2025

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PHJ № 3 (47) 2025 — K. V. Godunov. DEBATES ON CIVIL WAR DURING THE FIRST WORLD WAR

This article examines how the debates that took place during the First World War influenced the dissemination of the concept of “civil war” and the impact this had on the political situation of the time. Particular attention is paid to discussions within the radical socialist milieu. It is demonstrated that the proponents of the slogan advocating the transformation of the imperialist war into a civil war — first and foremost, V. I. Lenin and his supporters — acted within a specific historical and ideological context. They took into account the earlier discursive articulations of civil war as well as the experiences of socialists in other countries, particularly the rhetoric of Karl Liebknecht. Drawing on the views of prominent Bolsheviks such as A. G. Shlyapnikov, A. M. Kollontai, and N. I. Bukharin, the study shows that not all members of the party unequivocally supported Lenin’s call for civil war. Even among Lenin’s prominent allies, interpretations of the slogan varied, with differing views expressed regarding its meaning and practical implementation. Debates about the means of ending the global conflict and about the prospects for revolution and civil war were significant in several respects. During the First World War, the Bolsheviks acquired the reputation of being the “party of civil war”. This image played a major role in various anti-Bolshevik propaganda campaigns in 1917, even though in reality, not all members of the party fully endorsed Lenin’s position. Disputes surrounding the transformation of the imperialist war into a civil war contributed to the cultural preparation for internal conflict. The notion of “civil war” gained renewed momentum and expanded its reach; its articulation during the crises of the First World War contributed to the radicalisation of the political situation. These debates among socialists led party activists at various levels — regardless of their agreement or disagreement with the necessity of civil war — to engage with the idea and to participate in the development of a political language centred around violence.

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PHJ № 3 (47) 2025 — E. N. Nazemetseva. RUSSIAN DRAFT DODGERS AND DESERTERS IN CHINA DURING WORLD WAR I

Based on archival materials introduced into scientific circulation for the first time, the article analyzes the previously unexplored problem of draft dodgers and deserters from the Russian army in China during the First World War. The entry of the Russian Empire into the First World War caused serious changes in the life of the state. The mobilization of a huge number of subjects into the army had a drastic impact on the economic, political and social life of the empire. Despite the patriotic upsurge of the majority of the population in the first months of the war, a significant part of Russian citizens did not share these sentiments and sought to avoid being sent to the front, fearing involvement in military operations. Among the draft dodgers were representatives of different segments of the population and ethnic groups. Evaders and deserters moved inland to Siberia and the Far East, and subsequently left the empire. The main focus of the escapes was China, which occupied a neutral position in the war until 1917. The lower ranks of the Russian police and border guard service, as well as the Russian and Chinese local populations, helped the dodgers in organizing their escapes abroad. A network of clandestine migration routes from Russia to China gradually developed. Having arrived in China, as a rule, by rail, the fugitives settled in Harbin, Tianjin, Changchun, and Dalny, then received new documents and financial assistance from employees of German concessions, Russian nationals who settled in China, who were opposed to the Russian authorities, as well as from various criminal elements. The latter have gradually established an illegal business selling forged documents. After receiving new documents, the draft dodgers and deserters sought to leave China and followed first to the Philippine Islands, Hong Kong, and then, as a rule, to the United States. Some stayed in China and joined the American army units based here. The problem of Russian draft dodgers and deserters testifies to the serious crisis of the Russian Empire during the First World War, and also demonstrates the important nuances of its relations with neighboring countries of the Far Eastern region.

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PHJ № 3 (47) 2025 — Wan Park. THE ACTIVITIES OF JAPANESE MILITARY ATTACHÉS DISPATCHED TO RUSSIA DURING THE FIRST WORLD WAR

This study focuses on Japanese Army attachés dispatched to Russia during the First World War, analyzing the nature of their deployment, their intelligence-gathering activities, their assessments of Russia’s military capabilities and revolutionary movements, and how the information they collected was reflected in Japan’s postwar military policy as part of the “lessons of the Great War”. Following Japan’s entry into the war as a member of the Allied Powers in August 1914, the Japanese Army dispatched military attachés to various countries, with a particular emphasis on Russia. Among all the Allied nations, Russia received the largest contingent of Japanese attachés, many of whom held senior ranks. Russia also treated the Japanese attachés most favorably, assigning them to frontline headquarters and permitting their presence at the general headquarters. In addition to official attachés, the Japanese Army also sent personnel to Russia under the cover of diplomats and students, although their number was smaller than those sent to Britain or France. In early 1915, Japan dispatched a support unit to Russia to assist with the assembly, deployment, and instruction of heavy and mountain artillery that had been transferred to the Russian military. This unit represented Japan’s only practical combat support mission to an Allied country during the war. Initially, Japanese attachés stationed in Russia evaluated the morale, unity, and general atmosphere of the Russian military command favorably. However, as Russia’s military repeatedly faltered on the Eastern Front, their assessments became increasingly pessimistic regarding Russia’s prospects for victory. Their focus then shifted toward gathering intelligence on the German forces engaged against Russia. Following the outbreak of revolution, the attachés observed growing disorder and disintegration within the Russian military. They began to recognize the dangers of blind obedience without understanding or awareness, especially amid the spread of liberal and socialist ideologies. At the same time, they interpreted Russia’s wartime difficulties and revolutionary upheaval both as a threat to Japan and as an opportunity to modernize Japan’s military capabilities and expand its imperial interests. Some even advocated for the deployment of Japanese troops to Europe. After the October Revolution, as tensions mounted due to the Soviet-German armistice and peace negotiations conducted without Allied consent, Japanese military personnel, including attachés, began withdrawing from Russia in early 1918. Upon their return, some expressed high regard for German military operations and proposed emulating them in planning future campaigns against the Soviet Union. Others, pausing in Manchuria on their way home, began preparations for what they called another imperialist war: the Siberian Intervention.

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PHJ № 3 (47) 2025 — P. G. Rogozny. THE RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH AND THE FIRST WORLD WAR: THE TRANSFORMATION OF RELIGIOUS PERCEPTION AND THE USE OF WAR BY THE BOLSHEVIKS IN ANTI-CLERICAL PROPAGANDA AFTER THE REVOLUTION

The Russian Orthodox Church provided unwavering support to the Russian Empire, which subsequently entered the war that would subsequently be designated the First World War. It is noteworthy that the Church regarded the war as a patriotic undertaking, among other considerations. However, the initial surge of patriotism was soon superseded by the onset of a challenging period of trench warfare. Upon assuming power in 1917, the Bolsheviks regarded the Church as an ideological adversary. A primary tenet of the left-wing parties’ anti-clerical propaganda asserted that the Church endorsed the “bloody imperialist war”. The ecclesiastical institution in question was accused of violating fundamental Christian tenets and commandments. This propaganda had a significant impact on the peasant masses, who predominantly adhered to religious beliefs. The endeavours of the Church and the religious community to respond to the Bolsheviks and left-wing parties in general, through the use of counter-propaganda, have largely been unsuccessful.

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PHJ № 3 (47) 2025 — T. V. Sazonova. “SHE WAS DOING THE OPPOSITE TO THE HOLY CHURCH”: PRINCESS ANNA KHILKOVA IN THE GORITSKY MONASTERY

The article contains and analyzes all available materials regarding one of the famous residents of the Goritsky nunnery, Anna Pavlovna Khilkova. An analysis of the news regarding her family ties and land ownership is conducted, with the documents concerning her exile to the nunnery and subsequent escape from it being meticulously examined. It is evident that A. P. Khilkova is a staunch supporter of the Old Belief, according to the sources cited. The exile of the subject to the Goritsky nunnery had no effect on her beliefs, nor did it compel her to observe the Nikonian rites, at least in public. It became evident to her that she would not be left unaccompanied, and consequently she absconded from the nunnery, a manoeuvre which was facilitated by the perpetual “unrest” therein. It is hypothesised that her subsequent fate was connected with the Old Believer communities of Romanov and Poshekhonye.

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PHJ № 3 (47) 2025 — V. V. Lapin. THE ALEXANDROPOLIS FORTRESS IS A EXPANSE OF IMPERIAL INTEGRATION. THE SYMBOLIC ASPECT

The military and political situation in the border regions of the Russian Empire required the construction of fortresses in strategically important points. These fortifications, together with a complex of buildings necessary for the life of the garrison, played a role not only in the defense system against external threats, but also in maintaining the “peace” of the local population. At the same time, the organization of the space of the fortress complexes, their architecture and even the names of the strongholds and their parts (bastions, fronts, gates, etc.) represented imperial messages and carried a significant symbolic load. Near them, suburbs and even cities of various sizes arose, populated mainly by indigenous residents of the national outskirts. The latter, being involuntary witnesses to the manifestations of army routine (housekeeping, military ceremonies, etc.), found themselves in a special cultural space. The significance of the latter was enhanced by the fact that Russian military personnel in peacetime constituted about a third of the population of the city and district, and during the war, the Armenians who settled there found themselves in the minority. The focus is on Alexandropol, which was the only fortress in Transcaucasia, built in the 1830–1850s in the border region of the Armenian region on the site of the Gumry fortification, founded in 1807. Various symbolic messages were addressed primarily “inward” to maintain imperial identity in a foreign cultural environment, but it is impossible to deny that they also influenced the local population and created conditions for imperial integration.

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PHJ № 3 (47) 2025 — V. A. Veremenko, Ju. V. Sutula. “THE ART OF PERSUASION” — FOREIGN INFANT FORMULA ON THE RUSSIAN MARKET IN THE LATE 19TH — EARLY 20TH CENTURIES

The article, drawing upon a comprehensive array of sources including advertising materials, professional literature by hygienists and physicians, publications from the specialist and women’s press, as well as corporate records, undertakes a thorough analysis of the pivotal role of advertising agencies in the dissemination of foreign infant formula within the domestic market during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. During this period, more than 20 foreign companies offering breast milk surrogates were represented in Russia. The significant cost of these products meant that they were accessible only to the wealthy segment of the country’s population. The advertisement, which promised high-quality, useful and easy-to-use products, was aimed at this educated public. The position of doctors, some of whom participated in the formulas’ advertising, the presence of these companies’ products at all hygiene exhibitions, with the attribution of “proper nutrition”, as well as a well-thought-out advertising campaign, provided foreign manufacturers with an almost monopoly position in the artificial baby food market.

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PHJ № 3 (47) 2025 — S. V. Bondarev. THE ACTIVITIES OF THE GATCHINA AND PETERHOF PALACE ADMINISTRATIONS AT THE BEGINNING OF THE 20TH CENTURY

The famous suburbs of St. Petersburg — Peterhof and Gatchina — had the status of palace towns at the beginning of the 20th century and were under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of the Imperial Court. The purpose of this article is to study the management system and organization of the economy of two settlements in the 1900s as a separate type of urban settlements. The study is devoted to a little-known side of the activities of suburban Palace Administrations, which, along with servicing the royal palace complexes, were engaged in the development of urban infrastructure and were responsible for all aspects of the life of settlements that were part of the suburban imperial residences. An appeal to the history of the development of two cities of the Court Department provides for consideration of the features of construction development, communal and gardening, public safety and other aspects. The analysis of interaction of senior officials of various departments with ordinary employees, the mode of work of services in directions, the specifics of work of architects, police chiefs, custodians, fire chiefs, fountain attendants and representatives of other professions allows to present a picture of everyday life in suburbs with a special status. As a result of the work, the features of economic activity of Peterhof and Gatchina palace administrations as bodies engaged in provision of royal residences and towns near them are revealed. Scientific novelty lies in a comprehensive consideration of organizational and administrative work on management of economy of two palace towns and issues of organization of economy and urban economy of Peterhof and Gatchina at the beginning of the 20th century. The study will allow to supplement the picture of the national system of organization and management in the Russian Empire, to make a contribution to the study of history of cities of the Russian Empire. Also, the article contains new information for studying the history of palace and park ensembles in Peterhof and Gatchina.

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PHJ № 3 (47) 2025 — V. L. Piankevich. LIGHT AND DARKNESS IN BESIEGED LENINGRAD

As part of the study of the sensory experience of war and blockade, the article attempts to analyze sensory impressions, the experience of residents of besieged Leningrad staying in conditions of darkness for a long time, the perception and reflection of light and darkness in written and visual sources. Among them are testimonies from the war and blockade time: diaries, letters, regulatory documents of state authorities and administration, works of artists, architects, photographers, as well as transcripts of oral testimonies collected shortly after the blockade and the war, interviews and memories of city residents of a later time.

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PHJ № 3 (47) 2025 — A. V. Lomakin. FROM ILYICH TO KUMACH: THE POETIC DESIGN OF SOVIET HOLIDAYS ON THE AIR OF LENINGRAD RADIO IN THE 1950S AND 1970S

The article is devoted to specific works of fiction — poems written for the public holidays of May 1 and November 7 and played on holiday radio broadcasts in Leningrad in the 1950s and 1970s. Based on the documents of the Central State Archive of Literature and Art of St. Petersburg, the thematic diversity of festive poetry is studied, its functions in festive narratives and the Soviet holiday as a whole are revealed, special attention is paid to the motivation of writers and poets when fulfilling a state order to create poetic agitation. Poetry “on occasion”, written for the Leningrad radio committee by local poets, was most often dedicated to V. I. Lenin, the Great October Socialist Revolution, Leningrad, and the Communist Party. The poems not only complemented the announcers’ comments about the parades and demonstrations on the Palace Square, created a festive mood, but also carried a certain ideological load and performed an educational function. At the same time, these works were usually performed without specifying the authorship, and later the authors did not include them in their printed collections. The participation of poets and writers in the creation of artistic texts for radio broadcasts can be considered a kind of fulfillment of a state order, in which each individual author could have his own motivation, whether it was establishing relations with the authorities or making easy money.