The book is devoted to the branch of methodological knowledge, which can conditionally be called the aesthetics of history. The author proceeds from the fact that historical generalization is a synthesis of theoretical and aesthetic development of the world. The ability to think in the categories of aesthetics helps the historian in creating a historical image, opens the way to the fusion of image and concept. In the biographical genre, history is directly connected with fiction. Yet there is a boundary between the two. Drawing this boundary, the author considers folklore and professional art as components of historical consciousness.