Reviews

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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.

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PHJ №1 (45) 2025 — S. N. Iskiul. REVIEW OF THE COLLECTIVE MONOGRAPH: KANDAKOU D., STROEV A. LES RUSSES À PARIS AU XVIIIE SIÈCLE SOUS L’OEIL DE LA POLICE. PARIS: L’HARMATTAN, 2024. 736 P.

The present review is devoted to a critical analysis of the aforementioned collective monograph, which was authored by professors of general and comparative literature at the Sorbonne Nouvelle University (Paris). The authors of the monograph are D. Kondakov and A. Stroev, and the title of the monograph is Les Russes à Paris au XVIIIe siècle sous l’oeil de la police (Paris: L’Harmattan, 2024. 736 p.).

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”.

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PHJ № 2 (34) 2022 — P. V. Krylov. “GET BEHIND SOMEONE ELSE’S GAME”. BOOK REVIEW: TRAVIN D. YA. WHY HAS RUSSIA LAGGED BEHIND? ST. PETERSBURG: EUROPEAN UNIVERSITY IN ST. PETERSBURG, 2021

The review analyzes a polemical book that examines the history of Russia in the Middle Ages and early Modern times in the context of modernization theory. The author of the reviewed work convincingly proves the objective reasons for the lower intensity of modernization of Russia against the background of neighboring countries.

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PHJ № 2 (34) 2022 — P. A. Avakov. A NEW STUDY ABOUT THE RUSSIAN-TURKISH WAR OF 1710–1713 (REVIEW OF THE MONOGRAPH: ARTAMONOV V. A. THE TURKISH-RUSSIAN WAR OF 1710–1713. MOSCOW: KUCHKOVO POLE, 2019. 448 P.)

The monograph under review is a serious contribution to the study of the foreign policy and military history of Russia in the first decades of the 18th сentury. V. A. Artamonov used a large array of historical sources (primarily archival ones) and offered a number of innovative assessments and conclusions.