2026

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PHJ № 1 (49) 2026 — N. A. Zherlitsina. FRENCH-OTTOMAN RIVALRY IN MAGHREB FROM 1830 TO 1848, BASED ON RUSSIAN AND TURKISH ARCHIVAL MATERIALS

The article is devoted to the study of the formation of French colonial policy towards Maghreb countries, as well as the analysis of the Ottoman Empire’s policy to protect its North African provinces from European encroachments. The work examines the entire period of the July Monarchy in France, that is, from 1830 to 1848, which allows us to draw conclusions about the goals, objectives and methods of colonial expansion of the French authorities in Maghreb. An analysis of the policy of the Ottoman Empire towards its Maghreb provinces during the period under study shows that the Sublime Porte was not indifferent to the events on its western outskirts and played a much more active role than has been previously believed in historiography in attempts to resist the European powers. The novelty of the study also lies in identifying the methods used by each of the empires in attempts to attract the Maghreb countries into their orbit of influence. France and the Ottoman Empire resorted to both violent methods and the policy of “soft power”, as well as provocations and intimidation. The article examines not only the policy of the great powers, but also the position of the object of this policy — the authorities of the province of Tunisia. The analysis of the documents shows the desire for independence of the Husseinid dynasty of Tunisia, an attempt to achieve it by playing on the contradictions between the great powers. The author comes to conclusion that the period 1830–1848 prepared the ground in Maghreb for French expansion in the following decades.

PHJ № 1 (49) 2026 — L. A. Gerd. FRANCO-RUSSIAN RIVALRY IN EASTERN THRACE (1856–1870S)

The end of the 1850s and the 1860s were a period of the highest tension in the Greek-Bulgarian counter-action in the church-national question. The struggle of the Bulgarians against the Greek high clergy was used by the diplomacy of the powers (Russia, France and Great Britain) for strengthening of their influence in the Balkans. The Russian representatives supported Orthodoxy, while the French diplomats and missionaries tried to convert the Bulgarians into the Union with Rome. The article is focused on the methods of struggle of the Bulgarian population of Adrianople and Eastern Thrace, used by the secular and religious agents of the concurrent powers (Russia and France), and the results of their activities. Basing on the reports of French diplomats conclusions are made concerning the missionary work in the colonial policy of France in the third quarter of the 19th century.

PHJ № 1 (49) 2026 — V. M. Tarelko. YMCA ACTIVITIES IN RUSSIA DURING WORLD WAR I: ORGANIZING ASSISTANCE TO GERMAN AND AUSTRIAN PRISONERS OF WAR

This article is an attempt to consider the history of humanitarian assistance to German and Austrian prisoners of war, provided by the YMCA organization during the WWI: to summarize the results of the activities of organization’s secretaries in the camps located in the Kiev, Irkutsk, and Turkestan military districts, to identify the features, nature and mechanisms of their work. The article is based on materials from the American periodical press and archival sources stored in the funds of the Russian State Historical Archive and the Russian State Military Historical Archive. The author conclusion is, that in a short period of time, the YMCA has achieved significant success in providing assistance to prisoners of war. This success was entirely due to the tireless work of the YMCA secretaries in the field, which was sometimes complicated by the significant extent of the territories entrusted to them, the lack of railway service, and severe weather conditions. The implementation of the YMCA program depended entirely on the personal qualities of the secretaries, their involvement in problem solving and diplomacy, which ensured effective contact with both prisoners of war and the military commandant’s office. YMCA’s work in Russia constituted the largest and most extensive international initiative to assist prisoners of war, providing both material support and opportunities for intellectual and cultural development. The article also analyzes the impact of this work on Russian-American relations and on the humanitarian policy of the United States during the war period.

PHJ № 1 (49) 2026 — A. A. Ivanov. AN ACCIDENTAL DIPLOMAT: ALFRED WILL KLIEFOTH AND THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION OF 1917

The revolutionary events of 1917 had an impact not only on domestic political, economic, socio-cultural institutions and international processes, but also significantly influenced the worldview of the participants. For some of them, the rise of the Bolsheviks and the subsequent civil war became a traumatic experience that led to a significant shift in their system of values. At the same time, the internationalization of the military-political confrontation in Russia allowed foreign military personnel, intelligence officers, and diplomats to gain practical experience in dealing with socialist parties and develop their skills in countering them, which became a factor in their career advancement. It was the experts who served together in the American Embassy in Russia during the Revolution and in the American Military Mission during the intervention who later formed the core of the divisions responsible for analyzing relations with USSR in the U. S. Department of State. One of these specialists was Alfred Will Kliefoth, whose career allows us to understand many of the implicit aspects of the Soviet-American confrontation in the early years of Soviet rule. This article explores the evolution of the beliefs of A. W. Kliefoth during the early stages of his diplomatic career — from pacifism to anti-Bolshevism. The research is based on the documents of American government agencies, writings and interviews by A. W. Kliefoth, as well as the works of Russian and foreign historians.

PHJ № 1 (49) 2026 — A. Yu. Suslov. VLADIMIR NIKOLAEVICH GINEV (1932–2025) AS A HISTORIAN OF POPULISM

This article examines the issues of populism and neo-populism in the creative legacy of the prominent Russian historian Vladimir Nikolaevich Ginev (1932–2025). The article analyzes the scholar’s career at the Leningrad Branch of the Institute of History of the USSR Academy of Sciences (St. Petersburg Institute of History of the Russian Academy of Sciences), his key studies on populism in the Middle Volga region in the 1870s, the struggle of neo-populist parties for the peasantry in 1902–1914, and the agrarian question in the theory and practice of socialist parties after the February Revolution of 1917. V. N. Ginev’s dissertation research is given special consideration. The article demonstrates the historian’s contribution to the development of research, the introduction of new sources into scientific circulation, and the analysis of the issues within a broader thematic and chronological framework. Individual reviews of V. N. Ginev’s works in domestic and foreign publications are noted. This article examines V. N. Ginev’s contribution to the publication of documents in the collections “Revolutionary Populism of the 1870s”, “Library of Revolutionary Memoirs”, and “From the History of ‘Land and Freedom’ and ‘People’s Will’. Debates on Tactics”. The significance of V. N. Ginev’s creative legacy for modern historical scholarship is emphasized.

PHJ № 1 (49) 2026 — I. V. Goncharova, M. V. Druzin, M. V. Kovaleva. V. N. GINEV. AUTOBIOGRAPHY. FROM LETTERS

This publication features memoirs and excerpts from letters from the last decade of the life of Vladimir Nikolaevich Ginev (1932–2025), a prominent Soviet and Russian historian of populism and volost self-government. In his autobiographical notes, Ginev recalls his childhood during the difficult times of the Great Patriotic War, his evacuation, his postwar years in Oryol, and his studies at Leningrad University and graduate school at the Leningrad Branch of the Institute of History of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Ginev’s work on his major historical works is covered in detail. The author also explores his relationship with the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and Marxist-Leninist ideology. As head of the St. Petersburg Institute of Historical Studies (SPbIHI RAS) Archive for ten years, Ginev reveals the history of the archive’s collections and the challenges it faced in the 2000s. His teaching at Oryol State University in the 1990s–2010s and his supervision of graduate students also occupy a special place in his memoirs. The chronological autobiographical memoirs continue with excerpts from letters from V. N. Ginev to his student at Oryol University, M. V. Kovaleva, written between 2015 and 2024. The letters contain memoirs about various stages of Vladimir Nikolaevich’s life. In them, he continues to participate in and follow the life of the St. Petersburg Institute of History of the Russian Academy of Sciences, documenting, as a contemporary, the changes in the country’s scientific life and all the hardships of life in one’s later years.

PHJ № 1 (49) 2026 — S. V. Bukalova. MEMORIES OF V. N. GINEV

This publication features autobiographical notes by S. V. Bukalova, a university teacher from Orel, about V. N. Ginev as her academic advisor and her research under his supervision, from her undergraduate coursework to her doctoral dissertation. The memoirs reflect both the mundane details of the educational process at a regional university and V. N. Ginev’s methodological approaches to organizing research, based on the requirement for rigorous argumentation of conclusions, a comprehensive source base, and objective interpretation of data. Spanning a quarter of a century, the memoirs touch upon changes in the academic community — the digitalization of sources, the emergence of publication requirements, and the formation of professional communities. Of particular note is V. N. Ginev’s connection to the emergence of new research areas in the history of the First World War.

PHJ № 1 (49) 2026 — A. V. Chirkova. DOCUMENTS OF THE DOGES OF VENICE FROM THE 14TH TO THE FIRST HALF OF THE 16TH CENTURY COLLECTED BY NIKOLAY P. LIKHACHEV: ON THE HISTORY OF THE COLLECTION

In the West European Section of the Archive of the St. Petersburg Institute of History, Russian Academy of Sciences, there are 64 original charters from Venetian doges dating from the 14th to the first half of the 16th century: 18 sentences (ducali maggiori) and 46 letters (ducali minori). They originate from the collection of Academician N. P. Likhachev and were purchased for his Museum of Palaeography, where the history of writing was represented from the turn of the 3rd–4th millennium BC, primarily through documentary monuments. The documents were acquired between 1892 and 1914 at European auctions and through correspondence with other collectors. Thanks to Likhachev’s annotations on the covers of the charters, it is possible to establish the time and place of acquisition for 20 documents: private collections of Gabriele Fantoni (4) and Alexander Posonyi (2, by the Friedrich Cohn auction), auctions of Pio Luzzetti (7), Tammaro De Marinis (3), Gabriel Charavay (1), Sotheby’s (1), “Gilhofer und Ranschburg” (2). Through the analysis of owners’ inscriptions on the covers and on the charters themselves, the provenance of the documents is traced back to the collections of Gian Carlo Rossi (10), Luigi Azzolini (2), presumably Luigi Arrigoni and Amilcare Ancona (1), and two unattributed collectors (4 and 2). The analysis of the provenance shows that before being accumulated in Likhachev’s collection, these ancient acts changed hands multiple times.

PHJ № 1 (49) 2026 — I. E. Lebedeva. PRINTED CALLIGRAPHY MANUALS OF THE 16TH CENTURY AND HANDWRITTEN SAMPLE BOOKS

Studying the relationship between printed writing manuals and handwritten books of samples will help us understand how exactly these manuals were used by master calligraphers of their time. An example of a book of samples is the Mira Calligraphiae Monumenta (MCM) manuscript, currently divided into two volumes and housed in the Getty Museum (Los Angeles, USA) and the Kunsthistorisches Museum (Vienna, Austria). The pages of both volumes have been digitized and are available for downloading from the museums’ websites. They are striking in their sophistication and high level of writing and illumination. However, the composition of the MCM texts is extremely heterogeneous and has puzzled the researches. Comparison of the MCM texts with the texts of 16th-century writing manuals allows us to conclude that the source of at least several pages of the MCM were precisely the manuals, and not the books or original documents that the author of the MCM, George Bocskay, had to work with in the line of duty. The study of the copies and originals included their textual, linguistic and paleographic analysis. With the exception of quotations from the Bible and various prayers, these are letters — both personal and official, quotations from fiction, as well as names in the form of monograms — the so-called cryptography, notarial records, moralizing sayings and the Hebrew alphabet. Quotations from the Bible are given in Latin, the remaining texts are written in national languages. Among the copied are two decorative types of writing — Lettera Rognosa and Lettera Trattizata, as well as non-decorative ones: the classic Cancellaresca of Arrighi, the italic with some letter connections and loops in place of the ascenders, the letter of papal bulls, the classic trade letter and its regional (most likely Venetian) variety, Fraktur and Gothic cursive.

PHJ № 1 (49) 2026 — G. I. Bayazitova, F. E. A. Giral. LETTER FROM CARDINAL DE RICHELIEU TO THE FRENCH AMBASSADOR TO SWITZERLAND, BRULARD DE LEON (APRIL 9, 1630)

The article is devoted to the study of a manuscript letter by Cardinal de Richelieu, First Minister to King Louis XIII of France, who managed the internal and foreign policy of France from 1624 to 1642. The autograph of Richelieu is kept in the Russian National Library in St. Petersburg as part of the Dubrovsky Collection. Although it was already known to M. Avenel, the first editor of Cardinal de Richelieu’s correspondence, it had not yet been introduced to the scholarly community. Also, a transcription of the letter without commentary or translation is contained in the latest monograph by A. D. Lyublinskaya. The letter dates back to the War of the Mantuan Succession and is addressed to de Leon, French ambassador in Switzerland. The letter concerns Marshal de Bassompierre’s role in the negotiations with the Cantons of Switzerland. The introductory article provides the context for the document’s appearance, reconstructs the series of events that preceded its creation based on historical sources, and draws a conclusion about the message’s place in Cardinal Richelieu’s correspondence. The article provides a transcription, translation, annotated commentary, and a reproduction of the original letter. The publication of this autograph adds to the research on 17th-century French documents located in Russia, initiated by A. Lyublinskaya, and advances ourunderstanding of Cardinal de Richelieu’s activities.