National Historiography Research Articles

Speech by K.E. Voroshilov at the parade on November 7, 1941 in Kuibyshev

For the first time in the national historiography of the Great Patriotic War, the article examines the process of preparing a speech by Marshal K.E. Voroshilov at the parade held on November 7, 1941 in the temporary military capital of the Soviet state, Kuibyshev. The article is based on declassified draft versions of the speech, which are in the fund of K.E. Voroshilov of the Council of People's Commissars of the State Archive of the Russian Federation. These documents are introduced into scientific circulation for the first time. The analysis of the draft versions of the speech led the authors to the conclusion that Voroshilov prepared the speech on his own and worked carefully on the content, constantly improving it. Writing a speech has gone from a plan to several options, first handwritten and then typed. Voroshilov constantly worked on improving the text of the speech, as evidenced by inserts into the same version, made both in ink and in pencil. When working on a speech, Voroshilov had to take into account two points that imposed special responsibility on his speech. If it was impossible to broadcast the parade from Moscow, it was supposed to broadcast the parade from Kuibyshev. Secondly, the military attaches of the diplomatic missions located in Kuibyshev were present at the parade. In this regard, special attention is paid in the article to the analysis of the search for definitions of the allied countries of the USSR in the war. At the same time, a comparison of the speech delivered at the parade and printed in the newspapers of the country, and the last version of the speech, located in Voroshilov's papers, showed a rather significant difference. Based on this, the authors made a hypothetical conclusion that the speech was corrected and expanded for publication. This indicates that Voroshilov's speech did not fully satisfy the leaders of the state and was corrected.

From Muslim Chronicles to National Historiographies? (The Conceptual Introduction)

The formation of national Muslim historiographies is still understudied in the context of inter-imperial transfers of knowledge in the era of the creation of national republics on the ruins of colonial empires. Meanwhile, its investigation sheds light on a number of key historical subjects of nation-building in nationalizing empires, hybriditization of Muslim historiography, subjectivity of Islamic historical knowledge. Based on the materials of historical works composed by the Muslim scholars of the Russian and Ottoman-Turkish nationalities such as ‘Ali Kayaev (al-Ghumuqi, 1878–1943), Jamal al-Din of Karabudakhkent (al-Gharabudaghi, 1858–1947), Murad Ramzi (1854–1934) and Yusuf Akçura (1876–1935), the authors of the article attempted to trace modern historical narratives of the former Muslim borderlands in the Russian and Ottoman empires, to establish their similarities and differences, contribution of Muslim reformers, who were close to the majority of these four historians, in the formation of national historiographies of the Caucasus, the Volga region and the former Ottoman Empire, including the popularization of national history in Muslim periodicals.

The Role of Yusuf Akçura in the Formation of Turkish National Historiography

This article discusses the formation of Yusuf Akçura as a professional historian and one of the founders of the Turkish national historiography in the Republican period. Researchers of his works used to focus on his socio-political activities, educational and public work. His role as one of the first Turkish historiographers, who took seriously the idea of the Turkic origin of the Turkish nation, remains still understudied basically. It is noteworthy that he stood at the foundations of the official concept of national history after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. Akçura succeeded to include (pre-)modern history of the Turkic peoples of Eurasia in the Thesis on Turkish History (see: [Türk Tarihinin Ana Hatları, 1930]), which became the basis of the official historiography in Republican Turkey. As is known, M. K. Ataturk noticed him and introduced him into the group of the new Turkish political elite charged to formulate the official republican historical and educational discourse in the early 1930s. It was because of Akçura’s works, that history of the Turks began to be studied and taught in Republican Turkey.

Classic Theories of Nationalism in the Context of Minority Nationalism in Great Britain:regional nationalist movements as a “marginal” subject of modern historiography of nationalism

The purpose of this study is to analyze the possibility of classical theories of nationalism use in analysis of the minority nationalisms histories in the British historiographical situation. The author analyses the complexities of integration and assimilation of the ideal models of Ruritania and Megalomania as imagining nationalising and modernising societies proposed by Ernest Gellner, as well as Miroslav Hrochs’ periodisation of nationalism as “ideal” interpretive models in the contexts of British historiography. The subject of the article is classical modernist theories of nationalism, the object is the possibility of their application in British historical research. It is assumed that the processes of nationalist modernisation and the development of regional nationalisms, on the one hand, are perceived through the prism of a constructivist approach. On the other hand, the author believes that the British historical material is characterised by a significant degree of resistance and therefore the use of classical theories of nationalism in the context of the conservatism of the historiographical imagination in Great Britain is debatable. The article analyses the difficulties of integrating the history of regional minority nationalisms and English nationalism into the contexts of sociocultural modernism of classical theories of nationalism. The results of the study suggest that the modern British historiographical situation is simultaneously characterised by an interest in the problems of the social history of regional nationalisms and significant conservatism, which expresses itself in ignoring classical theories of nationalism, despite the effectiveness of their interpretive models.

The historical evolution of the Greek retail trade: a first overview of its organisational-functional and spatial restructuring

The history of retailing has become an area of growing scholarly interest over the last few decades, with publications mainly concerning the national historiography of retail and wholesaling. On the other hand, although the retail sector is considered to be one of the most historically significant sectors of the Greek economy, the economic history of the Greek retail industry remains a notoriously underdeveloped area of inquiry and, as such, is on the margins of economic and social studies in Greek historiography. In this paper, we, attempt to provide a first concise (and certainly not exhaustive) analysis of the historical development of the Greek retail sector from the nineteenth century to the present (in circa) day. Specifically, we aim to analyse the evolution of the Greek retail trade to assess the spatial and social impacts associated with establishing and operating “new forms” of commerce. The focus is on the sectoral and organisational restructuring of the retail trade with the changes in the standards of the spatial location, which relate to the establishment and operation of retail businesses. Students and scholars of the history of retailing would benefit from this worthwhile exercise which for the first time provides a first overview of the historical development of the Greek retail sector.

Of histories (un)shared: India – Pakistan, postage stamps, and 1857

ABSTRACT While much has been written about how imperialist and Indian nationalist historiographies have approached 1857, scant attention has been paid to how it has been remembered in Pakistan. This article endeavours to explore the ways in which 1857 has been articulated by the state in India and Pakistan through a study of their commemorative postage stamps. On the face of it, India's emphasis on nonviolence and Pakistan's quest for an Islamic history make 1857 a misfit within the historiographies of both states. However, the paper outlines that during the centenary in 1957, both India and Pakistan commemorated 1857 while maintaining some discursive distance from it. While Pakistan chose to memorialise it as the beginning of its struggle for independence, India recessed it within the broader framework of independence itself. The paper goes on to demonstrate how this position has changed drastically over the years. In order to weave a composite and inclusive history of the country, India now celebrates the legacy of 1857 by appropriating it within the frames of national unity, patriotism, and anti-imperialism. Pakistan, on the other hand, uses 1857 merely as a means to segue into a discussion of reform efforts led by the subcontinent's Muslim elite, thereby relegating it to the background of the Pakistan movement.

Бухтарминские старообрядцы как этноконфессиональная группа в СССР в постосоветской русскоязычной историографии

In the study, using the comparative historical method, the post-Soviet historiography of the history of the Bukhtarma Old Believers is studied. The author studies Russian post-Soviet historiography and Qazaq post-Soviet Russian-language historiography. The most important scientific problems and approaches to the study of the history of the Old Believers are highlighted and compared. The article contributes to the discussion of why it is necessary to jointly study the achievements of both Russian and Qazaq post-Soviet historiography. The author reveals the expansion of the modern ethnographic framework in the study of the Bukhtarma Old Believers. The problem of the identification of the Bukhtarma Old Believers in modern historical literature is revealed. The author notes that in the last decade, new studies have appeared in which the Bukhtarma Old Believers are identified with the Old Believers of Altai. Modern Russian and Qazaq historians systematically turn to Soviet historiography. Soviet historical studies written in the 1920s and 1930s act as a historical source. The author analyzes the historiography of the most important problems in the history of the Bukhtarma Old Believers. The most significant problems are Soviet repression, preservation of identity, and preservation of traditionalism. The historiography presents case studies on selected issues related to common scientific problems. The author concludes that the historiography of modern Bukhtarma Old Believers can successfully develop as a single “post-Soviet Russian-language historiography.” National historiography is inferior in depth to scientific analysis.

Precarious discourses: herstory and the politics of re-articulation in Panashe Chigumadzi’s These Bones Will Rise Again

ABSTRACT Zimbabwe’s nationalist historiography is founded on an androcentric political imagination that excludes women from sites of nation-narration and knowledge production. This scenario has sparked a proliferation of women-authored and women-centred historical narratives (‘herstory’) that seek to displace male-centred history (‘(his)tory’) and reinscribe women into the nationalist narrative. Through a close reading of Panashe Chigumadzi’s autobiography, These Bones Will Rise Again (2018), the article offers a context-specific evaluation of herstory’s capacity to transcend the single-eyedness and misogynistic underpinnings of (his)story. I demonstrate that herstory and (his)story are equally monolithic discourses that seek to eliminate each other, and this antagonism undermines the possibilities of a multi-inclusive nationalist history. Overall, I argue that while herstory can be a potent tool for subverting masculinized national memory, it inherits some of the exclusionary tendencies of (his)tory in ways that undermine its overarching goal to de-gender the discursive space. The article finally proposes that herstory necessarily needs to be (re)situated within the tradition of negotiation politics if it has to transcend the faults of (his)tory. To explore these dynamics, I draw on Chimamanda Adichie’s ‘The Dangers of a Single Story’ (2009).

Contribution to the teaching of the Cuba history from the theoretical-conceptual approach of the historical region

The objective of the present work is to carry out a theoretical-conceptual approach to the historical region to contribute to the teaching of the Cuba history in the first half of the century XIX. We depart from the idea that the historical region is formed through a socio-historical process, has different stages, changes that permit maneuver you, defines as such in the century XIX but your endless transformation. Wooden shoe a certain territory that in your historical time it has firm relationships. Delimit your fundamental and cardinal attributes in the first half of the century XIX. The historical regions are integrated in the national unit and the national identity is manifested in the regional particular properties. In this sense the teaching of the Cuba history as of the study is enriched of the historical region, by having in count that the regional studies constitute a process in formation that has come by consolidating and earning space in the national historiography. For other side it favors the comparisons with other regions in identical historical stages.

Формирование исторической науки и общественной мысли Мексики в XIX в.

This article analyzes the process of formation of historical science and social thought in Mexico in the 19th century. The author focuses on the important works of some of the most famous researchers of Mexican history, which laid the foundation for Mexican historiography. The au-thor notes that the origin and formation of Mexican national historiog-raphy and social thought was associated with key political events in the country's history: War of Independence 1810-1824, creation of the first liberal constitutions, Mexican-American War 1846-1848. and territorial disputes with the United States, bourgeois reforms, the civil war of 1854–1860, the Anglo-French-Spanish intervention, the liberation war of the Mexican people of 1861–1867. These events occupied an im-portant place in the works of the first Mexican historians, who often personally took part in the process of the political formation of an in-dependent state and became the starting points around which the historical concepts of the Mexican history of the national period were formed. these events primarily attracted the attention of historians and became the starting points around which the historical concepts of the Mexican history.

Global Relevance of the Legal History of the Early Modern Mediterranean

This essay is the result of reflection elicited by three ERC-funded projects on the Early Modern Mediterranean. From their results, it emerged that the interconnectivity generated by the legal interactions in that time and place played a vital role in the shaping of the modern world. We need to recognise the importance of this legal history and reassess the neglected importance of Mediterranean developments within global history, thus giving it its proper place in our research agendas. This conclusion is discussed within the framework of recent historiographical developments across different sub-disciplines and national historiographies. Image Caption: Gerard and Leonard Valck, Mare mediterraneum, Washington, Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division, G5672 .M4 1695 .V3 TIL, 1695. Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division (Public Domain) https://www.loc.gov/resource/g5672m.ct000433/

Ethnicity and Conflict: The Northern Ireland Troubles

AbstractIn this article, I defend the view that the Northern Ireland Troubles can usefully be described as an ethnic conflict. I critically examine two manifestos on this subject, those by Richard Bourke and Simon Prince respectively, which rest on misrepresentations of the scholarship on Northern Ireland. The issues raised by these historians are relevant to the historiography of nationalism and the study of civil war. I focus on the coincidence of religious affiliation and political allegiance in Ulster and the mechanisms by which patterns of conflict have been reproduced over time, suggesting several reasons why historians and political scientists have turned to the notion of ethnicity to describe the persistence of antagonism in the North of Ireland. In the final section, focusing on the loyalist agitator John McKeague, I argue that the literature on ethnicity helps historians to understand the outbreak of the Northern Ireland conflict better than does the singular concentration on democratic ideas recommended by Bourke and Prince.

Realistas, patriotas y mestizos

The South American wars of independence were rich in social contradictions, politicization of the masses and new players emerging during the Spanish Empire’s crisis on the continent. By adopting a regional perspective that decentralizes and democratizes knowledge relative to state-centered nationalistic historiography, researchers can analyze episodes and discover historical players previously absent from state-of-the-art research. This paper traces a specific case related to the right to profits from Tarapacá guano during the 1815 patriot invasion of the district of Tarapacá and the River Plate offensive in neighboring Upper Peru. Based on unpublished primary sources and pertinent bibliographic discussion, the authors argue that socio-ethnic factors, interests and new conceptions about the use of regional resources drove a sector of South American society to support the Patriot cause temporarily. Thus, the political, economic and social conflict surrounding guano constitutes new background for the transformation of South American colonial society at the dawn of the 19th century and the imminent emergence of the republican order in southern Peru.

Imperial wars and the violence of hunger: remembering and forgetting the Great Persian Famine 1917–1919

The Great Persian Famine of 1917–1919 is one of the greatest calamities in the history of Iran. While some scholarly work has explored the causes and dynamics of the famine, less attention has been paid to its memorialisation. This paper aims to understand how the Great Persian Famine is remembered – or not – in public and personal spheres in Iran. Discussing the historical events that have been silenced, neglected or publicly recognised and commemorated before and after the Islamic Revolution, the paper focusses on the processes that hinder public and private memorialising of hunger violence. Drawing on existing literature, personal diaries, artistic representations, and interviews with persons whose parents or grandparents experienced the Great Persian Famine, we discuss why it has not figured prominently in the national historiography or commemorative practices, except during a brief period (2008–2013) when it found its way into the prevailing political discourse.

Incarceration Conditions of the French Prisoners of War in the British Prison in Chatham in 1803-1814: Regression Analysis of the Duration of Captivity and Mortality

The relevance of this article is studying of the problem of “Man at war” includes examining a fate of prisoners of war. Detention conditions of Frenchmen in England during the Napoleonic wars remain a subject of discussions in the foreign historiography. Besides this, it has also never been studied earlier in the national historiography. In the article they are considered by means of regression analysis of captivity duration and mortality. Their dependence from such factors as age, height, rank, type of vessel, year of capturing etc. is considered. This method reveals if there was any discrimination in releasing and if food supply and other conditions were satisfying for survival in detention. The results are compared with the data of the Danish and Norwegian prisoners who were kept in the same prison. The aim is to examine detention conditions of the French captives on English prison hulks. The result of the study is reveal of the duration of captivity depending from the period of seizing: the first arrivals spent the longest time in a prison that indicates the halting of captives’ exchange as early as 1803. It also depended from way of leaving the prison: if the prisoner was exchanged, dyed or escaped. Persons aged less than 12 and over 50 were released earlier. Children, the elderly, officers could be released only on parole. Military seamen were kept longer than the rest. At the same time, death in captivity appears to be occasional. It indicates that food of the French prisoners in England was sufficient for survival. But other conditions led to a high mortality: 8-14 % of the French captives died in custody.

“We will look like fools if nothing comes of this Yugoslavia!”: The Establishment of Yugoslavia from the Perspective of Slovene Contemporaries

Abstract Throughout east, central, and southeast Europe, postwar national historiographies largely represented the breakup of Austria-Hungary and the establishment of successor states as a foregone conclusion, as a process that could only end with the foundation of nation-states, and a significant part of Slovene historiography still clings to such an interpretation. The author attempts to revise this nationalist meta-narrative about the transition from Austria-Hungary to Yugoslavia. Describing the uncertain atmosphere and bringing the open-endedness of developments to the fore, the author contends that very little seemed predetermined in 1918; that other outcomes appeared possible; and that the establishment of the State of Slovenes, Croats, and Serbs as well as its subsequent unification with Serbia was not a product of a prolonged and systematic effort, supported by a mass movement. More than anything, it was a reaction to the changed circumstances of late 1918, and the proclamation of independence caught many by surprise.

The Shadow-Texts of National History: Poetic Participation in Iran and Afghanistan

Abstract This article analyzes a little-known practice called iqtirāḥ—“test of poetic talent” or “poetic competition”—that proliferated in twentieth-century Persian-language periodicals. It examines two case studies: one in Tehran in 1928, which mythologized Nādir Shah (r. 1736–1747), a Turko-Persian monarch, as a national hero, and one in Kabul in 1932, which eulogized Muḥammad Nādir Shah (r. 1920–1933), a ruling monarch at the time, for restoring an Afghan homeland imagined as unified. The article frames iqtirāḥ as an afterlife of Persianate modes of sociability that were reconfigured by modern periodicals to serve the demands of romantic nationalism in the twentieth century. By critically examining the ways in which poetic composition interacts with the formation of a national historiography, this article also shows that any clear-cut distinction between the two is arbitrary.

Constructing continuity: heritage listing and monument preservation in Greater Athens from the 1920s to the 1970s

New perceptions in Greek national historiography during the late nineteenth century brought forward new heritage paradigms. In the interwar, Athens’ Byzantine heritage was thoroughly studied, protected by special laws, and popularized to wider audiences. After the Second World War Byzantine and ancient remains were given equal attention. The nineteenth-century neoclassical legacy came to take a place in the discussion about heritage at a time when the first apartment blocks made their appearance and it, too, would be protected by special laws. Through aspects of identification, protection, and restoration of Athens’ built heritage, this paper explores the physical and discursive articulation of the city's past.

Перша світова війна і українське суспільство: історична ретроспектива і сучасні рефлексії

The purpose of the research is to conduct a comparative analysis of the First World War and the current Russian-Ukrainian war based on the use of mass media materials, statisti- cal data, testimonies of contemporaries in various forms and popular science works published on the eve of and during these armed confl icts. Th e research methodology is based on the prin- ciples of historicism, objectivity, systematicity and the use of universal general scientifi c research methods (analysis, synthesis, induction, deduction) and special-historical and interdisciplinary methods (historical-comparative, historical-genetic, statistical). Th e scientifi c novelty is that, for the fi rst time in national historiography, historical parallels between the First World War and the current Russian-Ukrainian wars have been drawn in the international and domestic Ukrainian context. Conclusions. In 2022, as a result of the successful defensive and counter- off ensive actions of the Ukrainian troops and clear signals from the US and European states regarding the full support of Ukraine, materialized in fi nancial and armed aid, hopes for a quick victory over the aggressor appeared in our society, regardless of its huge material and human resources. However, at the end of the year it became clear that the desired victory would not be achieved in the near future. Th erefore, the key to the protection of the Ukrainian state is nation- wide strategic patience, contrary to the harmful national tradition of internal political discord in diffi cult times. So, similar to the war of 1914-1918, the outcome of the current armed confl ict will largely be decided on the “internal front”. However, in contrast to the wartime 100 years ago, when a universally understood ideology of war was never formed, the current Ukrainian- Russian confrontation does not have this problem.

Enslaved Litigants, Emotions, and a Shifting Legal Landscape in Cauca, Colombia (1825–1831)

Abstract This article reconstructs judicial practice in Cauca, Republic of Colombia, through the close reading of two criminal court cases involving enslaved litigants during the early transition from colony to independent state. In 1825, the enactment of laws that created new courts, judgeships, and procedures aimed to restructure and strengthen judicial practice in a nascent republic convulsed by internal division, which would disintegrate politically in 1831. Enslaved people—who had a long engagement with the law since colonial times—litigated in this context of political and judicial transformation in cases about adultery, theft, murder, vagrancy, cruelty, and freedom. This article sheds light on how these litigants were caught in the tensions that emerged between low- and high-ranking legal authorities over conflicting understandings of the role of religious thinking and the use of emotions in the adjudication of criminal cases and their appeals. In addition to drawing from the rich scholarship on slavery and the law in Latin America, this article broadly addresses recent calls from Latin America-based scholars to nourish national historiographies by inserting “the emotional” into the analytical framework. Through this approach, enslaved litigants appear moving through an uneven judicial apparatus in which authorities tried balancing their desire to uphold new procedural rules to create a secular legal sphere on the one hand and their personal religious convictions and status as enslavers on the other.