Abstract: The object of the authors' research is the theory of social progress in the works of such prominent historians as N.I. Kareev, M.M. Kovalevsky and I.V. Luchitsky. To analyze the problem, the comparative method, a systematic approach and the principle of individuality of B. Russell are used in the work. The authors pay special attention to the methodological prerequisites for the rejection by Russian historians of the positions of G.V.F. Hegel for the development of theories of social dynamics and the transition to the foundations of positivism. The article highlights the main theoretical differences between historians of the "Russian School" and other domestic concepts of social progress at the end of the XIX century.   The novelty of the research lies in the fact that the authors of the article clearly show the contradictions in the theories of social progress of representatives of the "Russian School". The article demonstrates that despite the denial of the scientific nature of empirical and metaphysical concepts of historians such as M.N. Petrov and V.I. Guerrier, prominent representatives of the "Russian School" could not refuse the criteria of social development proposed by them. In conclusion, the authors emphasize the importance of the dispute between N.I. Kareev, M.M. Kovalevsky and I.V. Luchitsky about the role of the statistical method, the Marxist approach to history, the relationship between history and sociology for understanding the general and special in their interpretations of social progress.

Keywords: historicism, subjectivism, marxism, theoretical and methodological basis, positivism, progress, Russian school, historiology, eurocentrism, idealism