comprehension of the historiographic phenomenon of the “theory of the slave revolution”, the modern statements have come to the light that have completely different opinions on the subject. It involves identifying the circle of researchers whose efforts have finally taken the “theory of the slave revolution” out of the current research agenda. Another obscure topic consists of the variety of attempts used to determine why the presence of certain elements of the “slave revolution” continued in domestic scientific and educational literature. The purpose of the article relates to comparative study perspectives of the issues of Russian antiquities and medievalists – primarily, V.T. Sirotenko (with whom the author had a privilege to discuss the issue of source-historiographic predicaments of the “theory of slave revolution”). The application of the fundamental regulations and principles necessary when examining the historical science complemented by an anthropological perspective of considering the topic of the «slave revolution» as an embodied historiographic problem. The proceedings of such researchers, for their part, record a qualitative shift, after which in the national historical science there was a rejection of the scheme of “slave revolution”. A separate consideration was put forward on the reasons for the long-term preservation of certain elements of the “theory of the slave revolution” in the historiographical tradition. The article also defines the role and disposition of the views of the medievalist V.T. Sirotenko in relation to both the “slave revolution” itself and the underlying idea of the union of slaves and barbarians.

Keywords: Classics, barbarians, historical concept, Medieval studies, The Roman Empire, slaves, Stalinism in historical science, “theory of the slave revolution”.