From background of historical anthropology formation in Russia: contribution of history of mentalities

The way of historical and anthropological formation research in Russia is retraced in the article. In Russian historiography, there is often a sign of equality between historical anthropology and the history of mentalities, although not all researchers support this view. First of all, the short description of mentalities history at the French historical school of "Annals" is given, it is conventional considered as the leader of this scientific direction. The main directions of this school is given. The creativity of the Russian scientists whose scientific interests had anyway something in common with the history of mentalities, the most known direction of historical and anthropological research in Russia is considered. The place of the history of mentalities in humanitarian research in the USSR is defined. The works of the Russian historian A. Ya. Gurevich whose success of works have caused popularity of mentalities history in Russia are considered in details. Mentalities - social mental sets and habits of one welfare community representatives’ consciousness - and their studying, according to A.Ya. Gurevich, has to be not only a starting point of any research, but also a method of studying both: culture and other aspects of history. At the modern stage the historical anthropology can be considered as continuation of mentalities history together with other directions, for example, by microhistory, history of daily life, political anthropology.