Contemporary Historiography Research Articles

Interpreting Visuality in the Middle Ages: The Iconographic Paradigm of the Refectory of the Monastery of San Salvador de Oña

The research area of the interaction between religion, politics, and medieval Hispanic art has been pioneering and at the cutting edge of contemporary historiography in recent years. The deployment of iconographic and calligraphic motifs in medieval religious spaces has been identified as a key means of propagating legitimating messages of power and disseminating Christian doctrines. This interdisciplinary study proposes an analysis of the artistic vestiges present in the refectory of the Monastery of San Salvador de Oña (Burgos), with a view to establishing their decorative evolution during the 14th century and their symbolic significance. In order to establish a chronological proposal for the remains, the historical, artistic, and architectural contexts of the monastery are analyzed. This is complemented by a study of materials and techniques and a symbolic and iconographic analysis of the signs of power and evangelical concepts from the time of Peter I until the transition to the Trastámara dynasty. In this way, a cross-disciplinary investigation is proposed, with the aim of elucidating how a sacred artistic work situated within a secular context can serve multiple purposes of political and religious legitimation through the adaptation of its iconography over time.

The Transition of Bulgarian Military Intelligence in the Post–Cold War Era: From Warsaw Pact to NATO (1989–2004)

The reconstruction of the history of the Bulgarian military intelligence services in the first fifteen years of post–Cold War democratic transition until the accession of the country to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has been rarely discussed in contemporary historiography so far. The proposed publication was based on various newly declassified archival sources, as well as on some personal recollections. The transformation of the Bulgarian military intelligence services in those years could be separated into three basic stages, in parallel with the transformation of the Armed Forces and the society as a whole.

The Soviet Past in the Contemporary Historiography of Armenia

The Soviet Past in the Contemporary Historiography of Armenia

The ‘Useful Man’ in the Political System of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth of the Vasas – New Perspectives and Methodological Problems in Research into the Careers of Małopolska Noblemen

In the article I point to the need for conducting research into the political careers of activists from the lesser nobility, whose families were not part of the power elite. In contemporary historiography, lesser nobility activists have only attracted the attention of historians to a limited extent. Yet the development of research and the availability of sources have made it possible to carry out a broader analysis, encompassing activists from the lesser nobility who stood out by virtue of the level of their involvement in the country’s political life.

Muḥammad b. Khalaf Wakīʿ (m. 306/918), ou le désamour de Bagdad

This article provides an overview of the life and work of a historian largely overlooked by contemporary historiography, Muhammad b. Khalaf al-Ḍabbī, known as Wakīʿ (d. 306/918). This Baghdadian scholar and qadi authored several works in various fields, only one of which has come down to us in a single manuscript: the Akhbār al-quḍāt, one of the earliest sources on the history of Islamic judgeship. Wakīʿ received fierce criticism from his fellow scholars and their successors, before most of his work fell into oblivion. After tracing his training and career, I examine the author’s views about Baghdad. The marginal role he assigns to the Abbasid capital, in connection with the miḥna of the mid-third/ninth century, suggests that this period of inquisition traumatized historians who came from scholarly backgrounds, and had a profound impact on Islamic historiography.

Čo pre Slovákov znamenal a v súčasnosti znamená štátny sviatok Slovenského národného povstania?

Intention of the authors is to analyse the importance of national holiday of the Slovak National Uprising in a context of collective and historical memory of the Slovak nation. The aim of submitted paper is therefore to analyse various lines of opinion on the Slovak National Uprising, especially from the perspective of two totalitarian ideologies, as well as from the perspective of contemporary historiography after 1989. In the context of aforementioned analyses, authors deal with recent and historical interpretations from the historical and collective memory point of view, with an emphasis on legal consequences. The first years of independence and democracy brought to Slovakia re-increase of pro-fascist (ľudák’s) interpretation of history, which, however, did not succeeded in settling down in the collective memory of the Slovak nation. Nevertheless, the last years once again brought relativisation and misinterpretation of historical context of the Slovak National Uprising and its specific standing in society as a national holiday in particular. Reflecting these negative trends, the authors also consider possibilities of effective protection of national holidays, not only with the use of law.

ИСТОРИКО-КУЛЬТУРНОЕ НАСЛЕДИЕ ХАНТОВ И МАНСИ В ОБЪЕКТИВЕ СОВРЕМЕННЫХ ИССЛЕДОВАТЕЛЕЙ

This article analyzes the contemporary historiography of the Ob Ugrian cultural heritage, especially its religious component. The ethno-religious revival among the Mansi and Khanty, which began at the end of the 20th century, initiated rapid development of field research in their territories. The research questions and methods were determined by the favorable political situation, freedom to choose research topics and the general course of indigenous studies in Russia. An important achievement was the creation of a cross-curricular academic field that united the efforts of specialists from various scientific disciplines, with representatives from foreign and Russian academia. These efforts were actively supported and funded by both the authorities and private business. The inclusion of representatives of the Khanty and Mansi peoples in the academic discourse contributed not only to a deeper study of their ethnic history and unique culture, but also added nuances to the interpretation of Russian history key topics, especially related to the development of the northern territories. The author analyzes the current state of the Ob Ugrians’ cultural heritage studies and identifies the factors that influenced the increasing importance of its religious component. Breakthrough turning points have been identified and possible options for overcoming problems in domestic Ugric studies have been proposed.

Z Kielc czy z Kielczy? O pochodzeniu Wincentego, hagiografa św. Stanisława

Of Kielce or Kielcza? On the origins of Wincenty, the hagiographer of St. Stanislaus The author of the article presents the historiographical disputes that have arisen over the question of the place of birth of the Dominican Wincenty, the first hagiographer of St. Stanislaus. According to the classic hypothesis, formulated and documented in the first biography of Wincenty by Tadeusz Wojciechowski (1885), the hagiographer was said to have been born in Kielce, on the estate of the Bishops of Cracow in the Świętokrzyskie Mountains. However, most contemporary scholars favour an alternative concept, formulated by Gerard Labuda (1983), according to which Wincenty was born in Kielcza, a village in Upper Silesia. In the article the author discusses the limited source basis of the two hypotheses. In addition, he examines the evolution and reception of these views in later historiography, noting the various errors, simplifications and overinterpretations committed by researchers. The author of the article argues that the concept whereby Wincenty came from Silesian Kielcza was created in isolation from the sources and is based on the convoluted conjectures of its creator. G. Labuda created the figure of Wincenty of Kielcza as part of a broader reflection aimed at proving the hypothesis concerning the existence of the so-called lost Dominican chronicle from the thirteenth century, apparently written by Wincenty. The very concept of a lost Dominican chronicle remains the subject of intense criticism in contemporary historiography. Although the final resolution of the dispute over Wincenty’s birthplace seems impossible, the author of the article argues that in the light of known source-based circumstantial evidence and arguments, the original interpretation, which has Wincenty born in Kielce, remains more convincing. However, it should still be regarded only as a hypothesis.

Jaime E. Rodríguez O. and the Constitution of Cádiz in Contemporary Historiography

This article analyzes historiographical discussions relating to the reception and interpretation of the 1812 Spanish Constitution—the Constitution of Cádiz—in Spanish America, with a particular focus on the debates around the influence of Cádiz in Mexico after 1821. It argues that Jaime E. Rodríguez O. formed part of revisionist group of scholars who challenged early nationalist narratives surrounding independence and political ideologies in Mexico and Spanish America. This revisionist history argued that liberalism grew domestically in this region as part of the Spanish Enlightenment and exhibited more democratic sensibilities than its US or European counterparts. The article shows how this interpretation has been questioned by Latin American and postcolonial scholars in recent decades, who insist that nineteenth-century liberalism was undemocratic and exclusionary in all of its forms. It concludes by discussing the possible new paths that historiography could adopt in its study of political ideas in nineteenth-century Mexico.

Реабилитация историками Крымского ханства в 5-томнике о крымских татарах

Author of the article analyzes the 3rd volume of the History of the Crimean Tatars, dedicated to the Crimean Khanate of the15th–18th centuries, published in Kazan in 2021, and resulted from the 2-year international research project aiming to produce the first academic History of the Crimean Tatars in a five volumes. This is a pioneering and valuable research covering the whole period of the Khanate history, from its formation in the first half of the 15th century to its annexation to the Russian Empire under the reign of Catherine the Great, who abolished the Khanate in 1783. The book discusses different aspects of the Khanate’s everyday life: its conquests and frequent raids against non-Muslim neighbors, foreign and domestic politics, Crimean Tatars’ economy, slave trade, spiritual and material culture, religion, military affairs, demography, their relationship with ethnic and confessional minorities of the Khanate and their Diaspora abroad, images of the Crimean Tatars as the Other constructed and later Orientalized by foreign travelers and observers from Western Europe, Ukraine and Russia. In fact, this book rehabilitates the Crimean Khanate, showing that it was not just a robber’s nest, living off raids on neighbors and the international slave trade, as the late Soviet literature argued. The study fills in a significant gap in contemporary historiography on the subject in the field of Oriental, Russian, Polish, and Ukrainian studies. It also contributes to comparative history of the northern Black sea area at the turn of the early modern times. It is noteworthy that the new series on History of the Crimean Tatars does not dismiss the legacy of the anti-Crimean Soviet literature categorically, but attempts to rethink it all creatively, starting with the pre-revolutionary classic study written by V.D. Smirnov. It resumes revisionist historiography of the Crimean Khanate from Perestroika to the present day proposing possible alternative readings of its history.

Medievalism. Historiographic Markers

The present study aims to shed light on the intellectual origins of medievalism studies, on the evolution of this historical research approach and the primary directions of inquiry employed in this field at the end of the 20th century and over the first two decades of the 21st century. The main focus of the present article is placed on the institutionalization of the research on medievalism (conferences, journals, editorial collections, university courses) and on the formation of several scholarly groups around the special research programs in this field (Kalamazoo, Yale, Medieval Electronic Multimedia Organization). Moreover, the present paper approaches the debates circling the contemporary historiography, particularly regarding the terminology (medievalism, neo/medievalism) and the establishment of medievalism as a research field (the relations with medieval studies, with literary and cultural studies, as well as with postmodernism and post-postmodernism).

Dějiny napsané na zeď. K Benjaminovu pojmu aktuality

The study aims to explain the meaning and function of the concept of topicality (Aktualität) in Benjamin’s philosophy of history and to show that it can present a relevant alternative to contemporary historiography. In times when society is improving the accuracy of its grasp of history and accumulating ever more data about it, Benjamin’s philosophy is valuable by concerning itself primarily with the problem of presentation (Darstellung) of the topicality of particular historical phenomena. Thanks to a better understanding of the concept of topicality, the reader will be able to see why Benjamin thought that to respond to what is “actual” in the sense of “topical” or “timely” in history is more important than specifying or accumulating data about it. However, in the presentation of a single topical historical object the whole of history is monadologically expressed: Benjamin’s focus on particular, unique phenomena didn’t imply a resignation vis-à-vis the task of expression of the whole.

Rethinking Postwar Liberalism: The Road to 2010 and Beyond

AbstractThe nineteenth and early twentieth century Liberal Party has been well served by British political historians. By contrast, research on the post‐1945 Liberal Party and Liberal Democrats has become a specialised field, with strong empirical foundations (including in biographies and political science work) but few connections with the larger narratives that historians tell about postwar Britain. This article explores how the story of the ‘long Liberal revival’ from the late 1950s to the 2010–15 coalition might be reintegrated with contemporary historiography, including debates about deindustrialisation, class dealignment and the rise of ‘popular individualism’. It argues that careful attention to the nature and limits of Liberals’ political agency can help us understand the changing meaning and significance of third‐party politics in Britain.

IMAGES OF POLITICAL ISLAM IN THE DUNE NOVELS: IMAGINATION AND INVENTION OF JIHAD AS A POLITICAL PROTEST

Background. The author analyzes the texts of the Dune cycle in contexts of contemporary historiography, which proposed universal methods that allow analyzing “oriental” images in literature through the prism of constructing and deconstructing the narratives that form the image of Islam.
 Purpose. The purpose of the article is an “orientalist” reinterpretation of Islamic images in the novels belonging to the Dune cycle, including the texts of the original cycle and prequels presented by Dune, Dune Messiah, Dune. Butlerian Jihad and Dune. Paul.
 Materials and methods. The author uses the methodological tools offered in intellectual history and studies of nationalism, including the concept of the invention of traditions, which allows us to analyze the images of Islam in science fiction as one of the invented traditions of American mass literature using the texts of the Dune cycle as sources corpus. Orientalism as a method is used to analyze Muslim motifs in the prose of F. Herbert, B. Herbert and K. Anderson, which, as the author believes, were inspired by political, ideological and religious stimuli. The author believes that the orientalist approach is an effective interpretative model for an interdisciplinary analysis of American science fiction as a space for the development of Islamic images.
 Results. It is shown that the novels through the prism of images of Islam actualize and promote a unique ideological discourse and political message. The features and forms of political protest under religious Muslim slogans are analyzed. It is studied how the mobilization potential of political Islam is perceived as a form of legitimization of social and economic protest. An expanded understanding of jihad as both a religious war and a social class conflict is analyzed. It is shown that 1) the actualization of Muslim images in American science fiction was the result of the political activation of the East, 2) the authors of the texts actualized the anti-authoritarian and emancipatory potential of Islam.

ДЕЯТЕЛЬНОСТЬ А. ДОРЖИЕВА В 1920-Е ГГ. В ИНФОРМАЦИОННЫХ ДОКУМЕНТАХ ОГПУ

The article is about the new sources pertaining to Agvan Dorjiev, the leader of the Buddhist renovationist movement in Russia. Reports, summaries and other declassified OGPU documents allow studying the important aspects of his activities in the 1920s. The paper is focused on the analysis of the documents which contain a lot of valuable information about the political stance of the Buddhist priests, the nature of the relationship between them and the ordinary believers, and the daily life of the Buddhist monasteries (dazans and huruls). The study of the declassified documents makes it possible to bring to light important data about the relations between the Soviet officials and the Buddhist Sangha, and about the clashes inside the Buddhist organizations. A network of secret agents has gathered valuable information about the conflict between the renovationists and the conservatives, about the activities of A. Dorjiev and other Buddhist leaders. Those documents contain the data referring to the disputes and other methods of antireligious agitation and propaganda. Reports on the “counter-revolutionary” statements and activities of the Buddhist clergymen and believers help revealing their attitude towards the Soviet authorities’ religion policy. Also, the documents facilitate for obtaining valuable information dealing with the real meaning of the concepts that are popular in contemporary historiography – the concepts of the “religious NEP” and the “Golden Age of Buddhism” in Soviet Russia.

“Between Finland and Bohdan Khmelnytsky’s land”: Ukrainian national project through the eyes of Herman Gummerus

This article considers the cooperation between the Ukrainian and Finnish national movement in the first quarter of the twentieth century. The political aspects of the cooperation are viewed through the lens of Herman Gregorius Gummerus’ biography (1877-1948). In contemporary historiography, Herman Gummerus is mostly known for his historical studies that focus on the economic history of ancient Rome. Whereas the majority of studies on Ukrainian-Finnish cooperation in the early twentieth century contain only fragmentary evidence of his political and diplomatic activities, the author of the article considers it necessary to present the biographical essay with a special focus on Herman Gummerus’ participation in the Finnish activists’ movement during two periods of “Russification of Finland” (1899-1905, 1908-1917) and after World War One. Herman Gummerus’ attitude towards the Ukrainian national state project (including the Ukrainian State or the Second Hetmanate, dated 1918) is reconstructed on the basis of his memoirs “Ukraine on the cusp. Six months at the head of the Finnish Embassy in Kyiv” (Ukrainan murrosajoilta - Kuusi kuukautta lähetystön päällikkönä Kievissä) (1931).

A Contribution to the Biography of Ivan Šalić

Contemporary historiography, so far, has not engaged in researching the biography of Ivan Šalić, the personal secretary of the Archbishop of Zagreb Alojzije Stepinac. Since the communist system was averse to Šalić and the Catholic Church in Croatia, it is not surprising that, to date, no one has made a critical review and analyzed his life and priestly service. This paper aims to show the life and significance of Ivan Šalić based on archival documents held in the Croatian State Archives in Zagreb and Šalić's birthplace in Bebrina (near Slavonski Brod). Numerous postal cards and letters testify to his life, especially the period when he was imprisoned in the Stara Gradiška Penitentiary (1946–1953). The paper will present his life from birth to death and analyze the correspondence with his family to emphasize his importance for the Catholic Church in Croatia.

The Phenomenon of Colonialism in World History: Themes and Trends in Recent Historiography

In this article, the author examines a range of issues related to the study of the phenomenon of colonialism in contemporary historiography. On the one hand, he analyses existing intellectual trends, historiographical schools, and methodological approaches, and, on the other hand, outlines new research fields and identifies promising directions for further research. He also points out that the study of the phenomenon of colonialism in all its systemic integrity and structural heterogeneity remains an essential objective for modern scholarship. The author assesses the impact of Edward Said's ideas on the formation of new approaches to the study of colonialism. He argues that his works led to a shift in the focus of research from socio-economic and political history to the study of cultural and intellectual history, and to an increased appreciation of the relationship between knowledge production and imperial expansion. The author examines contemporary research trends such as New Imperial History, Subaltern Studies, Transnational History (Histoire croisée) and analyses their strengths and weaknesses. Thus, in his view, the representatives of the “New Imperial History” tend to present colonialism primarily as a cultural project oriented towards superiority and domination. The proponents of Subaltern Studies focus on the history of people who were oppressed and exploited. Colonialism, imperialism, and decolonisation are presented in their studies exclusively as a history of violence and domination. In the context of transnational history, the phenomenon of colonialism is presented as an interwoven, interconnected history of a multitude of diverse civilisations and communities, making the world-system from the sixteenth to the twentieth century appear as a living mixture of European and non-European elements. The Histoire croisée rediscovers a seemingly obvious fact, namely the inseparability of mother countries and colonies, imperial practices at the local level and situations within and between European states themselves. The history of civilisations, states, and societies of the Afro-Asian region — the former colonial world — revisited in research in recent decades shows a multitude of trajectories, often branching, of their own paths of long and fruitful adaptation to different environments, of their own ways of developing rational economy and politics, which are particular to them. The author observes that the task of modern historiography is to strive to study the phenomenon of colonialism in all its diversity and to free itself from the perspective of its predecessors, who viewed the world only in the focus of binary relations between the European colonial empires on the one hand and the former colonies on the other. The historical study of the colonial world needs to continue, not as a collection of heterogeneous experiences reflecting the diversity of non-European countries, but as a significant part of the history of a single world where all people, whatever their origin, played equal roles.

Javna i primijenjena povijest

The article presents key elements of public history. Firstly, it indicates the changes in contemporary historiography that enabled the emergence of public history, as well as its affirmation as a new historical sub-discipline and consequently its inclusion in university programmes. Secondly, it describes institutional development of public history from the 1970s onwards, and contemplates the still open question of its definition. In addition, the article presents the main highlights of applied history. Although applied history is often mentioned as an integral part of public history, it is worth talking about it separately, in order to highlight the practical dimension of history. This refers to history in practice and the possibilities of historians' work outside the academia and education. The article also presents controversies and criticisms provoked by public history and applied history and offers answers to them. The author argues that public and applied history can be a framework that enables historians to reconcile the professional needs and the audience's interests. He points out that it is important to take into account the relationship between academic historiography and the public. Lastly, the author discusses future perspectives of public and applied history, with an emphasis on local academic historiography. Considering the students' interest as well as that of a significant part of local historians, the author encourages discussion about a possible graduate studies in public history. Besides being an important challenge for academic historiography, the author concludes that public and applied history can also offer a great deal of practical skills to professional historians.

Исторический нарратив как вызов для национальных государств

Over the past forty years, the concepts of ‘historical narrative’ and ‘historical discourse’ became present in historical science. The former means the interpretation of a text by its author or narrator, whereas the latter stands for a set of conceptually related historical texts integrated into a particular historical context. Analysing the theory of historical discourse, modern scholars came to the conclusion that the contemporary historiography of nation-states (national and territorial states) is nothing but a certain discourse. This scientific discourse broadens and/or forms a corresponding sociopolitical discourse, and it also brings structure to the national (national and state) self-identity of a political nation. New scientific findings and shifts in the political environment lead to certain changes in this discourse, and these changes may have hard-to-predict consequences. The narrative of the presentation and interpretation of national history, which emerged in the early 19th century, was created for the purposes of a specific nation-state and it was integrated into the compulsory education. Therefore, with the use of the historical discourse theory, the author considers two interrelated problems: 1) the impact of ‘historical discourse’ on the formation of national (national and territorial) identity; 2) the impact of ‘historical discourse’ on the position of the state in the system of international relations. The author goes on to show three key types of historical discourse based on the example of different countries, both Western and not: the so-called problematic (France, Britain), constructed (Italy, Germany) and selected (Russia, China). The author makes it evident that nation-states in modern political theory seem as a constant, coming from medieval even. Meanwhile, the formation of nation-states is incomplete and for its completion both reforming of existing national history discourses and creating new ones are required.