ВОПРОСЫ ИСТОРИИ, ТЕОРИИ И МЕТОДОЛОГИИ MEMORY AND HISTORY: SOME CONSIDERATIONS ON ANTINOMIES AND PARADOXES* Jiřн Šubrt Faculty of Humanities Charles University in Prague U Křнže 8, Praha 5, Czech Republic, 15800 Collective memory does not retain the memories of the past as historical events really happened, but as they are remembered in the present. <...> Memory includes only elements of the past, not the past as a whole. <...> This article outlines ten antinomies characterised by the following terms: individual and collective memory, spirit and matter, saving and deleting, irrevocable and revocable history, spontaneous and purposeful memory, myth and science, rationality and irrationality. <...> Human memory does not work as a rational machine, but rather is prone to distortions and errors. <...> An important role in shaping collective memory is played by ideological influence and deep-rooted historical myths. <...> However, the problem is generally more complicated and is not dependent only on our willingness and tendency to be influenced by historical experience and memory. <...> Memory is undoubtedly one * This article was prepared within the framework of the project “The entrance into Collective Memory” supported by the Czech Science Foundation, GACR № 13-29861P and organized at the Faculty of Humanities in the Charles University in Prague. 7 Вестник РУДН, серия Социология, июль 2015, том 15, № 3 of the essential characteristics of humanity and the basis for the continuity of our existence [13. <...> Psychology approaches the study of memory in terms of the individual psyche. <...> P. 267], applied in a certain way in all mental activity. <...> According to the length of storage of remembered information, memory is divided into: a) sensory, b) short-term and long-term [16. <...> Within long-term memory, declarative memory and the procedural memory are differentiated [16. <...> With regard to the intention to remember, there is the distinction between intentional and unintentional memory [27. <...> In the second, known as retention (keeping), information is converted into long-term memory. <...> Durkheim’s ideas were developed into the concept of collective memory by the French sociologist Maurice Halbwachs, in whose theoretical work an important role is played by the thesis of social conditionality of memory. <...> P. 50—92] differentiates between 8 Šubrt J. Memory and History: Some considerations on antinomies and paradoxes individual and collective memory <...>