Galina Evgenyevna Lebedeva (10.05.1935-30.10.2021): Byzantine and sources scholar and historiographer of the Russian pre-revolutionary Byzantine studies

The article is a short note about the research methods of Galina Evgenievna Lebedeva, a Soviet and Russian Byzantine scholar, professor at the Department of History of the Middle Ages at St. Petersburg State University, who passed away on October 30, 2021. The author of the article aims to consider the features of the style of Galina Evgenievna’s scientific work: how she worked with sources, how she argued her point of view and how, on the basis of private plots, she revealed new problems of a higher, theoretical level, i.e. problems of methodology of historical science and historiosophy. From the extensive scientific heritage of Galina Evgenievna, the author of the article chose two issues to which she paid primary attention - the role of legal sources, the Codes of Theodosius and Justinian, in the study of early Byzantine society and the development of the church history trend in Russian pre-Revolutionary Byzantine studies. To analyze the works of Galina Evgenievna devoted to this topic, the author of the article turned to studies on the general theory of history and literary criticism published over the past 10-15 years. Based on the principles and criteria proposed in these studies (the works of F. Steiner, St. Jeager, L. Duston), the author tried to highlight the most characteristic features of the scientific method of Galina Evgenievna Lebedeva.