Russian Archives Research Articles

Spies or Heroes? Soviet Intelligence in the United States in the 1930s and 1940s

The article focuses on the most successful period in the history of Soviet intelligence in the United States, namely the 1930s and 1940s. The reasons for this success are analysed, first and foremost being the worldwide enthusiasm for the ideas of communism and the achievements of the USSR in building a new socialist society, to which the propaganda of the Stalinist regime had contributed in no small measure. The author examines the activities of the Soviet secret services, which established an extensive covert network in the United States during those years. Members of the underground were collecting information, primarily in the field of the latest military technologies, including the secrets of the production of the atomic bomb. While the history of intelligence professionals has been sufficiently studied, the work of their American voluntary agents is less known. There were many communists and sympathisers among them; a significant proportion were Russian immigrants. The aim of the article is to explore their views, behavioural motives, and subsequent fate. The study draws on records from American and Russian archives opened to researchers in the 1990s: previously classified Soviet diplomatic correspondence, which, after being decrypted by the Venona project, was recognised as a communication channel between intelligence in the United States and the centre in Moscow; it was supplemented by the so-called “Vassiliev Notebooks”, containing documents from the archives of the Foreign Intelligence Service (formerly the First Directorate of the KGB) as well as records from the Comintern archive at the Russian Centre for the Preservation and Study of Documents of Contemporary History (RTsKhIDNI). New sources offer a more comprehensive picture of the scale and methods of Soviet intelligence work, the activities of American agents, and allow to answer a number of questions that have caused controversy among historians, including the guilt of the Rosenbergs in the theft of nuclear secrets and whether Alger Hiss, a high-ranking US State Department official, was a Soviet intelligence agent.

АБЫЛАЙ-КИТ, СЕМИПАЛАТ ҚАМАЛДАРЫНЫҢ САЛЫНУ ТАРИХЫ ХҮІІ-ХІХ ҒАСЫРЛАРДАҒЫ БАТЫС, ОРЫС ЗЕРТТЕУШІЛЕРІ ЖАЗБАЛАРЫНДА (мақсаты, маңызы)

The article describes the history of the construction of medieval Jungian cult buildings Abylaikit, Semipalatinsk and Dolon - Karagai in the eastern part of Kazakhstan on the basis of the works of European and Russian researchers of the XVIII-XIX centuries and their functions. The features of the construction of these religious structures are given, analysis of the reasons for their destruction. Based on the construction and operation of these construction sites, a description of the course of Kazakhstan-Dzhungarian and Kazakhstan-Russian relations in East Kazakhstan, the Altai Territory of that period is given. It is estimated to be the place of these religious monuments in the history of Kazakhstan. Diplomatic relations of the Kazakh Khanate with neighboring countries in the XVIII century and mutual conflicts between the Kazakh Khanate and the Dzhungarian Khanate, the heroic feats of Abylai Khan, Cabanbai Batyr, Bogenbai Batyr and others during the invasion of the Qin Empire in the Kazakh Khanate to the State Archives of Russia and Kazakhstan, the actual data considered And systematically represented on the basis of ancient and modern scientific literature in domestic and foreign scientific libraries. Famous from the beginning of the 18th century, one of the few scientific destroyed rooms in Abilaykit, retained the remnants of religious books written by the Mongolian letter, thus the construction has even more religious and historical significance.

Flowers, Bird and Insects from the Archives of F. R. Osten-Sacken

The article offers an overview of illustrations from the archives of an employee of the Russian Imperial Ministry of Foreign Affairs, traveller and member of the Russian Geographical Society, Reinhold Friedrich Freiherr von der Osten-Sacken (Russ.: Fyodor Romanovich Osten-Saken) (1832–1916), preserved in the Russian Archive of Ancient Acts (RAAA). In total, the article describes content of four archival boxes (a Chinese popular print depicting western steamers in Tianjin; a Japanese album of 1893 with views of Tokyo; six Chinese paintings in the genre of flowers and birds (huaniao), which depict a lotus, lamprocapnos, pomegranate, dragonflies, cicadas and blue magpie; two prints from Chinese steles). Most of the paintings are published for the first time. The translation of the six explanatory texts for Chinese paintings in the genre of flowers and birds belongs to the author of the present article. The text of the article is accompanied by numerous illustrations of the items preserved in the RAAA.

An Ottoman Cargo Ship Drawing from Russian Archives

Yelken çağında Osmanlı gemi tipleri tarihçiler tarafından iyi bilinmekle beraber, bu gemilerin teknik özellikleri hakkındaki kaynaklar Batı Avrupa’daki emsallerine göre oldukça sınırlıdır. Osmanlı arşivlerinde gemi kargolarıyla ilgili zengin envanter, liman ve diğer mali kayıtlar bulunurken, gemi endaze plan ya da krokileri gibi teknik kayıtlar yok denecek kadar azdır. Rus arşivlerinde yapılan güncel araştırmalar 18-19. yüzyıllara ait Osmanlı gemileriyle ilgili yeni kanıtları açığa çıkarmıştır. Bu çalışmada St. Petersburg Rus Bahriye Arşivlerinde bulunan, 18. yüzyıla ait bir kargo gemisinin endaze planı incelenmiştir. Plan üzerindeki notlar geminin Osmanlı donanmasına hizmet verirken Rus ordusu tarafından ele geçirildiğini ve daha sonra bu geminin ölçekli planının çıkarılması suretiyle kayıt altına alındığı bilgisini vermektedir. Söz konusu planının bu dönemde yaygın olarak kullanılan ve çekeleve ya da sacoleva olarak bilinen bir gemi tipine ait olduğu düşünülmektedir. Diğer taraftan, bu planın, bir çekeleveye ait olarak şu ana kadar tespit edilebilen en eski endaze planı olması mümkündür. 

France’s First University Course in Russian History

Rodolphe Baudin and Wladimir Berelowitch have published a new source on the history of Russia in the eighteenth century, a course taught by Christophe Guillaume Koch at the University of Strasbourg between the 1770s and 1780s. Since there were Russians among Koch’s students, this course is an example of cultural interaction: young Russians, who had a certain amount of knowledge about their country, were confronted with what their professor, who was well aware of the latest French and German publications on Russian history, told them about this topic. It is all the more important and interesting to draw attention to this publication, since lecture notes from Koch’s courses made by his Russian students and manuscripts of his works will undoubtedly be found in Russian archives and libraries.

India of 1920s as Seen by Soviet Playwright, Consulting Indologists, Theater Critics

The authors of this contribution analyze the circumstances and the history of a popular play that was staged in the Soviet Union in 1927-1928. Titled Jumah Masjid, this play was devoted to the anti-colonial movement in India. A manuscript of the play, not indicating its title and the name of its author, was found in the St. Petersburg Branch of the Archive of the Russian Academy of Sciences among the papers related to A.M. and L.A. Meerwarth, members of the First Russian Expedition to Ceylon and India (1914-1918). Later on, two copies of this play under the title The Jumah Masjid were found in the Russian Archive of Literature and Art and in the Museum of the Tovstonogov Grand Drama Theatre. The authors of this article use archival and published sources to analyze the reasons for writing and staging the play. They consider the image of India as portrayed by a Soviet playwright in conjunction with Indologists that served as consultants, and as seen by theater critics and by the audience (according to what the press reflected). Arguably, the celebration of the 10th anniversary of the October Revolution in Russia in 1927 and the VI Congress of the Communist International (Comintern) in 1928 encouraged writing and staging the play. The detailed picture of the anti-colonial struggle in India that the play offered suggests that professional Indologists were consulted. At the same time the play is critical of the non-violent opposition encouraged by Mahatma Gandhi as well as the Indian National Congress and its political wing known as the Swaraj Party. The research demonstrates that the author of the play was G.S. Venetsianov, and his Indologist consultants were Alexander and Liudmila Meerwarth.

ACTIVITIES OF THE SPIES OF ATAMAN NECRASOV ON THE TERRITORY OF THE RUSSIAN STATE (1708-1720s) PART 2

The author investigated the reasons, forms and methods for sending spies from the territory of the Kuban, part of the Crimean Khanate to Russia. The Spies "subversive" activities were most often directed by the ataman Ignat Nekrasov. For the first time in academia, the author systematically analyzed the tasks assigned to these Nekrasov spies, as well as the conditions that both facilitated and hindered their implementation. Achieving the goal and objectives of this article, general scientific and special historical methods were used. The article is based on written historical sources XVIII c. from several Russian federal and state archives. The paper focuses on the geography of the "subversive" activities of such people. The analysis of their composition and the peculiarities of training to perform tasks that are not always associated with the collection of intelligence information on the territory of Russia. In addition, the reactions of various categories of Russian subjects who communicated with the spies of Ignat Nekrasov were identified and studied. Numerous search engines have been systematically analyzed, preventive measures of the Russian authorities aimed at suppressing / preventing the activities of the Nekrasov spies, as well as at their capture and organization of interrogations.

Russian Scientific Investigations in China in the Nineteenth Century

This article aims to study the history of scientific investigations in China in the nineteenth century, made by Russian scientists who ranged in status and position including official agents, the directors of the Russian Magneto-Meteorological Observatory in Beijing, the members of the Russian Orthodox Mission (ROM), and others. The article gives a detailed analysis of the unique expeditions of H. Fritsche (1839–1913), director of the Russian Magneto-Meteorological Observatory in Beijing, and Archimandrite Palladius (1817–1878), head of the ROM to the northeast part of China. During those expeditions, existing maps were corrected and new maps were made. The article also covers the history of natural science investigations, made by other members of missions, doctors, and attached persons. This article employs sources from Russian archives (Saint Petersburg Branch of the Archive of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Russian State Historical Archive, Archive of the Foreign Policy of the Russian Empire), which were rarely used by the scientific community, and adopts an empirical approach based on objectivity and historicism to the sources and research.

Newsreel footage of the liberation of Minsk and its art history attribution

The article is devoted to the problems of studying the Golden Fund of National newsreels of the liberation of Belarus from the German-fascist invaders. The article provides an analysis of process of systematization and cataloging of the array of front-line film archiving in the post-war decades and gives a quantitative assessment of the collections of frontline newsreels stored in the Film archives of Russia and Belarus. There is information about previously unknown archival sources such as cinematographer’s reports which allow the attribution of newsreel’s material. The article evaluates the range of practical applicability of the author’s methodology of historical and artistic attribution which is presented on the example of well-known symbolic film frames taken in liberated Minsk on July 3, 1944.

The hunger games: famine 1932–1933 in the historical policy of Ukraine and Russia

The modern historical policy of Ukraine and the Russia is analysed. The study uses the methodology of historical memory studies, specifically, research of historical consciousness, collective and historical memory. The methodology is based on the analysis of a situation when ideas about the past as national history depend on the mentality and goal setting of a particular social, national or other group. The object of the study is the modern socio-political situation in Ukraine and Russia associated with the understanding and assessment of the famine of 1932–1933 both in the Soviet Union as a whole, and in Ukraine in particular. The authors consider the modern memorial culture of the two nations, highlight issues of regional and national identity and the formation of myths of national memory as central issues in the paper. The transformation of memorial practices and the legal framework of the Russia and Ukraine after the collapse of the Soviet Union is considered. The authors arrive at the conclusion that the discussion between the Russian and Ukrainian sides to this day has turned into constructing a scheme of the «reverse history» based on the projection of the present state of affairs into the past. It is not possible to find any fundamentally new evidence as long as the Russian archives remained classified, and the parties increasingly resort to a nationalist type of argumentation. Punning on the name of the famous Hollywood blockbuster, we can say that the «hunger games» have become a reality in the modern politics of memory of post-Soviet states.

KeesBoterbloemLife in Stalin's Soviet Union. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2019. 247 pp. £20.69 (pbk), £63 (hbk).

KeesBoterbloemLife in Stalin's Soviet Union. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2019. 247 pp. £20.69 (pbk), £63 (hbk).

ACTIVITIES OF THE SPIES OF ATAMAN NECRASOV IN THE TERRITORY OF THE RUSSIAN STATE (1708 - 1720s). Part 1

The author investigates the reasons, forms and methods of sending spies from the territory of the Kuban, part of the Crimean Khanate. The spies "subversive" activities were most often directed by the ataman Ignat Nekrasov. For the first time in academic literature, the author systematically analyzes the tasks assigned to these Nekrasov‟s spies, as well as the conditions that both facilitated and hindered their implementation. Achieving the goal and objectives of this article, general investigative and special historical methods are used. The article is based on written historical sources of XVIII c. from several Russian federal and regional archives. The paper focuses on the geography of the "subversive" activities of such people, their composition and the peculiarities of training to perform tasks that are not always associated with the collection of intelligence information on the territory of Russia. In addition, the reactions of various categories of Russian citizen who communicated with the Ignat Nekrasov‟s spies are identified and studied. Numerous search activities and preventive measures of the Russian authorities aimed at suppressing / preventing the activities of the Nekrasov‟s spies, as well as at their capture and organization of interrogations are systematically analyzed.

Settlement of the Fergana region by peasants-migrants in the late XIX – early XX centuries

The relevance of the study is due to the fact that the problem of the settlement of southern Kyr- gyzstan in the late XIX – early. XX centuries remains insufficiently studied. The purpose of this work is to reveal the history of the settlement of the Fergana region by migrants based on the introduction into scientific circulation of materials from Russian archives and pre-revolutionary authors. The content of the article is based on the application of the principles of historicism and objectivity. The stages of the resettlement of peasants and the formation of resettlement settlements in the Kyrgyz volosts of the Fergana region are highlighted. Established in 1906, the Resettlement Administration was engaged in the creation of a resettlement fund for the settlement of settlers through the seizure of Kyrgyz lands in the foothill and mountainous regions. Russian peasants were allocated land not by the number of family members, but by household – 10 acres of land per allotment, including arable land, hayfields, pasture and manor land. Despite the fact that 40% of the region’s agricultural areas were occupied by cotton sowing, the administration was actively working to create Russian settlements. The scale of the resettle- ment of peasants to the southern regions of Kyrgyzstan was such that if by 1902. In the Fergana region, only 7 Russian settlements were created, then by 1916 68 resettlement settlements were created. Key words: Fergana region, immigrants, land issue, Kyrgyz, agriculture, cotton growing, Andijan uprising.   &nbsp

Human losses of the Samara Region during the World War I (1914–1918)

The paper considers the problem of human losses of the Samara province during the World War I for the first time. The author uses the documents posted on the electronic portal Memory of the Heroes of the Great War of 19141918, a unique information resource that is the first official bank of original documents of the state and departmental archives of Russia about the participants and events of the World War I. Special attention in this work is paid to irretrievable human losses, as the most severe and irreparable. It is established that the archival materials contain 258,686 records of various types of losses among conscripts from the Samara province, 49,015 of them speak of the dead, those who died of wounds and missing. They accounted for 13% of the total losses of the region. It is revealed that the data bank makes it possible to detail the human damage by cities, counties, volosts of the province, the cause, date and place of death, military rank and participation in strategic operations. The author has concluded that a number of the obtained parameters are related to the specifics of accounting for human losses during the studied period, but the knowledge obtained makes it possible to assess the scale of the demographic catastrophe that shook the country and the province during the World War I.

Falling Out of Love with the Franks: The Life and Writings of an Armenian Catholic Diplomat in the Service of Late Safavid Persia

This article provides a biographical vignette of the Armenian merchant and diplomat Eḷia of Erzurum (1689–1750?), based on his unpublished Armenian chronicle and personal documents which are housed in Russian archives. Eḷia’s biography demonstrates the growing influence of European missionaries and states in the eighteenth-century Ottoman and Safavid empires, while his documents yield a fresh perspective on late Safavid diplomacy and modes of socialization with Christians. Eḷia suffered twelve years of imprisonment in Russia and great disappointment seeking work in Europe. His last known act was to write a scathing critique of Roman Catholic religion and culture. In sum, Eḷia’s life provides an opportunity for exploring the dynamic of global connection and disconnection in the early modern Islamic world.

PREFACE

PREFACE

Contribution of Professor K. G. Schindler (1869–1940) in formation of agricultural mechanics, theory and practice of testing of the agricultural machines and tools in Ukraine

The article highlights the life and creative path of the outstanding domestic scientist, theorist, methodologist and practitioner of agricultural engineering K. G. Schindler, associated with the formation of agricultural mechanics in Ukraine. The methodological foundation of the research is the principles of historicism, scientific nature and objectivity in reproducing the phenomena of the past based on the complex use of general scientific, special, interdisciplinary methods. For the first time a number of documents from Russian and Ukrainian archives, which reflect some facts of the professional biography of the scientist, were introduced into scientific circulation. The main directions of fruitful pedagogical and scientific activities of K. G. Schindler, key segments of his creative search, which determined the further development of agricultural engineering, his leadership in the scientific community were described. It was proved that Professor K. G. Schindler has the primacy in founding the Station of Testing for Agricultural Machines and Tools at the Kiev Polytechnic Institute, which provided students of agronomic and mechanical faculties with the opportunity to get acquainted with the existing types and designs of tillage machines, systematically test its research methods. In addition, the station carried out scientific work on the study of certain issues of agricultural mechanization, development of methods and devices for research of agricultural machinery and implements. The seven functions of the agronomic-type research station developed by scientists for the first time in Europe at the beginning of the last century have become a reference point for many generations of researchers of agricultural machinery. K. G. Schindler was the first in the world to theoretically substantiate the need to improve the design of tillage equipment depending on soil and climatic conditions, made a significant contribution to the theory of soil deformation with the shelf of the plow body. In addition, he improved the Sakka dynamometer, developed a control dynamometer to check traction dynamometers and other devices, improved existing and developed new designs of tillage machines. K. G. Schindler was the first in Ukraine to teach a course in agricultural engineering.

Diplomatic Activity of Khan Bukey Barakuly in the 80-s of the XVIII – first quarter of the XIX centuries (based on Russian Archival Materials)

Diplomatic Activity of Khan Bukey Barakuly in the 80-s of the XVIII – first quarter of the XIX centuries (based on Russian Archival Materials)

Социально-философская утопия Франца фон Баадера и политика надконфессионального христианства Александра I

The German romantic philosopher Franz von Baader, who had a significant influence on the formation of the concept of “la Sainte-Alliance”, who had numerous contacts with Russian political, religious and cultural figures of the era of Alexander I, who took an active part in the secularization of Russian society in the 1810s, still remains outside Russian historical, cultural and philosophical context. The article analyses the “Russian” aspects of Baader’s philosophy and activities through his writings and letters, testimonies of contemporaries and unpublished material from the Russian archives. It also reconstructs his religious-political and philosophical project in the context of the policy of Christian liberalism of Alexander I.

Out of Empire into Socialist Modernity

AbstractIn this article the Soviet-African Modern is presented through an intellectual history of exchanges in a triangular geography, outspreading from Moscow to Paris to Port of Spain and Accra. In this geography, postcolonial conditions in Eastern Europe and Africa became interconnected. This shared postcolonial space extended from the Soviet South to Africa. The glue for the transregional imagination was an engagement with the topos of backwardness. For many of the participants in the debate, the Soviet past was the African present. Focusing on the 1960s and 1970s, three connected perspectives on the relationship between Soviet and African paths to modernity are presented: First, Soviet and Russian scholars interpreting the domestic (post)colonial condition; second, African academics revisiting the Soviet Union as a model for development; and finally, transatlantic intellectuals connecting postcolonial narratives with socialist ones. Drawing on Russian archives, the article furthermore demonstrates that Soviet repositories hold complementary records for African histories.