Soviet Times Research Articles

Latvian Research Libraries from the 1980s to the Present

Abstract This article explores the evolution of Latvia’s leading research libraries from the final decade of Soviet occupation to the present day. After the Soviet time, libraries have undergone great changes and have become modern, multifunctional cultural, educational, and research centres responding to the needs and expectations of society. The article focuses on the National Library of Latvia, centre of the Latvian library system since its foundation in 1919. The State Unified Library Information System has modernised the entire network of publicly accessible libraries. Twelve major libraries have been involved in developing the electronic catalogue. Work on the Latvian National Digital Library has been ongoing since 2006. The Latvian Government’s decision in 2002 to build a new National Library (opened in 2014) has also spurred on the renovation or construction of many other libraries in Latvia.

«Моя работа… прошла не даром»

The publication is a commentary and texts of three previously unknown letters written to each other by N.I. Vorobyev and R.K. Gareeva (Urazmanova), who would later become the leading specialist in Tatar rites and holidays. The conducted analysis of the document revealed the peculiarities of scholarly communication between these individuals, the emotions of an inexperienced but science-minded young school teacher who was involved in the research work, and the influence of Marxist-Leninist ideology on the understanding of the importance of the ethnography science in the Soviet times. Gareeva’s first letter was written on January 23, 1961. In the letter, she shared her concerns about not understanding the need for ethnography. Vorobyev wrote her a detailed response in February of the same year. Nikolai Iosifovich divided the letter into sections. In the first part, when discussing the age of science and technology, he points out the spiritual needs. In his opinion, culture and art are no less important for people than material needs. When reflecting on the importance of ethnographic science, the scholar emphasises the need for a comprehensive study of the ‘development’ of the culture of different peoples, when old skills can be useful for meeting the modern needs. In the last section, he argues that a new generation of researchers is necessary to ensure the continuity of academic knowledge. The geographical education received by R.K. Gareeva, as N.I. Vorobyev is convinced, will help her look at traditional culture much more broadly. The second letter of Rufa (Raufa) Karimovna is not as worrisome as the first one. She expressed gratitude to Vorobyev for the answer and, inspired, she reports on her research plans to collect ethnographic materials on the culture of the Tatars and on preparation for entering graduate school. The revealed epistolary documents made it possible to reveal the subtle aspects of the formation and development of ethnological science in the Volga region, the importance of the individual/teacher in the professional development of researchers of the traditional culture of the peoples of the region.

Historical Continuity and Scientific Ethics in the Psychological Legacy of G. V. Sukhodolsky (For the 90th Anniversary of His Birth)

The article is devoted to the author’s reflection and analysis of a number of episodes of the scientific biography of the famous Soviet scientist, a prominent representative of the Leningrad/St. Petersburg Psychological School, Gennady Vladimirovich Sukhodolsky. His struggle for the ethical component of scientific activity, for historical continuity in Russian psychological science at all stages of its development is shown. His work on the return of the honest name of N.Ya. Growth is being considered. The rehabilitation of pre-revolutionary Russian psychology, which was ideologically influence in Soviet times, has been carried out. The role of scientific schools and their leaders in ensuring historical continuity and scientific ethics in Russian psychology is discussed.

Historical and Legal Aspects of the Use of Land Plots for Horticulture

The article focuses on the peculiarities of legislative support for the establishment and development of land plots for horticulture within a historical context. Given that the current legal regulation of land use in the field of horticulture significantly differs from that which existed before the start of land reform in Ukraine, the article analyses the normative-legal framework that has laid the groundwork for the initiation of this type of land use. As a result of the analysis, the role of gardening and viticulture societies is characterized, which were users of land for collective gardening and viticulture even during Soviet times. Attention is drawn to the fact that the Land Code of the Ukrainian SSR of 1970 enshrined only the collective organizational and legal form of gardening (viticulture) and contained provisions according to which the lands occupied by collective gardens are in permanent use by gardening (viticulture) societies.Land plots were allocated to them from reserve lands, the state forest fund, and vacant lands within populated areas. Membership in the society was limited to citizens who did not own private plots or gardens. The activities of each society as a legal entity were regulated by the society’s charter, which was registered in accordance with established procedures. On the land plots designated for collective gardening (viticulture), members of the society were to establish orchards and vineyards on a collective basis and carry out the construction of summer­type garden buildings. Special attention in the article is given to the analysis of social relations that are formed in the field of gardening, which have undergone significant changes due to the initiation of land reform, as well as the adoption of the Land Code of the Ukrainian SSR in 1990 and its new edition in 1992. The article also analyzes the provisions of the current Land Code of Ukraine that regulate the mechanism for transferring land of general use into private ownership of legal entities of gardening societies. It examines, in a comparative aspect, the legal regime of land of general use and other categories of land in Ukraine.

On the question of administrative-delicit law of Ukraine

The article notes that the active development of social relations affected the renewal of the doctrinal foundations of Ukrainian administrative law, as a result of which there are constant discussions in the modern science of administrative law of Ukraine, including those directly related to administrative-legal relations. And therefore, the prospects of administrative and legal science, as well as the fields of administrative law, are connected with modern tasks that science sets before itself in accordance with social requirements, which must be solved, including through the application of measures. It is emphasized that administrative law regulates a significant number of different social relations, among which a special place is occupied by administrative-delict relations, which cover a variety of relations that are subject to the norms of administrative law, which is currently in the stage of systemic reform and is mostly connected with relations to ensure implementation of human and citizen rights and freedoms, consideration of administrative disputes, application of measures of administrative responsibility, bringing to disciplinary responsibility persons of public law. Attention is drawn to the attempts to reform the administrative-tort legislation, since the codified act of the administrative-tort legislation adopted in Soviet times does not meet the realities and requirements of today. Therefore, the issue of updating the administrative-delict legislation occupies a prominent place in the scientific developments of domestic legal scientists. Existing scientific discussions on the separation of administrative-tort law into an independent branch of law exist to this day, but we must state that administrative-tort law, despite its own specificity, a significant number of various functions (regulatory, binding, permitting, protective, educational etc.), is a sub-branch of administrative law, which has a special subject of legal regulation, which is a set of legal norms that regulate relations arising from the doctrine of administrative tort. It is emphasized that the formation of modern administrative-delict law involves interaction with the institutions of administrative responsibility provided for by the sectoral norms of laws, which may include the procedure of bringing a person to administrative responsibility, completely different from that regulated by the Code of Administrative Offenses, which requires new theoretical views on the establishment of a system of administrative penalties.

Соотношение свободы труда и обязанности граждан трудиться: конституционно-правовое исследование

Introduction. Amendments to the Constitution of 2020 of the Russian Federation have marked the problem of changing the state approach to the interaction of the individual, society and the state. The basic content of freedom of work should not be identified with the right of a person not to carry out any socially useful activity. At the same time, the constitutional concept of mutual rights and obligations of the individual and the state cannot be built on the same principles as in the Soviet times. The purpose of the work is to identify the constitutional and legal meaning of the provisions on the obligations of a citizen to work or carry out other socially useful activities and to determine the prospects for establishing the relevant obligations in the legislation of Russia in the modern period. Methods. The main methods of scientific research are: system analysis, formal-legal method. Within the framework of historical-legal and comparative-legal methods the norms of the Constitutions of the RSFSR of 1918, 1925, 1937 and 1978 and constitutions of foreign countries were analysed in comparison with the corresponding provisions of the Constitution of the Russian Federation. Results. Based on the analysis of constitutional and labour legislation of Russia and foreign countries the author’s attitude to the possibility of establishing in the Constitution of the Russian Federation and special legislation the obligations of citizens related to participation in socially useful activities. The conditions for the establishment of such obligations in the future, which should have a constitutional basis, are revealed.The theoretical issues that arose after the adoption of the 2020 amendments to the onstitution of the Russian Federation are outlined, which can serve as a direction for further constitutional and legal research. The conclusions are formulated about the inexpediency of introducing at present any coercive measures in relation to persons who do not perform any socially useful activity, and the conditions for their appearance in the legislation in the future.

The tragedy of Molėtai jews and issues of fraudulent records filed at court

One of the largest sets of documents preserved at Lithuanian archives reflecting the history of our country during the first Soviet occupation (1940–1941) and after World War II is the Fund of Criminal Cases. The Fund was compiled by the Committee for State Security (KGB – Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti) and at present is stored at Lithuanian Special Archives. In Soviet times, this collection of records was not accessible to both professional historians and the general public. The set contains numerous documents marked Top Secret. It has been always believed that forgery of such type documents is unlikely. Historians investigating the stalinist era of the history of the Soviet Union have no doubts regarding fraudulent lawsuits filed against ideological opponents or any people, by whom the regime was dissatisfied. Falsification used to be a tool to deal with an enemy. At first sight, many would think that such a case in Lithuania must be different, as the fight against Soviet authorities used to be real in our country (in particular, during post-war period); unlike the events that took place in the fourth decade of the 20th century in Russia, for example. This article contains material, proving that KGB was not interested in collecting evidence as accurate as possible. The persons invited by the KGB to present evidence did not provide exact data, while the KGB just wanted to send to prison unwanted persons for a longer time. The author has justified this fact on the basis of interrogation material of a platoon of Lithuanian rebels that was operating in 1941 in Utena county Molėtai town. The rebels contributed markedly to Jews killing by shooting to death. Moreover, the material examined by the author demonstrates systemic unruliness of that time courts, when the accused were not permitted to be provided with services of lawyers, their dissatisfaction with a trial could only be expressed through cassation complaints. All this encumbers the general assessment of such cases as well as recovery of historical facts, among them those related to the Holocaust. When examining the lawsuits filed by the KGB, the application of the comparative method should prevail in terms of number of cases being examined: material of several cases should be collated and only then conclusions drawn.

Секта христововеров в Украинской ССР

The article is devoted to the history of the oldest Russian sect of Hristovovery or Khlysty on the territory of Ukraine during Soviet times. The purpose of the work is to explore the existence of the Khlysty sect in the Ukrainian SSR, to consider some of the features of the spread of the sect and the details of its rituals. The source base of the research was unpublished operational documents of Ukrainian archives. Special studies devoted to the sect of Christ-believers in Ukraine during the Soviet period were not found. The article applies a materialistic understanding of history, which requires consideration of historical phenomena in development, in the unity of the logical and historical, i.e. in the unity of material and spiritual factors. In the course of the work, it was established that the Khlysty sect was recorded on the territory of the future Ukraine from the first half of the 18th century and spreads across those regions where the Great Russian population lived compactly: in Old Believer settlements in Starodubye (the future Chernigov region), in the Azov region. West of the Dnieper, the sect of Christian believers is not fixed. In Soviet times, state security agencies regularly reported the existence of Christian believers in the same areas where they existed in the pre-revolutionary period. A feature of the Christian faith in Soviet times was the merger of the sect with Orthodox movements that were in opposition to both the Soviet regime and the official Russian Orthodox Church.

The System of Social Sciences in the Context of Civilizational Approach: Formulating the Problem

In modern socio-humanitarian disciplines, the concept of a “system of social sciences” is absent. This concept existed in Soviet times and meant, among other things, the existence of a single conceptual social science apparatus and methodology. It is generally recognized that the interdisciplinary approach that replaced this system, which was recognized in our country after the collapse of the Soviet Union, is based on the difference in concepts, subjects and objects of research of the sciences of the entire socio-humanitarian block. At the same time, Russian social science practically does not pay attention to the theoretical and methodological relationship between the interdisciplinary approach and the concept of globalization, developed in Western science mainly in the second half of the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries and which came to our country in the post-Soviet period in many ways in a “ready-made” form. At the same time, those researchers who state such a relationship consider this circumstance as a virtue of an interdisciplinary approach. In the first part of this article, an attempt is made to analyze the impact of the concept of globalization, in particular, its characteristic denial of the values of national statehood, sovereignty, including cultural and historical, on the formation and general principles of an interdisciplinary approach. The second part examines modern concepts of Russia as a civilization, first of all, the concept of state-civilization, currently introduced in the “Concept of Foreign Policy of the Russian Federation” dated March 30, 2023 and “Fundamentals of state policy in the field of historical education” dated May 08, 2024, in the context of the advantages of the Soviet Union identified by the author the experience of the social sciences system. At the end of the article, proposals are made to combine some basic principles of Soviet social science with a modern civilizational approach in order to create a unified value framework for the disciplines of the socio-humanitarian block.

Multilingual Tallinn: People and Languages in the Urban Space

Multilingualism in post-Soviet countries where as a result of the Soviet time migration and Russification, Russian speakers still constitute a significant part of population, presents an interesting case for analysis. Estonia, being officially a monolingual country with quite strict language policy, is extremely linguistically diverse in terms of actual everyday communication, with both Russian and English playing a significant role. Moreover, as Estonia attracts many foreign visitors, expats, and refugees, other languages, including Ukrainian, also become more and more noticeable in both visual and acoustic form in public spaces. However, spatial distribution of different languages in urban landscapes varies significantly, and by analyzing it one can reveal not only the patterns of language use but also power relations between different linguistic, ethnic, and social groups. The paper reports on preliminary results of a study conducted in Tallinn in 2022–2023 and focused on collecting and comparing data on both linguistic landscapes and soundscapes in several locations in the city. The study shows a mismatch between visual linguistic representation and actual linguistic diversity and tries to contemplate it in a broader historical context of multilingualism and language contacts in the Baltic region.

Информативные возможности аудиовизуальных источников при изучении истории и культуры татарского народа

Cinema is the most valuable source in the study of socio-politicalsocio-cultural processes. This explains the popularity of using film documents in the research activities of scholars, including historians. The article provides a brief overview of the content of films made by Kazan filmmakers with an emphasis on films dedicated to the anniversaries of the Tatar Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. The author identifies the main ideas promoted by the creators of the film and shows how they changed over time. The propaganda and agitation task, which is present in all films, is emphasized; in the conditions of a national region it was always accompanied by a demonstration of the historical and ethnocultural specifics of the region. Establishing the research activity on the principles of historicism, objectivity, complexity, as well as using the hermeneutic method when interpreting audiovisual sources, it was concluded that newsreel materials can serve as informative source material on the cultural, economic and political life of the republic in the Soviet times.

Natural and Regulative-Imperative in the Spatial Development of Russia

Organic spatial development is possible under the condition of a reasonable combination of naturalness and regulation of spatially conditioned processes and phenomena. In different periods, the ratio of these principles is different. In Soviet times, spatial development was absolutely dominated by comprehensive directive state planning and management. In the 1990s of post-Soviet reforms, there was a sharp turn towards immoderate and spontaneous decentralization of the spatial organization of life. In the 2000s, counter-reforms began a rapid return to the strengthening of state regulation in this area, which in many respects turned out to be excessive in terms of tasks and costs and unjustified in expectations. The meaning and content, tools and planned results of the current state policy of spatial development are concentrated in the “Strategy of Spatial Development of the Russian Federation for the Period up to 2025”, which claims to be a doctrinal document of modern regional policy. Its development and adoption were accompanied by a multitude of expert comments – from unconditionally apologetic to acutely critical. As the deadline for the end of the strategy approaches, a comprehensive assessment of its effectiveness and effectiveness becomes relevant, especially in connection with the preparation of a new strategy until 2030. The authors see the cornerstone drawback of the current strategy in ignoring the systemic nature of the spatial organization of society, which should be interpreted as an anthropogenic megasystem with its inherent systemic features of integrity, structural organization, direct and reverse connections, with a powerful potential for natural self-organization and selfdevelopment, supplemented in the special transitional conditions of post-Soviet spatial transformations by the regulatory influence on them from the outside State. The authors also emphasize that due to the unprecedented post-Soviet transitional spatial realities, it is impossible to count on diligent study and direct borrowing of foreign experience, due to its inadequacy of the modern Russian situation.

Об эволюции концептуальных основ этно-национальной политики России

On the eve of the update in 2025 of the “Strategy of State National Policy”, a discussion is unfolding in Russia about the existing and future conceptual foundations of such a policy. This discussion largely determines this article. In it, the author critically analyzes the stereotypical ideas about the national politics of Soviet and post-Soviet times that emerged in the process of this discussion. For example, about stability in the era of L. Brezhnev, a stereotype that does not take into account the rise of two varieties of nationalism in the 1960–1980s; about the “parade of sovereignties in the era of Soviet Perestroika: about multiculturalism as the supposedly official doctrine of Russian politics in the 1990s. The article analyzes the prospects for establishing a new concept of interculturalism in Russia. In this regard, the materials of a sociological study conducted by scientific teams led by the author of this article in 2018 in Rostov-on-Don are presented.

“You should care by prohibiting all this obscenity”: a public policy analysis of the Russian law banning medical and legal transition for transgender people

ABSTRACT Gender-affirming care and legal gender recognition (LGR) have been relatively well developed in Russia since Soviet times. During the past decade, in line with the general authoritarian and conservative turn, transgender (trans) rights have increasingly come under attack. In 2023, anti-trans forces succeeded in bringing about the adoption of a law that prohibited gender-affirming care and LGR, preventing marriage and adoption of children for trans people. This article uses the Authoritarian Gender Equality Policy Making framework to understand the structural opportunities, actors, framings, and the autocrat’s signaling that led to this result. The policy reversal resulted from increased visibility of trans issues in Russia and worldwide coupled with their reframing from a medical problem to a geopolitical threat in the context of a military and cultural confrontation with the West following Russia’s “special military operation” against Ukraine in February 2022.

The theme of joining Russia in the literature of the peoples of Siberia in the 1950s–1980s

The article examines the features of the embodiment of the theme of joining Russia in the literature of the peoples of Siberia in the 1950s–1980s in the context of state memory policy of this period. The research materials are the works of Altai, Buryat, Khakass and Yakut literature. The research is based on the theory and methodology of comparative literature, as well as on the theory of cultural and historical memory. It has been established that the appearance of the theme of joining Russia in the literature of the peoples of Siberia in the 1950s–1980s was associated with the memory politics of this period. At this time, the basis of the national histories of the peoples of the USSR was the concept of friendship of peoples, within the framework of which special attention was paid to the idea of the voluntary entry of indigenous peoples into Russia, which brought them various benefits and became the basis for further national development. The appearance of the first literary works on this topic in the literature of Siberia dates back to the time of anniversary celebrations in honor of the anniversaries of the voluntary entry of local peoples into Russia, which proves the connection between these phenomena. It is also known that in the writing community since the 1950s the directive was spread to pay special attention to the theme of friendship of peoples and the positive role of Russia and Russians in the history of the peoples of Siberia. Within literary discourse, this idea was embodied in works of various genres: historical poems, plays, novels dedicated to the era of annexation to Russia, as well as in a number of poems glorifying the patriotism of the peoples of Siberia and the beneficial influence of the Russian state and Russian culture on their historical destiny. These works are characterised by an appeal to historical facts, which in Soviet times were interpreted as a manifestation of the friendship of the peoples of Siberia with Russia, as well as to folklore legends, interpreted in the same vein. All these works can be considered as a kind of hypertext, formed in the literature of Siberia in the 1950s–1980s around the theme of joining Russia and reflecting the corresponding trend in the politics of memory of this period.

НАРОДНЫЙ ПЕВЕЦ Н. И. СТЕПАНОВ – НООРОЙ: ВЗАИМОДЕЙСТВИЕ ФОЛЬКЛОРНЫХ И ЛИТЕРАТУРНЫХ ТРАДИЦИЙ

This article touches on the problem of studying the interaction of folklore and literary traditions in the works of authors who came from the people, bearers of oral folk art. In Soviet times, in the literature of the peoples of the USSR, especially in newly written literature, folk singers played a significant role in poetic life. Their works successfully intertwined folklore and literary traditions: a certain synthesis of form and content occurred. In our work, we drew attention to the work of one author, Nikolai Stepanov – Nooroy, a member of the Union of Writers of the USSR, folk singer, olonkhosut, participant in the Great Patriotic War. The relevance of the article lies in the fact that until now the period of active creativity of folk singers of Yakutia, as authors, as creators of Soviet folklore, has been little studied. The subject of our research is the works of N. I. Stepanov – Nooroy, his songs and poems on Soviet themes. The work uses comparative, analytical, and analytical methods to reveal the interaction of folklore and literary traditions and the transformation of folk songs into original songs. The novelty of the research lies in the fact that this work studies the fusion of folklore and literary traditions, their interaction in the works of one author, a bearer of the traditional oral culture of the Sakha people. As a result of the study of the author’s poetic works on the Soviet theme, we concluded that in the poems, songs, and toyuks of N. I. Stepanov, the interaction of folklore and literary traditions is clearly observed. From the works of N. I. Stepanov it is clear that the folk singer, firstly, worked to preserve and transmit the traditions of folk art mainly in olonkho and toyuks, and secondly, he became one of the founders of a new type of folklore, a song genre called Soviet folklore. Stepanov’s songs about labor and workers can be considered historical, because they reflect reality and glorify real people. The writer’s poetic works on Soviet themes reflect historical facts and events of the Soviet period. His works have cultural value, and as works reflecting reality, they are a historical and cultural monument.

The Evolution of the University Textbook on Library Science: 1960—2024

The year 2025 will mark the 65th anniversary of the first Soviet textbook “General Library Science” prepared by O.S. Chubaryan. It was followed by other textbooks in this discipline. Reconstructing their history and evolutionary transformations is important to reflect and evaluate the progressive development and achievements of Soviet and post-Soviet library science. This is a unique pedagogical experience of forming professional knowledge and self-awareness of several generations of future library specialists, many of whom became veterans of librarianship and contributed to its progress. In Soviet times four textbooks on library science were published, approved by the Ministry of Culture of the USSR for use in higher education institutions of the country — three editions of the textbook by O.S. Chubaryan (1960, 1968, 1976) and one collective work — “Library Science. General Course”, prepared by Moscow and Leningrad scientists under the editorship of K.I. Abramov and N.S. Kartashov (1988). The post-Soviet textbook “General Library Science” by V.V. Skvortsov and N.S. Kartashov (1996—1997) was published in two parts. The transition to the Bologna system of education in Russia and the activation of higher education served as a catalyst for the project of publishing textbooks for bachelors of library and information science, the first of which — “Library Science. General Course” under the scientific editorship of A.N. Vaneyev and M.N. Kolesnikova (2013). Later, the textbook of the Moscow State Institute of Culture was published under the editorship of M.Y. Dvorkina and L.I. Salnikova (2015). At the current stage of modernization of the country’s higher education system and withdrawal from the Bologna system of education, the updating of the entire series of textbooks began. The textbook “Library Science. General Course” edited by M.N. Kolesnikova (2024) is prepared on a different conceptual basis than the previous post-Soviet textbooks. From edition to edition, the main professional textbook underwent transformations due to socio-political, cultural-historical, technological and other factors.

Military Production in Russia Before and After the Start of the War With Ukraine

In February 2022, Russia began a full-scale invasion of Ukraine that has to date continued for more than two years. In response, Western countries imposed increasingly strict sanctions. The Russian Armed Forces lost a significant quantity of armaments and by the autumn of 2022, the government faced the challenge of increasing sharply the production of weapons and munitions. Julian Cooper analyses the extent to which the challenge has been met, reviewing the available quantitative evidence in detail. His analysis confirms that there have been significant increases in the output of systems and munitions used extensively in the war. The author explores the means by which defence industry output has been increased and draws conclusions as to the nature of the Russian economic system and the institutional legacies of Soviet times. ◼

Wedding rituals, political power and the third space in Soviet Azerbaijan

This paper aims at understanding transformations of cultural identity in Azerbaijan by exploring raptures, continuations, and re-formulations of marriage rituals during Soviet times (1920–1990). Seven women born in the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s and, raised in different regions of Soviet Azerbaijan were interviewed, sharing their memories of their own and their parents' marriage rituals. Their narratives provide a nuanced understanding of the complex interplay between political, social, and economic factors that influenced Azerbaijani cultural identity, which historically has interacted with many different cultures. To examine the interaction of local cultural identity with the Soviet colonial power in time and space, we use Mikhail Bakhtin's ‘chronotope’, Stuart Hall's elaboration of ‘cultural identity,’ and Homi Bhabha's concepts of ‘hybridity’ and ‘third space.' We argue that despite Soviet influence, local cultural practices endured, keeping the Azerbaijani individual self-identity distinct.

Портретное творчество О.Л. Делла-Вос-Кардовской в контексте русского искусства 1900–1930-х годов

The article focuses on portrait works by Olga Della‐Vos‐Kardovskaya — from her first significant paintings in this genre (e.g. Portrait of Nikolay Gumilev, 1908, State Tretyakov Gallery) to the last ones dating back to the late 1930s. This aspect of the master’s activity has not yet been the subject of a comprehensive research. Meanwhile, there has been a growing interest in the creative work of Olga Della‐Vos‐Kardovskaya, which is evidenced by the fact that her paintings are presented at many major exhibitions in Russia. First of all, these include her portraits, which reflect various trends in the Russian fine art of the early 20th century and the Soviet art of the 1920s‐1930s. The author of this article suggests dividing Olga DellaVos‐Kardovskaya’s portraits into three main types: representative, chamber, and typified portraits. The last group includes a subtype — children’s portraits. The artist created portraits of the three types throughout her entire creative biography. This division allows defining the features of the master’s portraiture and considering her paintings and drawings in the context of art development in the first three decades of the 20th century. As a result, it is possible to draw a conclusion that despite radical changes in the country and in the artist’s life, her portraiture remained almost unchanged during the 1900s‐1930s. In comparison with the pre‐revolutionary period, in her later works there appeared new character types, but the representation principles and artistic techniques remain the same. The most striking differences are found in her children’s portraits, which in the pre‐revolutionary work of Della‐Vos‐Kardovskaya were associated with idealistic retrospective tasks (children were depicted in 19th‐century interiors, wearing old‐fashioned costumes) and became ideologically loaded in Soviet times.