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PHJ No 4 (36) 2022 – Z.V. Dmitrieva. Mikhail Borisovich Sverdlov (1939–2022)

On April 21, 2022, Mikhail Borisovich Sverdlov, an outstanding historian, source specialist, archaeographer and historiographer, died. The scientist’s entire scientific life was connected with the St. Petersburg Institute of History of the Russian Academy of Sciences, where he went a long way from graduate student to chief researcher. Mikhail Borisovich was not only Russia’s leading specialist in history, Ancient Rus` and Russian historiography, but also the author of manuals on the history, theory and practice of studying the history of Russia of the 6th–13th centuries.

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PHJ № 2 (34) 2022 — A. N. Chistikov. THE LENINGRAD REGIONAL COMMITTEE OF THE CPSU IN THE 1960S AND 1980S: ELECTIONS AND RESULTS

Based on published and unpublished documents, the paper analyses the process and results of elections to the Leningrad Regional Committee of the CPSU in the first half of 1960s and second half of 1970s. Relying on formal criteria proposed by Central Committee of VKP(b) in first post-war years, the author concludes about significant influence of formal approach in formation of governing party body of regional level. A degree of pre-determination increased from the first half of the 1960s to the turn of the 1970s and 1980s. In addition, a policy of quotas based on gender, job, professional, or social characteristics was put in place. At the same time, the authorities have had to respond to the demands of the times, which is reflected in particular in the clarification of educational and vocational criteria. The individual case leads to the general question: were some elements of such a policy specific to Soviet society or to the bureaucratic system of governance as a whole?

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PHJ № 2 (34) 2022 — M. D. Novikov. RATIONALIZATION PROPOSALS OF CITIZENS ON SOVIET MASS BONDS 1946–1957 AND PROJECTS OF “PEACE LOTTERIES” AS AN ATTEMPT OF SOCIETAL INFLUENCE ON THE STATE FINANCIAL POLICY

The article examines the letters of Soviet citizens to the state authorities on the subject of changing the practice of state compulsory bonds. These letters had a specific nature of content, so their addressees designated them as “rationalization proposals”. Among the documents considered there were both letters from ordinary employees of financial bodies (mainly savings banks and financial departments of districts and regions) and letters from people in no way connected with financial structures. All of these letters were aimed at solving the problems that were of concern to citizens in connection with the implementation of Soviet internal mass bonds. They included both organizational and operational nuances, as well as the issue of bonds and the payment of winnings. Among the documents studied were proposals for additional bonds or for reformatting the existing procedure for selling and circulating government bonds. Citizens did not propose any options to stop these campaigns because they had already become part of the usual order of things, but attempts to propose any changes to the current financial policy were also unsuccessful. Writing rationalization proposals provided citizens with an opportunity to engage in a dialogue with the government. They could try to pay attention to the actual problems of the Soviet people and try to solve them not with emotional statements, but with some concrete actions. People were able to enter into a dialogue with the state, but it did not develop further. The only thing that changed during the 12 years of massive loan campaigns was the ratio and amount of winnings, but despite the existence of such proposals, their influence on the decisions taken was not decisive. The materials studied in this paper allow us to take a broader look at the practice of mass bonds and the attitude of the population of the Soviet Union to these campaigns.

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PHJ № 2 (34) 2022 — D. A. Barinov. STUDENT FRATERNITIES OF THE IMPERIAL AND SOVIET UNIVERSITY

The historiography of higher education is often characterized by a watershed presented by the events of 1917. The change in social and political structures opened a new era in the history of Russian higher education. However, with such an approach, it is often forgotten that the changes of the first decades of Soviet power were experienced by people formed in the old, pre-revolutionary tradition. This situation is typical as well for higher education, where the inertia of its existence under the old regime was preserved throughout the 1920s. First of all, this inertia can be traced in the forms of organization of student self-government. The main and senior body of mutual economic assistance among the students was the fraternities. Initially, from the first half of the 19th century, they provided active material support to the out-of-town students. In this article, using the example of St. Petersburg / Petrograd / Leningrad University we will trace the history of fraternities, define the features of their legislative status, connections with political movements. The analysis allowed the author to come to the conclusion that both in the Tsarist and in the Soviet period, the fraternities in many aspects faced similar problems. Being organs of grassroots initiative, they were weakly amenable to control, bureaucratization, their activities did not coincide much with the existing legislative provisions. And most importantly, they were considered to be bodies of possible protest. Therefore, in the Soviet period, during the tightening of political control, such organizations were doomed to be closed, as they seemed to be a place of concentration of non-party people, i. e. a potentially hostile studentship.

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PHJ № 2 (34) 2022 — S. A. Nikonov. THE ABILITY TO SURVIVE: METHODS OF ADAPTATION AND MORTALITY OF RUSSIAN HUNTERS IN SVALBARD AND NOVAYA ZEMLYA IN THE SECOND HALF OF THE 18TH — EARLY 19TH CENTURY

The article deals with the problem of the influence of extreme factors on the wintering of Russian industrialists on Novaya Zemlya and Svalbard in the second half of the 18th — early 19th century. Wintering, assumed a one-year stay of artels in the polar archipelagos, which could provide significant income from hunting sea animals, but posed threats to human health and life. The risks included the climatic conditions of the Arctic (polar night, cold) and diseases caused by vitamin deficiency (scurvy). For wintering, fishing huts (camps) were built, the building material for which was regularly brought from the mainland. Prevention of scurvy was carried out in various ways, both developed over the centuries (the use of plants, honey, etc.), and by means of medicine of the 18th–19th centuries. However, the ways of adaptation could not completely avoid the death of industrialists. The causes of death of industrialists were various factors — diseases, accidents at sea and during hunting for sea animals, death during blizzards. There are cases of criminal deaths caused by clashes between Russian industrialists and European whalers. A significant danger was represented by scurvy disease, the victim of which was not only individual industrialists, but also entire artels. Analysis of the materials of the Belomorskaya Company of 1804–1808 shows that up to a third of the artels became victims of wintering by industrialists. The significant mortality of industrialists, the inability to calculate the risks of wintering in the polar archipelagos, can be considered as a factor contributing to the reduction of fisheries on Novaya Zemlya and Svalbard. By the second half of the 19th century, the hunting of sea animals on Svalbard by Russian industrialists was curtailed.

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PHJ № 2 (34) 2022 — A. I. Prokofiev. CELEBRATION OF THE 300TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE PEREYASLAV RADA IN 1954: DISCOURSES OF HISTORICAL MEMORY ABOUT THE BEGINNING OF THE THIRTEEN YEARS WAR 1654–1667

In 1954, the USSR celebrated the 300th anniversary of the Pereyaslav Rada on the occasion of the declared allegiance of the Zaporozhian Army to the Moscow state. The anniversary was given great importance not only in the artistical, but also in the scientific life of Soviet society. Cinema, painting, literature, history, pedagogy — everything seemed to serve the cause of uniting the Russian and Ukrainian peoples. Did the concept of “reunification of Ukraine with Russia” exist before 1954 in the Soviet historical language, or was a new tradition emerging before our eyes? Which discourses did Soviet historians present when speaking about the Rada and the beginning of the war between the Moscow state and the Commonwealth in 1654–1667? The purpose of this study is to consider the language of describing the historical process in the scientific and artistical space.

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PHJ № 2 (34) 2022 — Z. A. Ismailova. POSTHUMOUS CHRONICLE PRAISE OF THE RULER AS A HISTORICAL SOURCE

This article is devoted to the study of such a separate historical and literary genre as the chronicle praise of the ruler. During the 11th–16th centuries, chronicle praise was a very common technique of medieval scribes. Comparing the praises of different Russian Chronicles and different historical periods, the author proves that the chronicle praise of the ruler grew out of a brief posthumous description of him, reflected the chronicler’s good knowledge, his likes and dislikes, and in the 12th century acquired a ready-made form — a literary form. Early praises (11th–13th centuries) correctly reflected historical reality, contained individual traits of the ruler, changed depending on historical conditions, which increases their value as a historical source. It was also found out that there were two main forms of praise — southern and northern. The difference between them is that southern praise was secular, while northern praise was ecclesiastical; southern praise was limited to local interests, and northern praise had a world-historical scale. In general, praise can be considered as a separate chronicle of the medieval genre, characterized by special plot and stylistic features.

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PHJ № 2 (34) 2022 — I. B. Vishnya. MINIATURES OF THE LIFE OF NICHOLA AND THE FACIAL CHRONICLE VAULT: FOUR ICONOGRAPHIC MANNERS

The historiography of the question of the proximity of the iconographic manners of the miniatures of the Life of Nichola and the Facial Chronicle Vault has remained open until now. Using a new method, which we call “handwriting” and analyzing in detail all the difficult moments, taking into account the mistakes that have accumulated in the past, we came to the conclusion about four iconographic manners that are present in both manuscripts. However, the presence in the Life of Nichola at the very beginning of 124 miniatures, similar in manner to the miniatures of the Chudov Monastery Vault, indicates the fact that the manuscript may have been worked on in two different scriptoriums. They started in one, and after a while, the manuscript ended with the masters of the Facial Chronicle Vault.

PHJ № 3 (35) 2022 – A. Ya. Kodintsev. Historiography of labor crimes in the USSR in the 1930–1950s

The history of labor crimes has a relatively large number of publications. They can be divided into two periods. The first covers the Soviet period. Research of that time was distinguished by strict adherence to the legal issues of the application of criminal legislation on labor crimes. The second period consists of modern works, and since 2008 one can notice a rapid increase in the number of studies on the problems of labor offenses in the Soviet state. The quality, depth and scope of work in this area is rapidly increasing. In the work, author covers the historiography of labor crimes committed in the USSR in the 1930s–1950s.

PHJ № 3 (35) 2022 – A. I. Rupasov. Activities of the Leningrad City and Regional State Arbitration Courts in 1943–1944

During the war, the desire of the Leningrad City Court of Arbitration to extend the scope of its competence, in spite of the reluctant and negative attitude of the local executive authorities, was partly fulfilled in the practice of its activities. As a result, the Leningrad State Arbitration acquired the features of an administrative body, a managerial body.