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PHJ № 3 (47) 2025 — N. N. Smirnov. A NEW PLOT IN THE HISTORY OF THE CULTURE OF THE RUSSIAN DIASPORA. BOOK REVIEW: TOLSTOY M. LINGERING SONG. ST. PETERSBURG: ZVEZDA JOURNAL, 2025. 608 P. + INCL. (72 P.)

The book under review is a documentary investigation of the biography of an outstanding figure of Russian and foreign culture, choirmaster Vasily Fedorovich Kibalchich, a student of the famous composer and choral conductor A. A. Arkhangelsky, a colleague of I. F. Stravinsky and S. P. Diaghilev. Based on the study of a wide range of archival and published sources, periodicals, diaries and memoirs of contemporaries, the author traces the life path of his hero, who was born and educated in Russia, a participant in the revolutionary movement, widely known in Europe and the United States as a propagandist of Russian music, the founder and leader of the famous Russian Symphony Choir, which became famous in America in the 1920s and 1930s as a notable figure of the Russian musical diaspora.

PHJ № 2 (46) 2025 — T. N. Zhukovskaya, K. S. Kazakova. STUDENTS, CORPORANTS, LOYAL SUBJECTS. REVIEW ON MONOGRAPH: FRIEDMAN R. MASCULINITY, AUTOCRACY, AND THE RUSSIAN UNIVERSITY, 1804–1863 / TRANSL. FROM ENGLISH BY N. PROTSENKO. BOSTON / ST. PETERSBURG: ACADEMIC STUDIES PRESS / BIBLIOROSSIKA, 2024. 264 P. SERIES “MODERN WESTERN RUSSIAN STUDIES” // PETERSBURG HISTORICAL JOURNAL, NO. 2, 2025, PP. 250–258

The book under review is a study of the relationship between the student community and the authorities, both university and state, as well as the characteristics of the legal and corporate organisation of students at the pre-reform university. The author examines the social relations of student youth, the formation of official and alternative models of student behaviour, which at that time was an exclusively male community. The author argues that there was a significant gap between the normative gender model of the loyal subject “servant of the fatherland and the Tsar” and the ideal of the educated, emancipated young man developed by the university corporation. The article critically evaluates the ideals of masculinity reconstructed by the author for this socio-cultural group.

PHJ № 1 (37) 2023 – E. K. Piotrovskaya. Review of the book: Byzantinorossica. Code of Byzantine literary about Russia (until 13th century). T. IV / Author-compilaor M.V. Bibikov. The 2nd edition

The book presents the 4th tome of Corpus of Byzantinorossica. There are byzantine literary monuments (until 13th century). Among them are texts of agiography and epistolography, various memoirs, historical and nature study. The book includes translations and accompanied by commentary of all these monuments, where Russian-Byzantine relations are described. The Greek texts of the old-Russian “Vita Antonii” and the “Vita Pheodosii” are especially interesting.

PHJ № 1 (37) 2023 – Ilya N. Strekalov. The Soviet things — “characters” of our history? A review on the book: Golubev A. “‘Veschnaya zhizn’. The materiality of the late socialism”

Изучение советской истории, как показывает отечественный и зарубежный опыт науки, возможно посредством различных методологий. Историк Алексей Голубев в своей новой книге «Вещная жизнь. Материальность позднего социализма» предлагает принципиально новый взгляд на советскую (и, в частности, позднесоветскую) эпоху — через предметы материального мира, вещи.

PHJ № 1 (37) 2023 – А. I. Bogomolov. Another forgotten genocide. Review of the book: Soviet Prisoners of War in the Second World War on Polish Soil: Collected Articles. Edited by J. Wojtkowiak

The history of Soviet prisoners of War in World War II remains poorly studied, but certain aspects of this history do not coincide with the next general line of historical policy every time and are doomed to oblivion. The research of modern Polish historians collected in the reviewed book and are intended to familiarize readers with this complex problem.

PHJ No 4 (36) 2022 – V.L. Piankevich. Review of the collection of documents: Blockade in the decisions of the leading party bodies of Leningrad. 1941–1944. Parts I–III. STPb. 2019–2022

The collection of documents is a continuation of the work on the publication of official documents on the World War II and the blockade. Together with published documents of personal origin, the new edition significantly expands the source base for research on the history of the defense and Leningrad blockade. This is a unique, first, complete, specific publication of the most important documents of the highest regional authorities and administration, almost all of which (98%) were previously kept in secret. The published documents make it possible to study the most important issues of military production, the supply and distribution of food, the management of Leningrad and the Leningrad Region, the economy and urban economy, etc.

PHJ No 4 (36) 2022 – S.N.Iskyul. Review of the book: Gorshkov D.I. La Garde au feu! Napoleon’s Imperial Guard during the Retreat of 1812: Condition, Efficiency and Inter-Regimental Communication: Scientific monograph. Moscow. 2022

The review is devoted to a critical analysis of D. I. Gorshkov’s monograph “La Garde au feu! Napoleon’s Imperial Guard during the Retreat of 1812: Condition, Efficiency and Inter-Regimental Communication”.

PHJ № 3 (35) 2022 – I. K. Bogomolov. Review of monograph: McGeever B. Antisemitism and the Russian Revolution. Cambridge. 2019

The review analyzes the monograph of the Doctor of Philosophy, professor of Sociology at Birkbeck (University of London) Brendan McGeever on anti-Semitism in revolutionary Russia and in the first years of Soviet power. It is stated that the title of the book — “Antisemitism and the Russian Revolution” — does not fully correspond to the content. Nevertheless, the study of the Bolshevik response to antisemitism during the Russian Civil War was carried out at a high level with the involvement of a large number of archival sources. 

PHJ № 3 (35) 2022 – A. Yu. Bendin. Reviewed in: Journals of the Committee of Western Provinces / Ed. by T. V. Andreeva, I. N. Wibe, B. P. Milovidov, D. N. Shilov. Vol. 1-2. St. Petersburg. 2017-2021

For Russian historical science, the western provinces of Russia still remain a topic in many ways. It will require many years of efforts by a large number of researchers whose will have extensive work to identify new arrays of sources, assimilate new research approaches and develop new concepts in it study. The idea that the Western Edge of the Russian Empire was one of the most problematic for the policy of the imperial center has a long history. Historiographical schools and traditions of studying this region began to form in the XIX century In Russia, having been developed after the Polish rebellion of 1863-1864.

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PHJ № 1 (33) 2022 — I. V. Zimin, A. A. Zhuravlev. REVIEW OF THE BOOK: GRAND DUCAL RESIDENCES OF THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE IN 1826–1917: CONSTRUCTION ECONOMICS. STUDY AND DOCUMENTS / COMP. A. A. EFIMOV. ST. PETERSBURG, ISTORICHESKAYA ILLUSTRATSIYA, 2020. 288 P.

Review of the collection of research and documents prepared by the group of authors consisting of A. A. Efimov, S. S. Kurochkin and O. A. Lyubeznikov under the leadership of A. A. Efimov. The publication examines and publishes documents reflecting certain aspects of the participation of the august customers in the administration and financing of palace construction. Its main advantage lies in the introduction of archival documents into scientific circulation, which significantly supplement the history of the creation of a number of palaces of the members of the House of Romanov both in St. Petersburg and in the regions of Russia.