Abstract
All the present theories of historical process have at least three shortcomings. Firstly, the de-scription of the process as unilinear and directive sequence of proposed stages of evolution. Secondly, its Europocentrism (all the theories emerged in Europe, were based on the European material and not adapted to the world history processes). And, thirdly, more often than not there was one determinative factor explaining the whole historical process. The Marxist theory as a historical theory demonstrates all these features which may be considered as shortcom-ings. Meanwhile, there is a simple solution to the problem of periodization, and it lies on the surface. It is necessary to draw a clear-cut distinction between world and local periodizations. The world history has an articulate vectorial direction: the humanity passes from one stage to another by some of its representatives. On the contrary, local histories do not obey the general laws, having a considerable individuality.
Keywords
world history, theories of history, local histories, antiquity, Middle Ages, Early Modern his-tory
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