History of Russia

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PHJ №1 (45) 2025 – G. S. Tziafetas. OLD PROBLEM, MODERN SOLUTION: FLOODS AND PROTECTION IN ST. PETERSBURG/LENINGRAD (1703–1924)

The article contains a scientific view of environmental management, projects for protecting St. Petersburg from floods, which were proposed by engineers of the 18th and early 20th centuries, as well as a social justification for why flood supports began to be seriously designed only after the catastrophic floods of 1924. Was it a catalyst for the authorities and engineers — or was this design phase more dependent on other (social) processes?

PHJ № 1 (37) 2023 – A. I. Rupasov. Soviet-Finnish negotiations on direct air communication, 1950–1960s

As long ago as 1945 the Allied Control Commission had authorised the Finnish side to carry out regular flights with several European countries. This raises the question why this permission was not followed by direct air traffic between Finland and the Soviet Union. It was only after N.S. Khrushchev’s visit to Scandinavia in 1964 that the Soviet side gave its consent for Aero to carry out flights to Leningrad. This article analyses the long-standing Soviet-Finnish negotiations on direct air links.

PHJ № 1 (37) 2023 – F. K. Yarmolich. The level and quality of life of a Leningrader in the 1950–1960s (on the materials of the leisure sphere)

In the article on the basis of the materials of Leningrad of 1950–1960s such element of the everyday life of a city dweller as the leisure sphere is scrutinized. The author pays his attention to the number and geographical location of cultural institutions in the urban space, the variety of forms of recreation and their financial affordability. Having analyzed these aspects the article assesses the extent to which the altered standard of living of a Leningrader during this historical period correlated with the quality of his life. 

PHJ № 1 (37) 2023 – Elena D. Tverdyukova. Westernization of consumer values in the USSR in the first postwar years (1945–1949)

The article analyzes the trends of Westernization of consumption in Soviet urban society at the end of the Great Patriotic War (1945–1949). The author argues that the campaign against bourgeois values began even before the official announcement of the policy of isolation from foreign culture and opposition to cosmopolitanism. The fight against Western consumerism was waged in an environment of total scarcity and the low quality of domestic production, so that the media themselves largely formed an aura of prestige around foreign consumer goods. This led to the formation of a new culture of consumption, with a characteristic Soviet citizens’ desire to buy goods of foreign rather than domestic production. 

PHJ № 1 (37) 2023 – V. L. Zemlyanskiy. National Democratic Faction of the Priamursky National assembly

The article studies the formation of a group of National Democrats in Primorye and the activities of its group in the parliament of the Priamursky state formation. In the winter of 1921, the government’s unwillingness to reckon with the leaders of the National Democratic faction led to a break in joint work. The National Democrats took the lead in the struggle against the government of S.D. Merkulov, but were defeated, which led to the termination of the activities of the National assembly.

PHJ № 1 (37) 2023 – S. Andriainen. “The Vicissitudes of a tedious war”: the participation of the Russian Imperial Guard in the suppression of the Polish Uprising of 1830–1831

The article examines the combat work of the units of the Russian Imperial Guard during the Russo-Polish War of 1830–1831. The author considers it necessary to investigate the activities of the entire Guards Corps as a whole, and not only the combat successes of individual guard regiments. The author comes to the conclusion that the Polish War played a significant role in the development of the Russian Guard. After the end of the war, the entire guard was concentrated in St. Petersburg and its suburbs. The war with the Poles caused a patriotic upsurge among the officers of the Guard. This war helped Emperor Nicholas I to improve his relations with the units of the Guard.

PHJ № 1 (37) 2023 — M. S. Belousov. Polish conspiracy on the day of accession to the throne of Nicholas I: the version of the Spanish diplomat Paez de la Cadena

The article is devoted to the problem of the genesis of the mythologeme about the conspiracy of secret societies among the Russian authorities and the political establishment. As appendices, are published reports of the Spanish diplomat Paez de la Cadena, who witnessed the Decembrist uprising and recorded in detail the rhetoric of the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry: according to Nesselrode’s initial statement, a riot of Polish officers took place in the capital and the purpose was to plunge the empire into anarchy and confusion. 

PHJ № 1 (37) 2023 – G. A. Grebenshchikova. Zugzwang of Navarino

With the involvement of archival documents of the AVPRI and the RGAVMF archives, the naval battle by the Navarino, significant for the national naval history, is considered from a military-political and military-diplomatic perspective. The main task of the article is to show the algorithm that led the allied admirals near Navarin to the position of zugzwang, and the consequences of that zugzwang for their powers.

PHJ № 1 (37) 2023 – S. E. Nikitina. The formation of the rural Russian population of Yakutia in the communicative space of the Russian state in the Peter’s I epoch

In the era of Peter I areas of Russian settlement began to take shape around prisons and winter hut of pioneers which consolidated the structure of the Russian state in the northeast. The tasks of creating a transport infrastructure for the outskirt led to the construction of the Irkutsk — Yakutsk tract and the settlement of Russian yamsky peasants there. Composed at the beginning of the 18th century a small stratum in the population of the Yakut district, Russian population played a significant role in the development and consolidation of Russian statehood in the “new lands” which was reflected in various forms of the communicative space of the studied period.

PHJ № 1 (37) 2023 – A. M. Vvedenskii. Chronicler of the Trinity Collection No. 805 until the beginning of the 13th century: sources and characteristics of the chronicler’s work

The article analyzes the sources of the unpublished chronicle collection of the Trinity Collection no. 805, which is in the storage of the RSL. Two sources are identified — the main and additional. The sources are scrutinized from the beginning of the dated narrative to the chronicle article of 1209 (additional) and to the article of 1223 (main). The article shows that the compiler of the chronicle collection did not use an additional source in the area from 1036 to 1198. The article also analyzes the nature of the work of the chronicler with his main and additional sources.