Sentence role in the historical discourse of the “Concise Russian church history” of metropolitan Platon (Levshin)

Introduction. The article deals with the problem of emergence of analytical conclusions in Russian historical science at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. Based on the historiographical analysis of the text of “Concise Russian Church History” of Metropolitan Platon (Levshin) the author makes an attempt to demonstrate that scientific analytics is formed in the historical discourse through authors sentence, the deductive excursus created by the author in the process of making a text and providing the discovery of the pragmatic sense of the narrative. On the basis of the purpose of sentence in general text linguistics, the author makes an assumption that such a sentential generalization finds its way into the historical work of Metropolitan Platon through the orthodox homiletics, making the structure of authors narrative similar in a sense and purpose to a sermon. Methods. The research is based on the hermeneutic research method supplemented by the comparative historical and linguistic methods of text research. Applying the historiographical methods results in analyzing the sense and purpose of sentences in the text of historical composition of Metropolitan Platon. Analysis. The article describes a number of coincidences of some sentential generalizations suggested by Metropolitan Platon with sentences included in Karamzins “History of Russian State”. In particular, the researcher remarks the meaning coincidences of authors sentences in evaluating Russian paganism as well as in characterizing Russian society shortly before and after the Mongol-Tatar invasion. He emphasizes some differences in using authors sentences in these texts, analyses the reasons of these differences, finds out a place of sentences in every composition. Results. Finally, the researcher makes a conclusion that in spite of any differences in using sentential generalizations, in these compositions of Platon and Karamzin they form a summarizing part of their historical discourse as an inherent side of their writing styles in presenting historical material. Such a sentence becomes the first step in the formation of scientific analytics, allowing historians of the early 19th century to rise above information of the source, divide information flows, instill scientific discoursivity to the narrative, give conceptual importance to authors conclusions.