Petersburg Historical Journal № 4 (48) 2025

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PHJ № 4 (48) 2025 — V. V. Vedernikov. VALK’S HANDSHAKE. MEMORIES OF HIS LAST STUDENT

The author of the publication is one of the last participants in the special course of a major Russian scientist, source specialist and historian S. N. Valk. The author, who was in close contact with his supervisor in 1972–1974, notes the peculiarities of the scientist’s work with the student audience, his approach to choosing research topics, and points out the difficulties that arose in the process of communication between students and teachers and ways to overcome them. At the Soviet university, Valk was a living bearer of the traditions of the St. Petersburg historical school and sought to pass on these traditions to his students. The author provides facts indicating the historian’s interest in the social movement in the country. Attention is paid to the controversy between Valk and A. L. Nikitin, which attracted the attention of both scientists and students. A number of episodes characterize the scientist’s everyday habits. The article is published to mark the 50th anniversary of S. N. Valk’s death.

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PHJ № 4 (48) 2025 — A. P. Bekhter. IRINA LEVINSKAYA: A NEW LOOK AT THE HISTORY OF THE EARLY ROMAN BOSPORUS

The article is dedicated to the memory of Irina Alekseevna Levinskaya. The main purpose of the essay is to show the uniqueness of Levinskaya as a researcher who combined in her scientific work such seemingly incompatible topics as the study of ancient lapidary epigraphy of the Bosporus and biblical studies. Levinskaya’s works have significantly changed our understanding of the ethnic, political, religious and cultural life of the early Roman Bosporus, showing traces of the presence of Jews since the 1st century AD.

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PHJ № 4 (48) 2025 — N. V. Tikhomirov “THE WORK IN THE VILLAGE IS VERY, VERY WEAK”: THE SOVIET PEASANTRY IN THE REPORTS OF STUDENTS OF THE LENINGRAD POLYTECHNIC

Previously unknown to researchers, documents containing information about the life of the Russian countryside in the conditions of Soviet modernization of the first post-revolutionary decade are being introduced into scientific circulation. The publication presents the reports of students of the Leningrad Polytechnic of Railways, prepared by them based on the results of their work in practice in the villages of the North-Western region of Russia in 1924. The records reflect various aspects of everyday life, leisure, economic relations and the mentality of rural inhabitants. These materials help to understand better the general state of the Russian peasant world during this historical period and the problems faced by the leadership of the USSR in implementing the socialist restructuring of the country. The reports reflect the contradictions that have arisen in connection with the introduction of a new taxation system, cooperative construction, the implementation of the ideas of the cultural revolution, and the training of personnel for party and Komsomol work. The publication aims to expand the scientific understanding of the participation of Soviet students in the implementation of Soviet government activities in rural areas. These reports quantitatively and qualitatively complement the existing database of sources used by historians to study the Russian peasantry in the 20th century. Their involvement in research practice will make it possible to strengthen the anthropological component of modern peasant studies and will serve as information support for scientific research in the field of rural everyday life, the everyday thinking of rural inhabitants, and contradictions in the interaction of the city and the countryside. The published materials will also be useful for clarifying the specifics of understanding the problems of rural areas by party and Komsomol activists and their tasks in solving them.

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PHJ № 4 (48) 2025 — V. A. Berdinskikh. PROBLEMS OF HISTORY IN THE STALIN ERA AS A SUBJECT OF SCIENTIFIC REFLECTION. BOOK REVIEW: TIKHONOV V. V. THE USEFUL PAST: HISTORY IN THE STALINIST USSR. MOSCOW: NOVOE LITERATURNOE OBOZRENIE, 2024. 367 P.

The article examines the main problems of the book of the Moscow historian V. V. Tikhonov, devoted to the problems of interaction between Soviet historians and the authorities in the era of Stalinism. The book is written in the genre of scientific essay. The transformation of the ideology of Stalinism and the complex of relations between the authorities and the scientific and historical community are the focus of the author’s attention. An attempt to understand how the “historiographic vertical of power” works is clearly a success for V. V. Tikhonov. He posed important and relevant questions of the place and role of historians in historical politics.

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PHJ № 4 (48) 2025 — V. A. Livtsov. FOR THEM, THE WAR DID NOT END IN 1945. BOOK REVIEW: KOVALEV B. N. “THE THAW” AND HITLER’S HEIRS: FROM THE HISTORY OF THE SEARCH AND PUNISHMENT OF NAZI COLLABORATORS IN NORTHWESTERN RUSSIA IN THE LATE 50S — THE FIRST HALF OF THE 60S OF THE 20TH CENTURY. MOSCOW: ISTORICHESKAYA PAMYAT, 2025. 224 P.

“The Thaw” brought liberation not only to innocent victims. Real criminals, guilty of the death of many thousands of civilians, partisans and soldiers of the Red Army, were also released. Who is to blame for it? Many war criminals found refuge in the West — both in West Germany and in the countries allied with the USSR in the anti-Hitler coalition. How could it happen? Former collaborators of the Nazis, Vlasovites and punishers were often able to successfully hide their past. They were respected as honored veterans of the Great Patriotic War. Why did it happen? The Soviet state security agencies spent decades searching for them. What did they do to ensure that justice prevailed? Answers to these questions can be found in the new book by St. Petersburg historian Boris Kovalev.