Viktor Petrovich Danilov, as a mirror of domestic agrarian historical science of the second half of the XX – early XXI century: on the 100th anniversary of the historian’s birth

The article is devoted to the analysis of creative heritage of outstanding Russian agricultural historian Viktor Petrovich Danilov. It considers the most significant events in the scientific life of the historian, evaluates his contribution to the study of the agrarian history of Russia and the promotion of historical knowledge. It is concluded that the most important achievement in the creative biography of the historian was the organization of international projects for the publication of archival documents in the early 1990-ies: «Peasant Revolution in Russia», «Soviet Village through the Eyes of the Cheka – OGPU – NKVD», «Rural Russia in the XX Century. Historical and Sociological Study of Russian Villages», «Modern Concepts of Agrarian Development». As a result, new knowledge was obtained on the history of the peasantry of Russia in the first half of the XX century, and as part of the work on the projects, agricultural historians were trained who currently occupy leading positions in modern agrarian historiography.