Suchergebnisse

The article concentrates on one of the aspects of the Eastern question, the Russian struggle for penetration in the Eastern part of the Ottoman Empire in the 19th and early 20th century. This region of Turkey was an object of special attention for the Russian foreign policy. The ecclesiastical aspect of the Russian influence was of special importance: the preservation of Orthodoxy was an important task of the Russian representatives. The traditional method of material aid for the Orthodox monasteries and churches was widely used. They regularly received permissions for gathering donations in Russia. Another method used in the 19th century was the open support of the Orthodox population by the Russian consuls. During the reforms (Tanzimat) in the Ottoman Empire many secret Christians from the eastern regions proclaimed themselves Orthodox. The Russian diplomats after the Crimean war intermediated the conversion of the Crypto-Christians into Orthodoxy. The study of Trapezund and its monasteries by the Russian Byzantologists at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century also contributed to the penetration into the region. In addition to the explicit scholarly results, their research helped to strengthen the Russian authority among the local population. The relationship and cooperation between the Russian commandment and the local clergy during the Russian occupation in 1916–1917 and the scientific expedition of Feodor Uspenskii were the last page of this history. Based on previously unknown archive sources, the article traces how different means of church policy served to strengthen the Russian influence in Eastern Turkey.

The article deals with the problem of the relationship between participants in state trade and private barter opera-tions in besieged Leningrad. The critical shortage of food during the blockade led to a change in the nature of rela-tions between ordinary citizens, on the one hand, and workers in trade, public catering, storage, transportation, and distribution of products, on the other. Extremely emaciated Leningraders were stunned by the prosperous appearance of the counter workers, who bought up and exchanged gold, jewelry, and furs for food. The prosperity of these peo-ple against the background of the death of hundreds of thousands determined the extremely hostile attitude of many citizens towards them. The blockade survivors treated extremely emaciated dystrophics with the same hostility. Moreover, the latter were ultimately treated worse than the dishonest "food workers". The glaring inequality was a sign of overestimation of people, rigidly dividing them into well-fed and hungry, successful and losers. This was contrary to the ethical, ideological and political attitudes of the townspeople. At the same time, many blockade survi-vors were happy, happy, acquiring crumbs of food at fantastically high prices or in exchange for valuables. The am-bivalent attitude of Leningraders towards private commerce was associated with the role that commerce played in the fate of many, both robbing and saving at the same time. As sources, the article uses evidence of war and blockade times: diaries, letters, official documents of state authorities and administration, law enforcement, as well as verbal transcripts collected shortly after the blockade and war, interviews and memoirs of citizens of a later time.

The article deals with an important aspect of the history of constructing and reconstructing imperial palace com-plexes in Crimea. Using materials from the Ministry of the Imperial Court's archives at the Russian State Historical Archive, the author analyzes the financing of architect N. P. Krasnov's major project – the construction of the Grand Livadia Palace and several service buildings attached to it. The article notes the exceptional organizational, adminis-trative, and financial status of these works from the beginning. The architect personally managed the work and inter-acted with contractors, forwarding payment invoices to V.N. Kachalov, the manager of the Livadsko-Massandrsky appanage administration. Kachalov then requested appropriations from the Main Directorate of Appanages, which, in turn, sought allocations from the Cabinet of His Imperial Majesty. The multi-stage financing system often caused delays in processing requests from the Crimea and insufficient funds to pay the bills of contractors and suppliers re-ceived from Krasnov. Additionally, the duality of administration hampered the issue of the source of funds to pay for single purchases, and failures in communication between responsible persons led to conflicts in using amounts received from the sale of used materials. The author emphasizes that the established financing scheme allowed the ar-chitect to exceed the preliminary estimate several times when constructing the new palace for the emperor in Livadia. Officials in St. Petersburg did not pay attention to cost overruns for a long time, becoming concerned only at the pro-jec's final stages, when completing the construction became the only option, despite significant unplanned expenses.

The article is aimed at scrutinizing the possible difficulties and frictions that arose during the construction of residences for the youngest son of Nicholas I and the sons of Alexander II between the grand dukes themselves as final customers and the Ministry of the Imperial Court as an organizer and executor. The author reveals the nature and degree of the financial participation of the Grand Dukes in the erection of palaces. As examples, the author selected the suburban residence of Grand Duke Mikhail Nikolaevich "Mikhailovskaya Dacha" and the metropolitan palaces of Grand Dukes Vladimir Aleksandrovich and Aleksei Aleksandrovich. Considering the first example, the author notes that the Ministry of the Imperial Court was able to satisfy the main wishes of the customer without much financial difficulties, although the latter, nevertheless, had to take a certain monetary part and then subsequently received appropriate compensation. The article states that since the 1860s, the Court Department moved to a policy of reducing the provision for new palaces for the imperial family members. However, the decision made by Alexander II on the financing limit of 600 000 rubles did not pass the verification of reality, and Grand Duke Vladimir Aleksandrovich, having spent more than four hundred thousand rubles on his palace, ultimately sought reimbursement of this amount from the treasury. Nevertheless, the idea of tightly restricting appropriations for palace construction was then supported by Alexander III, who introduced new payment limits in 1886. At the same time, the attempt of Grand Duke Aleksey Aleksandrovich to obtain additional funds by presenting the house allocated to him for the future palace and sold by him as a gift, which did not fit into the general calculation, failed, since the Court Department, as the author shows, this time firmly adhered to the boundaries established by law.

The paper analyzes the operations of NKVD fighter battalions in Leningrad and the surrounding region from 1942 to 1944, using previously unpublished sources from the Central State Archive of Historical and Political Documents in St. Petersburg (TSGAIPD). These sources include official NKVD documents, relevant statutes, and statistical data. The article examines the effectiveness and models of the use of these units in the challenging circumstances of besieged Leningrad, as well as territories of the region, including those outside the blockade ring. Particular focus is given to the support provided to Leningrad's fighter battalions and the restructuring of the unit system during the brutal first winter of the blockade. Additionally, the paper analyzes the management practices of the Leningrad fighter battalions and their transformation in response to changing situations at the front and in the rear. Attention is also paid to the use of these units during the blockade and after its breakthrough, leading to the final liberation of the region from occupation. The author examines the gender, social, and professional composition of the fighter battalions in the city and the region, as well as the dynamics of their numbers. The author concludes that while the effectiveness of the fighter battalions operating in Leningrad and the region was limited, leading to an op-erational reduction in the number of personnel of the city battalions during the winter of 1942, the fighter units re-mained actively deployed as auxiliary forces until their disbandment. They played crucial roles in maintaining order and controlling territory near the frontlines.

The review is devoted to the analysis of the book "Romantics, Reformers, Reactionaries. Russian Conservative Thought and Politics in the Reign of Alexander I" by the famous American historian Alexander Martin dedicated to the history of Russian conservatism in the first quarter of the 19th century. The author explores the process of formation of conservative ideology in politics, Russian social thought, culture, and also reveals its origins, defines features that are distinctive from the liberal doctrine. Against the broad background of the political and cultural life of Russia at that time, the complex relationship of various systems of conservative ideology is shown. It is demonstrated that the religious conservatism of such prominent defenders of Catholicism and Orthodoxy as Mestre and Sturdza, the clash of their opposite positions, disputes about the historical fate and civilizational purpose of Christianity, as well as the romantic nationalism of A. S. Shishkov and S. N. Glinka and the noble conservatism of N. M. Karamzin and F. V. Rostopchin reflected the search for new forms of anti-revolutionary conservative worldview. The position of Alexander Martin is especially noteworthy in relation to the significant contribution of conservative thinkers of Alexander's reign to the formation of state policy in the interests of Russia, the formation of the foundations of civil society, the development of national identity, Russian culture and language. The author comes to a reasonable conceptual conclusion that although the early conservatives did not develop a single ideology, they laid the foundation for various forms of Russian conservatism in the second quarter of the 19th – early 20th centuries.

The article explores the process of the formation the new Polish policy through the prism of biographies of representatives of the Kingdom of Poland who became members of the Council of State during the reign of Nicholas I. The article demonstrates that the problem of management of a huge country at the beginning of the researched period was one of the main issues. The extraordinary circumstances of the accession to the throne, that is, the dynastic and political crises, and then the revolutionary upheavals in Europe, had a decisive influence on the choice by Nicholas I of strategic priorities and tactical attitudes of state policy. A tactical means of achieving it was a new type of absolutism combining the monarch's strong authoritarian power with an improved management system, one of the most important components of which was determined by the "national" administration of Poland. At the same time, the "information war" unfolding in connection with European revolutionary events forced the supreme power to pay special attention to its ideological and institutional convergence with the political system of Russia. Given the conditions of the destruction of the system of relations with Poland that existed until 1830, the government's priority was to develop a new domestic policy that would ensure that the imperial center maintain social peace in the region by means of not only establishing a single legislative space,but also by incorporating the Polish administrative and military elite into the highest state institutions of the country.

The article is devoted to the consideration of the monographic research of I.V. Narskii, describing the con-tent of the book and its place in both Russian and foreign historiography. Suggestions are made regarding the possibilities for further use of the author's ideas. Published in 2001, Narskii's monograph garnered attention for its extensive use of sources from archives in Moscow and the Urals, as well as its innovative methodological framework. Narskii was among the first to employ the history of everyday life approach, which was primarily developed by German historians. Skillful application of this approach, accompanied by a switch in research per-spective and a change in the scale of description, allowed the researcher to re-construct various aspects of the life and survival of "little people" in a "turning point in history," an era of enormous social catastrophe. Innovative in many respects, the monograph has had a significant impact not only on Russian, but also on foreign historiog-raphy. Now, in a different social and academic situation, the book remains relevant and stimulates new research. Other authors have used it as a reference for different historiographical directions, such as the history of emo-tions. Narskii's observations, conclusions and assumptions can also be applied to the study of the new political elites of revolutionary Russia, the tactics of individual and group survival during times of social catastrophe, and the history of political culture of the revolutionary era.

This paper aims to introduce an important document of the Petrine time into scholarly circulation. The last will of the wife of Tsarevich Alexei, Crown Princess Charlotte Christina Sophia, written on the day of her death on October 21, 1715, in the form of a petition addressed to her father-in-law — Peter I — has been known until now only in two translations, made in the eighteenth and in the first half of the nineteenth centuries, going back to an unknown original. This publication contains the text of the petition testament of Crown Princess Charlotte Christina Sophia recently discovered by A. V. Morokhin in the Manuscripts Department of the Russian National Library (St Petersburg). The document is in German written in fluent Neo-Gothic italics of the early eighteenth century on both sides of two sheets of yellowed paper. Comparing the signatures of Crown Princess Charlotte Christina Sophia under several of her letters originating from the archives of Germany with the signature on the document published makes it possible to conclude that the document is authentic. The article provides a complete transcription of the original source, as well as its literal translation into modern Russian. A comparative analysis of the original text with later editions of the petition testament allows the authors to define the newly found document as the original source. The letter of Crown Princess Charlotte Christina Sophia is considered in the broad context of the political and dynastic history of the Petrine state. The circumstances that come to light during the analysis of the tragic story of Princess Charlotte's death help visualise the expressive features of everyday life in Peter I's inner family circle.

Prince Vasilii Dolgorukov was one of the charismatic figures of the Petrine epoch when he came to the fore among the closest associates of Peter I. He proved himself as a talented military commander and an active administrator. He enjoyed a special trust of Peter, who gave him difficult assignments. V. Vl. Dolgorukov's career was suddenly cut short in 1718, when the case of Tsarevich Alexei, Peter's heir, began. During the investigation in 1718, Alexei betrayed a lot of people involved in his escape, including Dolgorukov. It turned out that at the time of the aggravation of conflict, when the tsar demanded that his son reject the throne and become a monk, Dolgorukov tried to establish relations with the prince to gain his favor in the case of the death of the tsar. However, this attempt failed as he was an adversary for the circle of Alexei. Therefore, Alexei and his supporter A. V. Kikin tried to discredit Prince Dolgorukov during the investigation. They largely succeeded. Prince Dolgorukov could not refute most of their testimonies. He was saved from the death penalty by the petitions of influential figures and the fact that he was not involved in organizing the escape of the tsarevich. The archival documents published for the first time (materials of the investigative case of Prince V. Vl. Dolgorukov) allow us to consider the whole intrigue around Dolgorukov; the complex tense situation at the court; the relationships between people at the time of the conflict between Peter and Alexei, and during the investigation of the case of Tsarevich Alexei.

The purpose of the paper is to analyze the reasons for the persistence of consumer smuggling in Soviet Russia / USSR during the period of the New Economic Policy. The study draws upon national and regional archives and archives run by specific government departments as well as upon statistical and media sources. The authors conclude that the main reason for the smuggling trade was the shortage of consumer goods, which was caused by a decrease in imports and a reorientation of manufacturing towards the industrial products, rejection of the ideology of "everyday asceticism", and the emergence of a new Soviet bourgeoisie. They believe that the factors for maintaining the scale of consumer smuggling were: disagreements between the border guard and the customs service, the leniency of punishments for smuggling, and the underdevelopment of border duty-free trade. The authors show that a lack of consumer imports led to a demand for smuggled items, which transformed within a short period of time (the first post-Revolutionary decade) unorganized smuggling carried out by individuals into a large-scale smuggling operation set up by organizations in which each member performed a specific function. The study demonstrates that government policies of protecting the state monopoly of foreign trade and a steady demand for smuggled goods contributed to the preservation of the smuggling industry. The presence of illegally imported consumer goods on the market contributed to the stabilization of the social situation in Soviet Russia during the years of the New Economic Policy. It became an alternative channel for satisfying the material needs of the urban population. Western products were not only sold from under the counter to representatives of the wealthy strata of the population but also entered the state and cooperative commercial network and craft workshops, which reduced shortages of goods on the domestic market. Smuggling in the 1920s could be classified as a "victimless crime" because it benefited not only its perpetrators but also those who used their services.