Jules Michelet, whose texts are distinguished by a pronounced authorialism, determined many key milestones in the scientific biography of Roland Barthes, who declared “the death of the author” as a scholarly concept. The analysis of Barthes’s texts gives grounds to find traces of the author’s presence, though in a completely different way than in Michelet’s works. These similarities and diff erences between the French semiotician and the French historian become more evident if we imagine that Barthes made the full circle in his perception of the stylistics of Michelet’s historical works. At the beginning of his career, Barthes enthusiastically welcomed Michelet’s clearly expressed and even deliberately demonstrative authorial position. He saw Michelet not as an academic scholar, but as an author of a passionate and psychologically intense narrative. In Barthes’s thought, this was the manner best suited to the description of the past. The high degree of emotionality and extreme subjectivity of evaluations formed a rich set of interpretations. Barthes regarded this methodology as the most fundamental approach to the historical material. The next step in his perception of Michelet was done after the emergence of the concept of “the death of the author”. He saw Michelet’s views and style as archaic, outmoded and inadequate to the modern discourse. However, this unexpectedly harsh attitude to his former idol is not as straightforward and unequivocal for Barthes as it might seem at first glance. By stating Michelet’s irrelevance, Barthes simultaneously rediscovers him for the era of new humanities knowledge, which is proclaimed within the framework of the structuralist approach in the West. Barthes regards Michelet’s authorialism as one of the possible signifiers interpreting history as a signified. In this case, the richness of historical facts creates virtually limitless space for unlimited semiosis, which was in line with Barthes’s semiology.

The article explores the history of the Department of Foreign Languages in the Faculty of History of Lomonosov Moscow State University. This history is presented within the broader context of foreign language instruction at Moscow University, which began with the university’s foundation. Initially introduced as an auxiliary academic subject, foreign languages gradually gained the significant role they hold today, particularly in the Faculty of History. A period of almost 200 years elapsed between the initial appointment of foreign language instructors, who included historians, and the establishment of dedicated foreign language departments at the university. The establishment of the Department of Foreign Languages in the Faculty of History in 1965 was a response to the necessity for foreign language training to be incorporated into the broader framework of university-level historical education. The seminal contributions of E.A. Bondi to the realm of professional foreign language training for history students have been instrumental in establishing a paradigm shift towards an organic unity of foreign language teaching and history. The leadership of the department by S.G. Ter-Minasova signifies a new phase of productive activity in the theory and practice of teaching professionally oriented foreign languages to students of history and art history. The department makes a significant contribution to the education of students receiving a historical education with a high level of foreign language proficiency. The primary focus of its work is interaction and cooperation with history departments in educational and scientific activities, as well as the methodological development of the linguistic foundations of foreign language teaching for future historians to carry out their professional activities. The department accords considerable importance to the cultivation of student creativity, acknowledging its pivotal function in enhancing foreign language proficiency. The Department of Foreign Languages in the Faculty of History is commemorating the 270th anniversary of Moscow University with a significant contribution to the training of historians and art historians who have a strong proficiency in foreign languages and have achieved notable professional success, including the creation of more than two hundred textbooks, teaching aids and dictionaries.