2025

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PHJ № 2 (46) 2025 — A. K. Kirillov. TAX PETITIONER AS PART OF THE TAX OPTIMIZATION CULTURE IN THE LATE IMPERIAL RUSSIA

The article under consideration pertains to the study of a relatively obscure phenomenon in the annals of Russian history — namely, tax offices. By the onset of the 20th century, these institutions had evolved into a pivotal component of the tax calculation technology within the advanced segment of the Russian tax system. A significant aspect of their function pertained to the consideration of objections raised by entrepreneurs with regard to the amount of additional business tax levied upon them. The study draws upon a collection of objections lodged by taxpayers of the 2nd Tomsk office in 1907. The research methods employed encompass graphology, textology and hermeneutics. By comparing the design of the objections, typical expressions and the logic of substantiating taxpayers’ demands, identifying differences between similar documents and analysing corrections in the texts, the author discovers three series of objections, in each of which all documents (from two to eight in number) were undoubtedly composed by the same person. The author’s analysis is further enriched by a comparison of the handwritings in which the objections themselves, the signatures under them and the notes to them were written. This analysis demonstrates two key findings. Firstly, the objections were not composed by the taxpayers themselves, but by professional consultants. Secondly, at least two consultants had assistants who were directly involved in the preparation of the documents. In one particular instance, the name of the consultant was also identified. This finding suggests a discernible tendency among provincial entrepreneurs in late imperial Russia to entrust the reduction of their tax payments to professionals engaged in legal services.

PHJ № 2 (46) 2025 — A. I. Bogomolov. “CAKE WITH TREASON”: THE POLITICAL GASTRONOMY OF THE URAL PROVINCES OF THE EARLY 20TH CENTURY

The issues of quotidian conduct and the symbolism of nutrition have hitherto been addressed principally in works dedicated to relatively distant epochs. Utilising the materials of the Ural provinces of the Russian Empire at the beginning of the 20 th century, this article examines the socio-cultural and political circumstances in which the practices of food and alcohol consumption acquired political meaning. The study places particular emphasis on the symbolic meaning of alcohol and associated practices, as well as the symbolic meaning of various dishes, their role and place in self-identification, in forming the image of the enemy and in politicising everyday life in the ideas of contemporaries — activists of the opposing political parties of Russia in the early 20th century. Participants in far-right and far-left political organizations frequently exhibited a similar stereotypical perception of their political opponents, adhering to the same criteria.

PHJ № 2 (46) 2025 — A. V. Apanasenok. IN THE FIGHT AGAINST THE “BLUE SNAKE”: THE PROBLEM OF TOBACCO SMOKING ON THE PAGES OF OLD BELIEVER MAGAZINES OF THE EARLY 20TH CENTURY

The present paper is devoted to an examination of the history of the anti-smoking campaign that emerged in Russia in the pages of thick Old Believer magazines between 1906 and 1916. It is demonstrated that following the Russian Old Believers’ attainment of fundamental civil liberties in 1905, their customary anti-smoking rhetoric transitioned from the intra-confessional domain to the national stage. The active fight against tobacco use in the territory of the Russian Empire was intended to become a kind of calling card of the Old Believer communities in the process of their integration into the public life of the country. The paper examines the various arguments against smoking that were advanced by Old Believer monthly magazines, as well as the proposed ways to limit the impact of tobacco on Russian society. The study concludes that the expressed ideas had little chance of widespread dissemination and mass support in the context of the growing crisis in Russian society. Nevertheless, they represented a noteworthy landmark in the evolution of the national “anti-smoking discourse”.

PHJ № 2 (46) 2025 — M. A. Nosko, I. S. Ratkovsky. “I WAS 15 YEARS OLD WHEN, IN 1903, I WAS ACCEPTED AT THE SESTRORETSK FACTORY…”: ON THE BIOGRAPHY OF V. A. EMELYANOV

The article provides an analysis of significant aspects of the biography of Vasily Alexandrovich Emelyanov (1888–1978), a worker at the Sestroretsk Arms Factory and a member of a prominent family involved in concealing V. I. Lenin in Razliv in 1917. The authors undertake a thorough examination of his revolutionary activities, encompassing the transportation of weapons and illegal literature from Finland, participation in combat squads, and his subsequent arrests and exile. Of particular note are the events of December 1907, when V. A. Emelyanov was involved in armed clashes with the authorities. The study introduces hitherto unexplored and newly discovered sources into academic circulation, thereby facilitating a comprehensive reassessment of the social and socio-political history of Sestroretsk during the revolutionary transformations. The researchers identify contradictions in V. A. Emelyanov’s recollections of the 1917 events and compare them with archival materials. The authors emphasise the significance of an interdisciplinary approach, reflecting sociocultural changes in the local revolutionary movement. The article emphasises the necessity of further in-depth research into the biographies of labour movement participants to gain a more complete understanding of their role in the revolutionary events of the early 20th century.

PHJ № 2 (46) 2025 — I. V. Zykin. THE CONSEQUENCES OF THE WINTER WAR OF 1939–1940 FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SOVIET PULP AND PAPER INDUSTRY

One of the tasks of industrialisation in the Soviet Union in the late 1920s and early 1940s was the development of the pulp and paper industry due to low production volumes and dependence on imported equipment and technologies. Despite the establishment of joint ventures, research institutes, and machine-building enterprises, it was not possible to overcome the quantitative and technological lag behind the countries of Europe and North America — the leaders of the pulp and paper industry. The article analyses the potential of pulp and paper enterprises on the Karelian isthmus at the turn of the 1930s and 1940s and the consequences of the Soviet-Finnish War for the pulp and paper industry of the USSR. At the end of the 19 th century — in the 1930s, a large complex for the deep processing of wood was built on the Karelian isthmus. Advanced technologies were used in the production of pulp and cardboard, which were not available in the Soviet Union. However, Soviet specialists paid little attention to Finland’s experience, preferring Germany, Sweden and the USA, where, in addition to technology, mechanical engineering was being developed. The accession of the Karelian isthmus to the Soviet Union after the Winter War of 1939–1940 became an important factor in the development of the pulp and paper industry. The work carried out between April 1940 and May 1941 showed the importance of coordinating the efforts of party-state, planning and economic bodies, concentrating human and technological potential in the restoration of enterprises and the development of their capacities, maintaining dependence on energy imports, control and measuring equipment for pulp cooking and the return of evacuated equipment. An advanced complex for deep processing of wood appeared in the Soviet Union, which significantly changed the spatial and technological development of the pulp and paper industry. The beginning of the Great Patriotic War, Finland’s attack on the side of Germany led to the evacuation of enterprises and the temporary loss of territories.

PHJ № 2 (46) 2025 — A. Yu. Stefanenko. HARVESTING VEGETABLES IN BESIEGED LENINGRAD

After the end of the first winter of the blockade in 1941–1942, the Leningrad leadership was faced with the problem of finding new sources of food. One of the most important areas became the organisation of the harvest of agricultural products, especially vegetables and potatoes. The city’s leaders launched mass campaigns to create individual gardens and send Leningraders to plant, weed and harvest crops and vegetables on the subsidiary farms of enterprises and state farms in the Leningrad region. At the same time, the authorities had to solve a number of organisational and social problems. Throughout the blockade, there was an acute shortage of equipment and supplies. The irrational use of available human resources led to the loss of vegetables through spoilage and theft. Nevertheless, the mobilisation campaigns helped to supply Leningrad with food and to prevent a repetition of the tragedy of the “time of death”.

PHJ № 2 (46) 2025 — A. I. Rupasov. VOTERS’ WISHES AS A SOURCE FOR THE STUDY OF THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC SITUATION IN LENINGRAD (FIRST HALF OF THE 1960S)

The article analyses the wishes of Leningrad voters expressed at meetings with deputies of the Supreme Soviets of the USSR and the RSFCR, city and district councils in the first half of the 1960s. Attention to these documents is determined by two points. First, the blurring of the general picture of the socio-economic situation in Leningrad, which occurs when dealing with historical studies of the initial period, namely the stage of “transition to the stage of completion of the foundations of the construction of communism”. Secondly, the rare use of such documents in the analysis of the socio-economic situation. The study of the above-mentioned documents allows us to highlight both the full range of problems in Leningrad in 1960–1965, and the extremely limited possibilities of the city authorities to solve them, due to the lack of financial resources and the dynamics of the city’s growth.

PHJ № 2 (46) 2025 — I. A. Tsverianashvili. THE ECOLOGISATION OF SWEDEN AFTER WORLD WAR II: PROBLEMS AND ACHIEVEMENTS

This article examines the genesis of the ecologisation process, which began to be actively implemented in the country in the late 1940s. If the pre-war period was characterized by the absence of a unified environmental policy, an upsurge in the activity of the Swedish public and intellectuals in the country’s environmental problems and environmental issues, but after the 1940s in Sweden begins the formation of an environmental vector in the internal policy, which was supported by a high level of attention from the public and state institutions. The range of environmental problems has grown, Swedish scientists and researchers gave traditions of environmental education. Public environmental associations, movements, and unions began to appear in large quantities, the vector of national environmental policy was finally formed. The main idea of this article is considered for the first time in Russian historiography and is intended to introduce it into the range of issues in the study of Scandinavian studies. The importance and relevance of this topic is underlined by Sweden’s current role as a leader in European environmental policy.

PHJ № 2 (46) 2025 — V. I. Bezruchenko. THE EXPULSION OF THE SERBS FROM SARAJEVO IN 1992–1995

The subject of the article is the fate of the Serb community in Sarajevo during the 1992–1995 civil war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The article is based on documents from the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and the archives of the Centre for the Study of War, War Crimes and the Search for Missing Persons in Republika Srpska, as well as documents and materials from the International Independent Commission to Investigate the Plight of Serbs in Sarajevo 1992–1995. The Serb community in Sarajevo, which has existed for centuries, became the target of terror by armed groups and the Democratic Action Party of the President of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, A. Izetbegovic. A. Izetbegovic’s regime carried out the ethnic cleansing of Sarajevo, as a result of which the pre-war Serb community virtually disappeared.

PHJ № 2 (46) 2025 — S. V. Lyubichankovskiy. THE ROLE OF V. V. RADLOV IN THE SCIENTIIFC STUDY OF CENTRAL ASIA

Vasily Vasilyevich Radlov (1837–1918) was an outstanding Russian ethnographer, linguist and orientalist whose work had a major impact on the study of the peoples of Russian Central Asia. While working in Orenburg, Radlov collected unique materials on the languages, folklore and culture of the Turkic peoples, which formed the basis of modern Turkology. The article examines his contribution to scholarship, research methods and the importance of his works for understanding the cultural heritage of Central Asia.