The fall of the roman empire in Russian public thought of XIX century: N. G. Chernyshevsky

This article discusses issues related to the origin and features views of N. G. Chernyshevsky on the causes of the falling of the Western Roman Empire, which had never been the subject of special scientific examining. The author proceeds from the fact that the appearance of the work of the leader of the Russian Sixties «The reasons for the fall of Rome (imitating Montesquieu)» was due not only to the needs of acute ideological-political struggle in Russia in the 50 - 60 of the XIX century, but rather a low level of development of the national historical thoughts on the crisis and the collapse of the Roman Empire. The author concludes that N. G. Chernyshevsky, although not a professional expert on antiquity, however, due to his comprehensive and profound erudition, has managed to create his original concept of the fall of the Roman Empire. Its coherent line was the idea about the decisive role of violent (barbaric) factor in the «suppression» of progressive development of ancient civilization. The article shows the main counterarguments of N. G. Chernyshevsky against widespread among many of his famous contemporaries (F. Guizot, A. I. Herzen, T. N. Granovsky and others) the views of the historical inevitability of death of «the Eternal City».