Левек

In the article deals with socio-political views of one of brightest representatives of the French Enlightenment era, the historian of Russia P.-Sh. Leveque. The great interest is the analysis of the views by Leveque on the most urgent problems of state and public arrangement of Russia of the XVIIIth century: the reign of Peter I and Catherine II. In considering the topic judgments of the French historian with the ideals of the one of the leading philosophers of the Enlightenment era, D. Diderot were compared.

The article is focused on the views of the French historians of the second half of the XVIII century, Pierre-Charles Levesque and Nicolas-Gabriel Leclerc, concerning the problems of the origin and dispersion of the Slavs. The matters in point are placed in the context of the Russian and French historiography, as well as the general perception of the ancient Russian history by foreign authors, which makes it possible to have a new look at the subjects studied.