Landrat books, the last and largest sub-ward descriptions of Russia (1715-1720), are among the little-studied sources. They received their name in the 19th century after their compilers - landrats (assistant governors). Interest in them first appeared in the early 20th century during discussions about population fluctuations in the Petrine period. However, the complexity and heterogeneity of the form, the vastness of the data contained in them and the lack of final calculations significantly complicated their use as a source on demographic history. The Peter the Great's government's refusal to take into account the data of the landrats' books and the transition to a fundamentally new organization of fees - per capita, served as another reason for skepticism about the reliability of the data of this last household census. Over time, this skepticism acquired in historiography the character of a complete rejection of landrats' books as sources of information. The materials of these voluminous folios were ignored, and generalizing conclusions were made on the basis of comparing statistical data of the 1678 household census and the results of the first revision of the per capita census (1718-1727). Meanwhile, the Landrat books are an interesting and informative source of information. They are not inferior in reliability to the censuses of 1678, if only because they were compiled on the basis of careful comparisons with their data, as well as with the materials of the census of 1710. Nowadays, interest in landrats' books is growing due to regional studies. Working with these documents is difficult, but can yield significant results. It is especially important to realize that the landrats' census was part of a series of descriptions of its time and should be considered in the general system of sub-ward censuses. Translated with DeepL.com (free version)It was the materials of past descriptions that were used by the compilers of landrats' books when they reconciled the data and added new information. The focus of the article is the Voronezh Landrats' Book of 1716. Its example demonstrates the importance of this type of source, as well as its relationship with other sub-ward censuses. The Voronezh Landrath Book has a complicated form: it begins with a comparison of data from 1716 with data from 1678, relating to the city and then to the district. Then follows the comparison of information about other population groups, which relates to 1716 and 1710: here, too, the information first refers to the city, and then to the county. This structure is explained by the fact that the census enumerators divided the population into social groups and compared each of them separately. The social principle prevailed over the geographical one. The main purpose was to compare the actual data with the census of 1678, but where new yards and population groups appeared, the comparison of which with the old census was impossible, they turned to the materials of the description of 1710. After determining the structure of the book, it is possible to compare its data with the census book of 1678 and the special Voronezh census of 1714. The analysis finally shows that the data obtained by landrats are more complete than all others. Thus, the studied materials clearly demonstrate the importance of comparative studies in the study of the Landrat books complex. This is the way to assess the completeness of data of each book separately, to see its place in the general series of sub-ward censuses of the region. Only such careful and painstaking work can give a noticeable result for the study of the socio-demographic history of Russia in the Petrine period.

The article, based on the materials of the Center for Documentation of Contemporary History of the Rostov Region (CDNIRO), examines one of the aspects of the volunteer movement during the Great Patriotic War - the process of formation of the people's militia on the Don. Using a number of previously unpublished documents, the authors focus on issues that are relevant due to the lack of study in the scientific literature, such as difficulties and shortcomings in the process of creating the Don militia. In July 1941 in Rostov region it was planned to create militia formations in rural areas and a number of cities. It has been established that the Rostov Regional Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, which was responsible for the creation and military training of the militia, constantly monitored this process. In September 1941 the regional committee checked the condition of militia formations in Bataysk, Taganrog and Myasnikovsky district. The results of the inspections and the conclusions and recommendations of the regional committee made on their basis were reflected in previously unpublished reports and resolutions, which serve as informative sources on the topic under consideration. The analysis of the documents of the Rostov Regional Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks (b), which had not previously attracted the attention of researchers, allows us to say that there were serious omissions in the work on the creation of the people's militia in the Rostov region. In particular, by September 1941 it turned out that the militia either had not yet been created (Myasnikovsky district) or, as in Bataysk and Taganrog, did not represent coherent units, because the military training of the militia was not properly organized and many of them did not attend classes. Based on the content of the sources, the authors formulate a final conclusion about the reasons for the slow organization and unsatisfactory condition of the people's militia formations in Rostov Oblast. These reasons included not only the shortage of experienced instructors or the shortage of training weapons and methodological materials caused by the extreme wartime conditions, but also the peculiarities and specifics of the structure and functioning of the bureaucratic apparatus that existed in the USSR. Party and Soviet officials perceived the creation of militia formations as just another short-term political campaign, and therefore were not ready for long-term thorough work in this most important direction, concentrating their efforts on achieving quantitative indicators rather than on preparing the militia for combat. All this seriously hampered the process of creating the Rostov Oblast People's Militia and significantly reduced its potential.

The book “Chief Designer” is being reviewed. It was written by V. N. Tokarev and tells the story of the creator of the first Soviet nuclear submarine, Vladimir Nikolaevich Peregudov (1902-1967), Hero of Socialist Labor, director and chief designer of Special Design Bureau № 143 (now "Malachite"). The high level of research that formed the basis of the book is due to the fact that the author, director of the State Archives of the Saratov Region and captain of the 2nd rank in the reserve, has the competencies of a naval submarine officer and a specialist in working with documentary heritage. The management of departmental archives not only of the navy, but also of Federal Security Service (FSB) also met halfway in the provision and publication of information which was necessary to complete the assigned research tasks. Published sources were also used in the work, for example, the three-volume book “USSR Atomic Project: Documents and Materials”. The author's research methods can be defined as modern techniques of “biographical history” and “intellectual history”. The life and work of the outstanding inventor and engineer, the creative developments of the teams in which he worked and which he led, are inscribed in the outline of the difficult history of our country in different eras. The time boundaries cover the years of revolution, Civil War, socialist construction, the “Great Terror”, the Great Patriotic War, post-war reconstruction and development of the USSR to the level of a world superpower. The book touches on various aspects of the creative and organizational work of Soviet scientists, engineers, managers, their social and personal relationships, their daily practices, service and career trajectories, and “survival strategies” in difficult emergency situations. The contents of the book fully confirm the opinion to rank the names of A. N. Tupolev, S. P. Korolev, V. N. Peregudov as the leading designers of the three components of the “nuclear triads”: strategic bombers, ground-based intercontinental missiles, nuclear missile submarines. From the point of view of the modern military theory, it is the presence of this triad, which is possessed by only two powers in the world, Russia and the United States, that creates the parity in their strategic weapons. At the same time, most Russians do not know the name of the creator of the domestic nuclear submarine cruiser K-3. The book under review helps to fill this gap in collective memory of our people.

The article analyzes the archival collections of the Russian State Archive of Ancient Acts (RGADA) and the State Archive of the Perm Territory (GAPK), which include materials from the Chief Magistrate, provincial and voivodeship Chancelleries of the Kama Region, and city magistrates of Solikamsk, Cherdyn, and Kungur. The author's task is to identify the corporate interests of the urban inhabitants of the Kama region, the composition of local institutions, which has not been systematically studied before. The importance of regional sources for the study of urban communities is emphasized. Materials are being introduced into scientific circulation that contain information about the work of city government bodies, the composition of employees, interaction with higher authorities, and the interests of local communities. When studying urban governance in the Kama region, the emphasis is on studying the interaction of government authorities, the posad as a community and individual representatives of urban merchants. The history of urban governance is analyzed as the process of formation of urban corporations with expressed interests, adapting to government transformations. The most promising for the researcher is the documentation of the Chief Magistrate in the Russian State Archive of Ancient Acts and local city government bodies with denunciations, petitions, complaints and other documents originating from specific people, not institutions. The author conducted a formal analysis of typical documents of city institutions. Biographical, problem-chronological, and prosopographic methods were used. Court proceedings supplement information about the interaction of local authorities and citizens. Information about the election procedure, the recall of employees, minutes of magistrates' meetings, and complaints from local residents are contained in the funds of the Perm Territory State Archive. The archival materials introduced into scientific circulation make it possible to trace the evolution of city administration in the XVIII century. (starting from Peter the Great's reforms to the provincial reform and the creation of governorates). Special attention is paid to the activities of city magistrates as bodies with administrative, police, judicial, and financial and economic functions. Based on the revealed archival data, differences in the functioning of city and provincial magistrates are noted due to the influence of local merchant corporations. According to archival data, the relationship of urban communities with government agencies is traced. In conclusion, the author emphasizes the need to study regional urban communities capable of protecting their interests after government transformations in the field of local government. The study of archival funds makes it possible to identify general trends in the development of urban communities in the Russian Empire, as well as the peculiarities of urban life in the Kama region.

Mobilization of the population of the USSR for military service during the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945 acquired a significant scope. One of the sources of replenishment of the active army were the residents of the liberated from occupation areas of the Soviet Union and Soviet servicemen who had been in captivity. The article analyzes the experience of conscription in the Krasnodar and Stavropol Territories in 1943, after the expulsion of the occupants from their territories. The study of domestic and foreign historiography has shown that this aspect of the Battle of the Caucasus in 1942-1943 is not sufficiently covered. The main source for the preparation of the publication were the documents of the Central Archive of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, the bulk of which were first introduced into circulation. Along with them, the materials of the Center for Documentation of Contemporary History of the Krasnodar Region and the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, as well as published diaries and memoirs were also used. The study required the use of historical-systemic and historical-statistical methods. The author focused on those mobilization activities that were carried out by Soviet troops before the restoration of the system of military commissariats, immediately after entering the liberated areas of Kuban and Stavropol. The general order of conscription in the regions liberated from occupation was determined by the order of the Stavka VGK of February 9, 1942. Its contents were supplemented by directives of the command of the Northern Group of Forces and the North Caucasus Front. Analysis of the documents showed that at first mobilization was accompanied by many difficulties. Identification and registration of conscripts, checking their physical and moral-political qualities were conducted superficially. The dispatch of recruits to the troops was delayed, the conscripts often did not receive uniforms, equipment and food. Combat training, educational and political work with new recruits in the troops was conducted without taking into account their peculiarities. All this had a negative impact on the combat effectiveness of the Soviet troops. The mobilization in a short time was partly due to the current situation. In the course of the offensive in early 1943, the armies of the North Caucasus Front suffered losses in manpower and were cut off from their rear. During the spring of 1943, the situation with conscription changed for the better - the work of military commissariats was resumed, the registration of persons liable for military service was organized anew, the supply and training of those called up to the army was organized. However, by that time the bulk of potential soldiers from the Krasnodar and Stavropol regions had already joined the Red Army.

The article analyzes the information capabilities of the Yevpatoria customs fund of the State Archive of the Republic of Crimea (SARC) - a source complex of documents of diverse content, containing information about the activities of one of the oldest customs institutions of the Tauride province. The state customs policy, the introduction of innovative technologies in the activities of domestic customs authorities are of particular relevance in the current conditions of “sanctions” confrontation of the leading world powers. The Crimean peninsula, which became part of the Russian Empire in 1783, was a strategically and economically important region on the southern borders of the state, an outpost of the Russian foreign and customs policy for the central authorities even at that time. In accordance with Russian legislation and on the model of similar structures of the empire created the first customs institutions in Evpatoria and Feodosia. The fund of the Yevpatoria customs in the GARC, which became the source base of this study, has more than 2,500 units of storage for the years 1784-1920. However, so far it is little in demand in the scientific environment and practically not studied, and its documents have not been previously introduced into the scientific turnover. At the same time, the materials of the fund give a complete picture of the variety of functions of customs control bodies in the Crimea, allow to conduct a scientific reconstruction of the history of existence and activities of these institutions, to analyze the specifics of the organization of their work, to trace the main directions of export and import operations carried out by Crimean customs. The direct purpose of the study was to characterize the documents deposited in the fund of the Yevpatoria customs, revealing the problems of the functioning of this institution in the second half of the XIX century. One of the important components of the study and its scientific novelty was the possibility, based on archival data, to trace the features of administrative communication in the Crimean customs institutions, to obtain detailed information about their official-bureaucratic composition. The documents on the establishment, staffing and activities of the customs, reports and reports of representatives of the regional administration, form lists of employees and other documentation were identified and studied, which allowed us to conduct an initial analysis of the structure and staffing of the customs. The conclusion was made about the possibility of conducting prospective studies on the history of public institutions, the history of regional administration, and ego-history.

After the abolition of serfdom and the beginning of capitalist modernization in Russia, the issue of increasing the literacy rate of the population became acute. The educated public - censored and non-censored intelligentsia - took an active part in solving this issue and participated in the development of various forms of extracurricular education. One of such educational activities was the organization of “public readings”, during which illiterate audiences were shown “luminous pictures” and literary works were read aloud. Scholars who have studied this sociocultural practice have come to the conclusion that folk readings were the precursor of cinema and modern mass media. This practice became a widespread form of public work because, firstly, it gained a certain popularity among the urban lower classes, secondly, it became one of the forms of organizing civil society in Russia, and thirdly, it was a tool for forming a public discourse in the country approved by the authorities. That is why the organization of public readings was strictly regulated by rules and was under the full control of the local administration. From all of the above, we can conclude that the topic of organizing folk readings in the Russian provinces is a really important scientific problem. Unfortunately, folk readings in the province, at the provincial level, have not been closely examined in Russian and foreign historiography. The proposed article is intended to partially fill this gap. It is devoted to the reconstruction of the conflict between the governor of Orel A. N. Trubnikov and a group of Bryansk intellectuals over the approval of a special public organization engaged in the conduct of public readings. The study of the conflict is based on the analysis of documents stored in the fund of the Oryol governor in the State Archive of the Oryol region (GASO). The research is based on the method of historicism and traditional (non-formalized) methods of text analysis. On the basis of general logical operations of analysis and synthesis, comparison, evaluation and comprehension, textual analysis of archival documents was carried out. This allowed the author to reconstruct step by step the history of the conflict between the governor of Orel and a group of founders of the Committee of People's Readings in Bryansk. The collision described in the article characterizes the personal style of management established in the Russian bureaucratic system, when the decision on this or that case was determined by the personal favor or disfavor of a high-ranking official.

The article presents previously unpublished archival materials from the Russian State Historical Archive (RGIA) related to the activities of a prominent Russian state dignitary, economist and one of the leaders of the Russian-American Company (RAC) Count Nikolai Semenovich Mordvinov. The analysis of the sources, some of which are being introduced for the first time, allows us to reconstruct the mechanisms of formation in the Russian administrative circles of the Nicholas I era of a new concept of imperial space, aimed at the priority study of Russia's internal regions to the detriment of the creation of a maritime empire. Focusing on the history of Russian trade in the Pacific Ocean, the author proceeds from the analysis of the international situation in the 1820s, which is a reaction to the crisis of globalization of the early New Age, expressed in the rejection of the universalism of the Enlightenment, the formation of national ideologies, the shift of emphasis from world trade to the development of agriculture (and then industry) in domestic (national) territories as the main source of wealth. Within the framework of these trends there was a revision of the geopolitical strategies of the Russian Empire, which was marked by a shift from offensive maritime expansion in the World Ocean and the restructuring of government policy towards the development of Eurasian space, its natural and human resources. Showing increased attention to the internal territories and distancing itself from “overseas” possessions, Russia entered the stage of “self-colonization”, which took place in a special scenario compared to the Western European powers, and included vast areas of Eurasia in the processes of development. The prehistory of this stage was revealed in the documents of N. S. Mordvinov, one of the most influential Russian analysts of maritime policy and trade in the Pacific, whose analysis showed close links between the trade policy of the Russian-American Company in the Pacific in 1810-1820 and the awareness in government circles of logistical problems in the remote Pacific periphery. Having severely criticized the leadership of the RAC, N. S. Mordvinov developed program projects for the organization of trade in the Pacific Ocean, however, realistically assessing its possibilities, he pointed out to the authorities of the empire the “weak” points in the system of overseas possessions of the Russian Empire, the awareness of the vulnerability of which ultimately influenced the shift of the geopolitical vector and the increased state interest in the study of the internal space of the empire, one of the consequences of which was the establishment of the Russian Geographical Society in 1845.

The article examines a historical source, an archival document that includes a speech by General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU L. I. Brezhnev on government procurement of grain crops in the region on August 27, 1972 at the VII Plenum of the Altai Regional Committee of the Party in Barnaul. The purpose of the article was to characterize and publish a documentary source identified in the archive fund of A. N. Nevsky (b.1808) in the State Archive of the Altai Territory (GAAK). The study is devoted to insufficiently studied issues of the development of the Soviet economy - the relationship between the state and direct agricultural producers at the turn of the 1960s and 1970s. The source allows us to clarify the idea of the interference of party leaders in setting targets. The document is also interesting in its content because L. I. Brezhnev evaluates almost all the main directions of the economic policy of the Soviet state, not limited, at the same time, only to the agrarian one. A special place in the document is devoted to the problems in the main grain-producing regions of the European part of the RSFSR. In order to prevent problems with food and fodder, it was planned to significantly increase grain procurements in the Asian part of the country. The author of the article comes to the conclusion that increased socialist commitments providing for over-planned grain sales have become a tool for increasing government purchases of grain. The unscheduled arrival of the leader of the Soviet state during his vacation and his speech aimed to put pressure on the regional elite of the Altai Territory and to get the region to fulfill not only planned, but also over-planned purchases of grain crops. The piquancy of the situation is due to the fact that there is no text of this speech in the documents of the Altai Territory Committee of the CPSU and L. I. Brezhnev himself forbade to keep a transcript. After the visit of the Secretary General, Minister of Agriculture of the RSFSR L. Ya. Florentyev visited the region. The result of his visit was an additional increase in the standards for the delivery of grain crops to the state. In the 1970s, the government completely abandoned the previously proclaimed principles of the immutability of targets. Later, this became one of the reasons for the decline in agricultural production and the growing problems in the agricultural sector. The published archival source is of interest to both Russian agricultural historians and economists, as well as foreign scientists specializing in the history of the agrarian development of the USSR in the second half of the twentieth century. The document is another important element in the study of the agrarian history of the USSR and its regions in the late Soviet period.

The documents on the reorganization of the Communist University of the Working People of the East (KUTV) in 1936-1938, identified in the Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History and the Russian State Archive of Modern History, are published. The Communist University of the Working People of the East was established on the basis of the Oriental courses at the People's Commissariat for Nationalities in Moscow to train political workers of the republics and autonomies of the Soviet East in 1921. Until 1923, KUTV was subordinate to the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs, then it passed under the jurisdiction of the Central Executive Committee of the RSFSR (since 1924 - the Central Executive Committee of the USSR). Throughout the 1920s, KUTV set two tasks – training personnel for national republics and foreign personnel for revolutionary movements in the colonial and dependent countries of the East for the Comintern. Since 1936, only the Soviet sector remained in the institution, and the sections for the training of foreign personnel were separated into an independent school under the jurisdiction of the Executive Committee of the Comintern, which operated under the conspiratorial name "Scientific Research Institute for the Study of National and Colonial Problems." The transfer of half of the student body dealt a blow to KUTV. Even more sensitive was the transfer to a new institution of the material and technical base of the Comintern. The published documents reveal the dramatic events of this reorganization, which turned into an open conflict between the Comintern, which was responsible for the training of personnel in the NIINKP, and the Department of Party Propaganda and Agitation of the Central Committee of the CPSU(b), which sought to preserve the KUTV. Taking into account the reduction in the number of students due to the transfer of foreign sections to another institution, the question was raised about the effectiveness and legality of maintaining the "Soviet" sector. In 1938 It was decided to liquidate the KUTV, which became one of the events during the reorganization of other institutions for the accelerated training of Marxists – the institutes of the Red Professorship, the All-Union Communist Agricultural University named after Ya. M. Sverdlov, the International Lenin School operating under the Comintern, etc. Given the complex structure and importance of the KUTV, during the liquidation of the institution, proposals were made to preserve it in one form or another – an independent institution for training personnel in Tuva, Buryat Mongolia and Yakutia, to include it in the N. N. Narimanov Institute of Oriental Studies, and in courses for training editors and translators of Marxism-Leninism. Documents are published according to modern rules of spelling and punctuation, while preserving the stylistic features of the source.