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PHJ № 4 (48) 2025 — V. V. Vedernikov. VALK’S HANDSHAKE. MEMORIES OF HIS LAST STUDENT

The author of the publication is one of the last participants in the special course of a major Russian scientist, source specialist and historian S. N. Valk. The author, who was in close contact with his supervisor in 1972–1974, notes the peculiarities of the scientist’s work with the student audience, his approach to choosing research topics, and points out the difficulties that arose in the process of communication between students and teachers and ways to overcome them. At the Soviet university, Valk was a living bearer of the traditions of the St. Petersburg historical school and sought to pass on these traditions to his students. The author provides facts indicating the historian’s interest in the social movement in the country. Attention is paid to the controversy between Valk and A. L. Nikitin, which attracted the attention of both scientists and students. A number of episodes characterize the scientist’s everyday habits. The article is published to mark the 50th anniversary of S. N. Valk’s death.

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 — 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 – L. V. Vyskochkov. Notes and projects of M. M. Speransky in the historiography of Russian source studies

The article discusses the main stages of the publication of the notes and projects by M. M. Speransky (1772–1839), who created hundreds of works on philosophy, jurisprudence, morality, religion, realized and unrealized projects of the state system, which were published and republished from 1802 to the present. In historiography, his early works are the most studied, in particular, his constitutional draft of 1809.