Reports

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PHJ №1 (45) 2025 — A. V. Ushakov. FRAGMENTS FROM THE BOOK ABOUT THE NARVA TRADE NOWGORODFAHRER FROM LÜBECK: FEES ON GOODS EXPORTED FROM NARVA DURING THE LIVONIAN WAR

The article under scrutiny herein examines fragments from a handwritten merchant’s book stored in the archive of the Nowgorodfahrer merchant association, which is one of the funds of the Archive of the Hanseatic city of Lübeck. The book chronicles the commercial activities of a trading corporation in Narva during the Livonian War, providing insights spanning the years 1563 to 1577. The study focuses on the commodity lists for 1563, 1564, 1568 and 1577, which detail the internal charges applied to all goods arriving from Narva in Lübeck. The financial proceeds received from these merchants were allocated towards the organisation of collective commercial activities on behalf of the entire trade association. These activities included the maintenance of warehouses and wharves, the chartering of merchant ships, the remuneration of seafarers, mercenaries, scribes and servants, and the settlement of numerous other expenses. Utilising these records, an analysis was conducted of the product range that was characteristic of Narva exports during the Livonian War. Furthermore, a correlation was identified between fluctuations in the amount charged for these goods and the prevailing political situation in the Baltic region. The appendix to the article presents transcriptions of the studied product lists.

PHJ No 4 (36) 2022 – D.Omelchenko. Webinar “Coloured Inscriptions and Analytical Techniques” (Hamburg, 19 October 2021)

This article gives an overview of five papers read by participants in an international webinar held at The Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures (Hamburg) on October 19, 2021. The webinar was devoted to a study of paints made from mineral pigments and preserved in historical monuments. Employees of scientific institutes from Italy, France and Great Britain shared their experience in studying historical monuments with the help of modern non-invasive technologies.

PHJ No 4 (36) 2022 – Y.M.Shepilova, Yu.P.Baskakova, E.I.Nosova, S.L.Itarilova. Technical and technological expertise and attribution of the portrait of S.A.Yesenin

Originally the portrait of S.A. Yesenin was attributed as a photograph dated by 1925. The portrait was not printed on photographic paper, but on typographic paper, since it is too thin and puffy, with no emulsion or barite layers. Microscopy of the image showed that the portrait was printed by phototype, i. e., it is a high-quality reproduction from a photograph. This portrait is one of a series of photos with S.A. Yesenin, made in Baku in photo studio of L.G. Bregadze in 1924. Thus it is revealed that the portrait of S.A. Yesenin under investigation is a reproduction of a photograph, printed on a sheet of offset paper, cut out from a book, brochure or magazine. The date of the portrait was revised: 1924, not 1925, as printed under the portrait.

PHJ No 4 (36) 2022 – A.V.Korchilava, S.P.Elkin, D.S.Prokuratov. Application of digital image correction methods for the analysis of historical objects and cultural heritage

The article describes the implementation of a digital processing program to improve and restore images of museum and archival objects obtained using non-invasive research methods. The practical meaning of this work is to reduce the influence of the human factor on the results of the study, automate the process of diagnosis and obtaining information through numerical processing: improvement, restoration and detailing of image fragments.

PHJ No 4 (36) 2022 – V.Berednikova. Materials of the Central State Archive of Historical and Political Documents of St. Petersburg as a source for the study of the partisan movement on the territory of the Leningrad Region

In article the information possibilities of the documents postponed in funds of the Central State Archive of the Historical and Political Documents of St. Petersburg which reflect the history of creation and work of the Leningrad headquarters of the partisan movement on the organization of partisan formations and control of their activity in days of the Great Patriotic War is analyzed. The analysis of archive materials will allow to estimate in a new way a role of the partisan movement in the battle of Leningrad and also degree of its efficiency, the reason of failures and disorganization at the initial stages of existence of the partisan movement and success achieved in 1943–1944.

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PHJ № 2 (34) 2022 — E. Yu. Skvortsova. LIBERATOR OF AUSCHWITZ GENERAL F. M. KRASAVIN: ORDER OF ALEXANDER NEVSKY DURING LIFE, REHABILITATION — POSTHUMOUSLY

The Order of Alexander Nevsky is the only one that existed (with some changes) in the times of the Russian Empire, in the USSR and in new Russia. To trace the fate of the holders of the Order and collect them in a single catalogue is a topic for a major study, which it seems will be done sooner or later. This is also required by the culture of remembrance as in the fates of the heroes one can trace the continuity of the country’s history. On the example of the fate of one of the awardees of the Order of Alexander Nevsky — General F. M. Krasavin — shows the reflection of turning events in the life of Russia.

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PHJ № 2 (34) 2022 — B. N. Kovalev. THE HUMAN FACTOR IN THE SOVIET STATE SECURITY: THE BATTLE OF LENINGRAD, 1941–1944

The battle of Leningrad (1941–1944) was a fierce struggle. The Soviet state security bodies were opposed by both the Nazis and their allies. The former did not always emerge victorious over the latter. This can be explained not only by the high efficiency of the Germans. The human factor played a crucial role in this confrontation: mistakes, miscalculations, individual derelictions of duty and failures of Soviet security officials. On June 22, 1943, the head of the Leningrad Directorate of the NKGB, Pyotr Kubatkin, held a training seminar for his employees. In the seminar, his deputy, Colonel Iona Ivanov, made the report “Secret agents: training and the pace of work”. It analyzed the experience gained by the KGB servicemen over the two years of the armed confrontation. Pyotr Kubatkin emphasized the following. “To make an arrest with no sufficient ground, with no adequate verification is a shame and a crime for our bodies. We should have a bare-knuckled fight with this shameful phenomenon in our ranks; we absolutely cannot put up with this crime. Our goal is to continue to work so that there are no violations of the rules”.

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PHJ № 2 (34) 2022 — A. I. Rupasov. THE NORTH-WESTERN REGIONAL ECONOMIC MEETING: PROBLEMS OF PROSPECTIVE PLANNING OF REGIONAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT (SECOND HALF OF THE 1920S)

By the mid‑1920s, USSR industry had approached the limit of its extensive development, which inevitably placed the political leadership of the state before the most difficult problem of planning on a national scale. The authorities of the North-West region had to solve a complex of problems in planning the development of the regional economy, including the problem of slowing economic development, reduction of raw material and fuel resources of industry, elimination of commodity hunger for consumer goods, scarcity of financial influence from the central government, shortage of skilled labor, deterioration of transport infrastructure. Solving all these problems in the forward planning process was complicated by the diktat of the Centre in defining the parameters of regional economic development, and the reticence of the Centre towards the requests of regional authorities for additional funding. As a result, the process of elaboration of perspective plans turned into a fiction. In practice, planning was reduced to the coordination of rather unreliable information received by the North-Western Regional Economic Meeting from the provincial economic meetings, with the norms sent from the Centre. This practice was quickly revealed to be flawed, calling into question the very need for the existence of the North-Western Regional Economic Meeting.

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PHJ № 2 (34) 2022 — M. M. Safonov. “AGENT OF HEKKERN” (A. A. AKHMATOVА AND N. N. PUSHKINА)

In the late 1930s A. A. Akhmatova began to work on the history of the death of A. S. Pushkin. The work continued until her death. On the eve of the death of Akhmatovа called these articles “almost ready”, but did not give them to print. This circumstance must be taken into account when evaluating these essays. E. G. Gerstein called Ahmatovа’s studies about the death of Pushkin “artistic concept” and allocated as distinctive features “the artist’s imagination”. In fact, they are artistic works that the form of a documentary study. Akhmatova based on the classical work P. Shchegolev about the last duel of Pushkin. And presented the death of the poet, which painted her poetic imagination. From this outstanding pushkinist Ahmatovа inherited hostility to the wife of the poet, who was the head of the fateful duel. The most interesting thing in this Akhmatovа’s cycle of articles is the language they have been written. Language features of this difficult time, when party and government figures one after another declared spies of foreign states.

PHJ № 3 (35) 2022 – V. V. Mirkin. Mobilization forms of labor organization in telecommunications (1940s–1980s, on the example of Siberia)

On the basis of publications of communications periodicals (Vestnik Svyazi, Elektrosvyaz magazines), regional periodics, departmental publications, as well as archival materials, on the example of the Siberian departments, the personnel policy of the Soviet telecommunications industry in the post-war period is considered, the use of various mobilization forms and methods of labor organization. A brief review of such practices is provided.