This monograph is devoted to criticism of the philosophical and historical concepts of a number of bourgeois sociologists: O. Spengler, A. Toynbee, P. Sorokin and their ideological predecessor N. Ya. Danilevsky. The work analyzes in detail the theory of closed cultural systems, opposing both the Hegelian concept of the relationship and continuity of civilizations, which successively replaced each other in the process of world history, and the Marxist concept of world-historical development as a consistent change and continuity of socio-historical formations. The monograph examines the views of Danilevsky, Spengler, Toynbee, Sorokin, highlights their biographies and literary activities, shows the social background on which their teachings grew.