Russian History Research Articles

Общественно-политическое и правовое положение осетин Южной Осетии как подданных Грузинского государства (XII–XVIII вв.)

The article examines a little-known historical and legal problem related to the citizenship of the South Ossetians of the Georgian feudal monarchy and Georgian kings. The little-researched problem raised seems not only relevant from the point of view of Russian history and jurisprudence, but also interesting from the socio-political position of today, when relations between Georgians and Ossetians have significantly deteriorated not only because of the genocide organized by the Georgian authorities against South Ossetians in 1920, 1989-1992 and 2008, but also the complete separation of South Ossetia from genocidal Georgia. The article is debatable, but the facts presented here seem convincing and reasoned.

СЛАВЯНОФИЛЬСКАЯ ФИЛОСОФИЯ ВОЙНЫ: ОПЫТ РЕКОНСТРУКЦИИ

The article examines the statements of Slavophile philosophy that defined the line along which the tradition of understanding the phenomenon of war developed in Russia. Exploring the views and war roads of A.S. Khomyakov, I.S. Aksakov and Yu.F. Samarin, the authors analyze the attitude of these thinkers to war and its consequences, their appraisal of the meaning of the XIXth century war conflicts in the history of Russia and the West as well as moral motives dominating the works of these philosophers. Slavophile philosophy of war is formed as a practical one with an obvious tendency towards historiosophy, focused primarily on understanding the moral meaning and historical significance of the wars inwhich Russia took part.

War and Economic Growth: What Can Modern RUSSIA Learn From the 20th Century?

After February 2022, the growth of military expenditures and trade sanctions of unfriendly countries were the main factors determining the economic development of the Russian Federation. These factors are nothing new in the world and Russian history. They are typical economic manifestations of military conflicts. The accumulated historical experience, if properly used and correctly interpreted, can help to evaluate the current state of the Russian economy and predict its future. In this context, this article considers the two largest world conflicts (the First and Second World Wars) as well as five major military conflicts of the 20th century in which our country took part. The analyzed experience has identified six major factors. The presence or absence of these factors determines the potential economic growth of a belligerent state. With regard to the presence of these factors, the current economic situation in Russia has been analyzed. The authors have come to the conclusion that there are no prospects for economic growth in modern Russia. Besides, they have justified the need for a structural reorientation of GDP towards increased military and investment spending at the expense of reduced consumption by the population.

In search of a predictable past

The article is a reflection on reading the book by Academician A.V. Torkunov and Professor V.V. Degoev “Russian History: State. Civilization, External World” (Moscow: Aspect Press, 2024) in connection with the problems raised in it in the spheres of economy, state and society structure in Russia, up to the problems of its foreign policy. In their voluminous work, involving the methodology of historical sciences and related disciplines, the authors paid attention to the issues of human relations with society and the state in Russia, which, as elsewhere, were not always friendly and have never been simple. Reading the monograph encourages reflection on the patterns of development of Russian statehood over a huge period of time from the second half of the 9th century to the beginning of the 20th century, — from the formation of the Kyiv state to the First World War, - including the periods of Ancient Rus’, medieval Muscovy and the Russian Empire.

Кому молились о рождении Ивана Грозного: «неизвестные» и новые молитвы прп. Александра Свирского

<p>The idea for this article came about as a result of a combination of the revived veneration of St Alexander of Svirsky, and the study of the manuscript tradition of his Life (16th-19th centuries) and is connected with the attribution of prayers attributed to the Venerable in modern liturgical minyas. A study of over 315 folios of the Vita has shown that there is no evidence of the latter in the main source of information about the Monk. However, in the earliest edition, the Mineinaya, his prayers were preserved in the form in which they were recorded 12 years after his repose. One of them is in a sense key to Russian history and is directly connected with the veneration of the saint by the royal family; it is preserved only in manuscripts and is absent in the modern hagiographic text. The objectives of the study were both to establish the probable sources of the modern prayers attributed to St Alexander and to clarify the manuscript tradition of those prayers that were clearly preserved throughout the centuries in the texts of the Life.</p>

Book review: Odintsov M. I., Kochetova A. S. Freedom of Conscience in the History of Russia: Ideas, Legislative Projects, Practical implementation. The end of the 19th — the first quarter of the 20th century Moscow : Political Encyclopedia, 2023. 553 p.

Book review: Odintsov M. I., Kochetova A. S. Freedom of Conscience in the History of Russia: Ideas, Legislative Projects, Practical implementation. The end of the 19th — the first quarter of the 20th century Moscow : Political Encyclopedia, 2023. 553 p.

National Question and Its Resolution: Semantics of Ethnic Disintegration and Integration in Russian History Textbooks of 20th-21st Centuries

This article addresses the issue of verbalizing the semantics of ethnic disintegration (separation) and integration (unity) through terminological means. The study is based on an analysis of 40 combinations featuring the word “nation” and its derivatives, which are regularly employed in contemporary educational publications on Russian history from the 20th to the 21st century. The aim of this work is to describe the conceptual fields of ethnic disintegration or integration as represented by the terminological tools of educational historical discourse. Through a logical-semantic approach, the boundaries of the terminologies of disintegration / integration and their logical models are identified; the semantics of individual terminological units are described, including their axiological potentials. The structures of the conceptual fields represented by combinations with “nation” and its derivatives are delineated. The author concludes that the terms “national question” and “resolution of the national question” serve as foundational nominations within educational historical discourse, organizing the terminological systems of disintegration and integration. These terms are interpreted as opposing yet complementary fields that reflect the states of the nation and state in their opposition (political distancing of the nation from the state) or identification (political unity), encompassing a border zone filled with characteristics that facilitate the transition of the nation and state from one state to another.

ПАМЯТЬ О ЦАРЕ-МИРОТВОРЦЕ АЛЕКСАНДРЕ III В КРЫМУ

Interest in the personality and deeds of Emperor Alexander III has increased markedly recently – and not only out of a desire to deepen our knowledge of the Russian history in the second half of the XIX century, but also due to the need to understand how peace can be preserved (and in not the most favorable conditions in the international arena), effectively cooperating with other states and at the same time doing everything possible to restore and strengthen the military power of their country. The Emperor left a good memory in the Crimea, where he visited many times. The seat of the royal family was Livadia. They were housed in the Small Palace (a monument to Alexander III was erected in its place in 2017). The article talks about those important innovations in the economic, military and cultural life of the Crimea that were associated with the name of Alexander III, and how the memory of the peacemaker emperor was preserved and preserved on the peninsula.

On some nominations of children in the history of Russian and Chinese languages

The article is devoted to the history of children’s nominations in Russian and Chinese languages. The difference of time range of factual materials used in the article is due to the particularity of the historical development and the fixation of Russian and Chinese languages. The process reveals a serious typological similarity. This is manifested in the possibility of the formation of a large number of nominations from a small number of ancient roots, stability and preservation of the root material, and also in the fact that the semantics of lexemes in both languages can pass through the same stages of their evolution. The meanings of both languages may contain such semantic components as “slave”, “servant, worker”. There are also differences in semantic development between languages. In Russian, the semantics evolve in the direction of age: “child” “young man”. In Chinese, the process can go in the opposite direction-from naming adults to naming children.

ПРЕДШЕСТВЕННИК Н.М. КАРАМЗИНА: П.-Ш. ЛЕВЕК КАК ИСТОРИК РОССИИ

Опубликованная в конце XVIII в. «История Российская» французского ученого Пьера-Шарля Левека (1736–1812) была первым обобщающим трудом по истории нашей страны не только в русской, но и в мировой историографии. Она непосредственно предшествовала знаменитой «Истории государства Российского» Николая Карамзина, но сегодня почти забыта. Однако сочинение Левека было основным источником знаний образованных россиян об истории России до появления труда Карамзина. В статье рассматриваются использованные Левеком источники, его вклад в изучение российского прошлого. Показано влияние этой книги на образованное русское общество. Левек не считал Россию идеальной страной, но и не был настроен к ней враждебно. Его книга является редким примером объективности историка. The Histoire de Russieby French scholar Pierre-Charles Levesque (1736–1812), published by the end of the 18th century, was the first work summarizing the history of our country not only in Russian, but also in the world historiography. It immediately preceded the famous History of the Russian State (1816–26) by Nikolay Karamzin, but almost forgotten today. However, Levesque's paper was the main source of knowledge of educated Russians on the Russian history before Karamzin's paper was published. The sources used by Levesque, his contribution to the study of the Russia's past are discussed in the article. In his writing, Levesque did not consider Russia an ideal country, but he was not hostile to it either. His book is a rare example of a historian's impartiality.

BAM — the story continues

The article covers the history of the construction of the Baikal-Amur Mainline (BAM) from the 1930s to the present day. It reveals details of the organization and conditions of work during construction, including prison labor, labor shortages, and food problems. Particular attention is paid to the analysis of the formation of a new society based on communist ideology during the construction of the BAM, as well as the impact of the project on the development of the economy and social sphere of the region. The main idea of the article is that the construction of the BAM was not only an important economic project, but also had a deep socio-cultural and political context, exerting a significant influence on the formation of a new social environment and values in society. The construction of the BAM is presented as an international people’s construction project that united more than 70 nationalities, which is extremely important in the history of Russia. The article also touches on the prospective development of the project, mentioning modernization and the future third stage of the BAM construction.

«Советское» Сергея Никольского

The paper is a reflection on the first part of duology (two inextricably linked parts of one work) entitled “Soviet” by the Russian social philosopher Sergei Nikolsky. In the second part of duology, Nikolsky offers a philosophical analysis of Soviet literature, or rather a philosophical and literary analysis of the idea of the “Soviet”. The first part is devoted to the historiosophy of the “Soviet”. Therefore, the author of the review, to illuminate the author’s intention, focuses on the first volume and mainly writes about the preconditions of the “Soviet” that Sergei Nikolsky discovers in Russian history. The uniqueness of the “So­viet” consists primarily in the unexpected vitality of the idea, the originality of the social practice corresponding to it and the specific creative totality. “So­viet” is not only Leninism and Stalinism, but a socio-political adaptation of Marxism to a special historically determined context, the “Russian soil”. This is also a political and philosophical project to reform personal social conscious­ness, to create a new person and to build a new world. The source of the “So­viet” were the leaders and the state apparatus, but it appeared first in the heads of Marxist-oriented intellectuals, and then produced by the people as a whole and existed thanks to them and deeply-rooted tradition. Sergei Nikolsky admits that the “Soviet” had both the humanistic and liberating potential of the philoso­phy of Karl Marx. Thus, the “Soviet” is the idea of the comprehensive develop­ment of man, the construction of a future brotherhood, as well as the heroism shown by the people during the Great War. The author of the paper also writes on the special tonality of the “Soviet”, finding it successful

THE OPPOSING FORCES IN THE CIVIL WAR AND THE POLITICAL MOOD OF THE CITIZENS (BASED ON THE MATERIAL OF BASHKIRIA)

One of the most important factors in the political struggle is the position of the citizens. In this article, we will try to consider the political sentiments of the citizens based on the material of Bashkiria during one of the turning points in Russian history during the civil war. The territory of our region was the scene of fierce military and political confrontation between the Bolsheviks and a wide range of their opponents: from those who were called the members of «democratic counterrevolution" in the historiography of the Soviet period to more right-wing forces. A number of sources provide valuable and objective material on the political proclivity of the citizens during the civil war. These are the results of elections at various levels, the position of elected authorities, the documents characterizing the attitude of the citizens to the mobilization and voluntary entry into the army of opposing forces, the documents from the category "internal distribution only”. The scientific novelty of the article is due to the lack of special works on this problem. However, we have taken into account the works devoted to the civil war as a whole or its individual aspects in Russia and Bashkiria. As the goals of our research, we can see the identification of documents containing objective information about the political sentiments of the population and the formulation of conclusions regarding the support of the citizens of the opposing forces. In summary, we conclude that there is no mass and constant support from all the opposing forces and indicate the reasons for the indifference of the citizens.

“Dialogue” between Russian and (Post/Anti)Boasian Anthropologies

The article touches on the problem of self-perception of domestic scholars in a long on-going dialogue with American anthropology. The focus is on the figure of the latter’s founding father, who, as is known, maintained intensive contacts with many prominent Russian scholars (L. Shternberg, W. Bogoras, J. Averkieva, etc.). Thanks to him, they received their positions and degrees, weight in the scientific world. But there is much that is paradoxical in the Boasian influence on Russian anthropology. Bogoras, who was most strongly associated with him personally and adopted Boas’s fieldworks methods, nevertheless made little reference to him in his works. On the other hand, Averkieva, who quoted “Papa Franz” many times, practically remained unaffected by his intellectual influence. In the modern Russian history of anthropology, there is a growing desire to participate in the “sharing” of Boas’s legacy, together with their recognized American colleagues (G. Stocking, R. Darnell, etc.). However, the genealogy of professional connections between Russian and American anthropologists is not easy to construct. Mutual relationship sometimes appears in the most unexpected points (anthropological linguistics, physical anthropology), while parallels are often explained by “similar ways of thinking”.

Neighbours of the empire: Images of Russia in Lithuanian and Polish textbooks

In the paper, we analyze the image of the Soviet Union and Russia presented by the Lithuanian and Polish states to the youngest generation. Our empirical data comes from textbooks for social sciences and recent history, beginning from the gaining independence of both countries after the First World War until the aggression on Ukraine in 2014. We focused on the ways of presenting to the pupils the politics, society, and culture of the Soviet and Russian states. We show how textbooks present the Russian state as irrational and dangerous and how the longue durée of the imperial thinking is seen as the leitmotiv of the narratives on Russian history.

SYSTEMATIZATION OF THE COLLECTION OF COLD STEEL IN THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF THE ALTAI REPUBLIC NAMED AFTER A.V. ANOKHIN

The article for the first time analyzes and scientifically describes the collection of cold steel in the National Museum of the Altai Republic named after A.V. Anokhin. The research was carried out using the methods of reputable Russian historians and archaeologists, art historians, ethnographers, and weapons scientists. The need to study the collection is dictated by the increased public interest in the history of the development of military affairs. According to the results of the study, the labeling of weapons in the stationary exposition was updated, a series of temporary exhibitions using weapons collections at the National Museum named after A.V. Anokhin was prepared. The authors express the hope that the work will arouse great interest among both specialists studying the history of the development of military affairs, armament of the peoples of Siberia, collectors, and a wide range of amateurs interested in the history of weapons.

Russian historical themes in computer games. Action RPG "Time of Troubles"

There is an interest in historical themes on the Russian computer games market. Particular attention should be paid to the growing popularity of games based on Slavic mythology, folklore, and alternative history. The developers — mostly domestic companies from all over Russia — off er to immerse yourselves in the Slavic epic, change the course of history, and simply become witnesses and participants in historical events. A computer game can be considered as an educational material allowing to learn in a game form about a diffi cult period of Russian history — the Time of Troubles of the early 17th century, marked by external intervention, cases of imposture, civil Russian-Polish and Russian-Swedish wars, and state crises. The game is an example of a novel educational methodology that combines the processes of teaching and education.

СКЕЛЕТ МУЖЧИНЫ С ТЕРРИТОРИИ ДРЕВНЕРУССКОГО ГОРОДА-КРЕПОСТИ КРОМЫ

During the development of the scientific topic «Verkhovskie Principalities» of the XIV - early XV centuries (by A.V. Erokhin and D.S. Vukolov) a burial was found on the territory of the medieval fortress city of Kroma (modern Oryol region), which can date from both ancient Russian and modern times (before the XVIII century). The article presents an individual paleoanthropological description according to classical craniological, odontological and osteological methods. To sum up, in the burial there was an adult man of 40-45 years old, Caucasian appearance, below medium height, with massive tibia. The distinctive features of the man’s appearance were the protruding right upper canine, the congenital absence of the left second upper incisor and the lifetime loss of the right upper incisors. Moreover, the individual belongs to the Western odontological trunk, groups with strongly differentiated first lower premolars. The man suffered from osteochondrosis, had carious lesion9s of the teeth. There is hypoplasia on the tooth enamel, lifetime chips and strong deposits of tartar. The role of the city of Kroma in the development of Russian history is extremely important, so additional research is required to identify bone remains in the near future.

ТЮРКСКИЙ КУЛЬТУРНО-ИСТОРИЧЕСКИЙ ТИП В КОНТЕКСТЕ ДИСКУССИЙ ОБ ИСТОРИИ МИРОВЫХ ЦИВИЛИЗАЦИЙ

Turkic cultural-historical type in the context of discussions about the history of world civilizations Summary The article analyzes the historical-cultural types presented in the book "Russia and Europe" by the Russian philosopher N. Danilevsky, published in 1869, and the concept of civilizations put forward by him. The concepts of O. Spengler and A. Toynbee, discussed in the later periods, as a whole, discussions on this level, ideas related to the concepts of "culture", "civilization", "historical-cultural type", as well as literary addresses and texts, and F.M. Dostoyevsky are referred to. As the main reason why the Turkish historical-cultural type cannot take a proper place in these concepts, the rise of the Slavic historical-cultural type against the background of the Russo-Turkish wars is emphasized. It is shown that it is surprising that the Turkish historical-cultural type is not included in the first and subsequent classifications based on the laws and regularities of movement defined by the Russian scientist who had the first role in defining historical-cultural types. Historical facts, evidence and evidence are listed to prove this. Although the indicated error was eliminated by the authors of the Eurasian concept of Russian history in the 20s and 30s of the 20th century, it is noted that there is a need for scientific-theoretical confirmation of the existence of the Turkish historical-cultural type and Turkish civilization as an ideological landmark in the historical conditions of the formation of the Union of Turkic States. Key words: N. Danilevsky, “Russia and Europe”, cultural and historical type, crusades, Slavs

Representation of Femininity in the Poetry Books of the Era of Revolution and Civil War

The article examines several poetry collections of 1917–1922, which are of interest from the point of view of the representation of femininity both in the choice of titles and in the motif-figurative and thematic content. This period in the history of Russia is characterized by a crisis of previous social and cultural norms and behaviors, including traditional femininity, characterized by the emergence of new gender roles, for example, a revolutionary or a warrior woman. However, the analysis of women’s poetry books demonstrates that the former archetypes of femininity or recognizable types, for example, the image of a mother or a bohemian fatal beauty, not only do not disappear, but are also actualized, and women poets of the new wave boldly express their author’s subjectivity than their predecessors in the first decades of the twentieth century.