The article tells about the necessity of reconsideration of the history of the 19th century in the light of a new historical experience. This period has a cardinal value for understanding the tendencies of the subsequent evolution of mankind, up to boundaries of the third millennium. This long century was for all European countries an epoch of deep social, economic and political shocks. At this particular time the transformation from class-absolutist social setup to other state and public systems occurred . The transformation from "old regime" to a modern society was difficult and inconsistent. Political and social cataclysms were the device to settle the difference. The author underlines that in 1960s-1970s the basic directions in historical studies were such themes as revolutions and revolutionary movements, the history of International, the Commune of Paris, class struggle and working-class movement in European countries, etc. Recently foreground themes of historical studies became European research, the questions of parliamentarism and constitutionalism, nationalism and national movements, mutual relations of power structures and social society, mutual representations of European peoples and Russia about each other. The interest to Diplomacy history, history of ideas, problems of formation of the civil society in the countries of Western Europe and Russia, the regional geography gains strength again.