No 6 (2024)

The book by P.V. Lukin, which is based on the comparison of Novgorod and Venice during the medieval period, allows to set a series of questions regarding the essence of political structure, the role of oligarchy, and the people. In particular, it examines what republics were like in the Middle Ages, in contrast to modern states with a republican system. Although the author pays considerable attention to Venice, Novgorod is nonetheless in the center of his focus. The author's observations about the formation and development of Novgorod's symbols, as well as the role of citizens during the decisive confrontation with Moscow, are particularly interesting. However, the role of the merchant class in the political and social life of Novgorod, one of the largest trading centers of medieval Europe, is not fully explored.

The article presents the results of the study of the Сourt Deployment Books of the Military Service Chancellery in the first decade of the XVIII century. The author focuses on two subspecies of the Сourt Deployment Books that had the status of generally reliable. The Сourt Deployment Books of the “Vsiakih del” were compiled by pod’iachie to ensure the diaki and city voivods and to keep daily chronicles of the Zar Court in the capital. Most these documents was lost in 1812. For the first time in historiography, several authentic fragments of the books of the Сourt Deployment Books “Vsiakih del” of the XVIII century were identified, notebooks of extracts made by G. F. Miller, a set of “Razriadnye Vypiski”. The results of the reconstruction of the text of the lost painting of the voivodes using the synchronous citation technique are analyzed, the result is verified. The Сourt Deployment Books (“Knigi otpiskam”) were intended for registration of “Otpiski” and decisions of diaks, which made it possible to establish the duration of decision-making. The author's decryption of monograms on “Otpiski” more fully reveals the logistics of documents of the Military Service Chancellery. The author notes the complete borrowing by the employees of the Senate Books “Vsiakih del” and the management mechanisms developed in the Military Service Chancellery. The features of designing an electronic full-text publication of Сourt Deployment Books are briefly described.

The article analyses a successful comparison of political institutions of the two medieval city communes conducted in Pavel Lukin’s book “Novgorod and Venice”. Acknowledging the heuristic character of Lukin’s observations on the institutional weakness of the veche system revealed in a constant political instability, the reviewer also pays attention to some lacunae (e.g., the lack of a comparative survey of the military organization of both Novgorod and Venice) and controversial points of the book under review.

The article discusses a book by E.M. Boltuniva “The Last Polinsh King”. It is stressed that besides the personal relations between Nocholas I and Grand Duke Konstantin, and attempts to improbe the emotional climate in Russo-Polish relations after the creation of the Polish Kingdom, important role belonged to the desire of Saint-Petersburg to create a stable system of indirect rule in the Western borderlands of the Empire. Such system was impossible to create such system without trust between the imperial government and the Polish szlachta of the region.

The work is devoted to the analysis of some plots of the monograph by E.M. Boltunova "The Last Polish King: the coronation of Nicholas I in Warsaw and the memory of the Russian-Polish wars of the XVII – early XIX century." related to the relationship of members of the imperial family in the second half of the 1820s - early 1830s. New observations on this issue are made, allowing to correct a number of statements by the author of the book. In addition, the question is raised about the author's ignoring in the second part of the book the testimonies of contemporaries about the events of the early XVII century.

This article represents a contribution to a larger discussion of E. M. Boltunova’s recent book, The Last King of Poland. It briefly recounts elements of the book’s main argument and then identifies a number of its most important themes, including territorial issues, a rehabilitation of Nicholas I, and the emotional dimension of Russia’s relationship with the Kingdom of Poland.

The article examines the links between the formation of imperial ideology and geographical research of the Russian Empire during the reign of Nicholas I. It focuses on the complicated history of the foundation of the Russian Geographical Society in 1845. By using new archival documents, the authors analyze the relationship between the state administration and the scientific elite, exploring this complex web of contacts. The demands of the state administration and the interests of scientific exploration and responsible exploitation of resources act simultaneously as the impetus in the making of academic institutions and at the same time they form the ideological base of a new imperial policy aimed at the quest for national identity.

The article examines the conflicts in the sphere of justice that took place in Vyatka at the height of the Civil War in 1919. The author reveals the complex history of the relationship that developed between local party leaders and authoritative representatives of the Ural Regional Cheka, who moved to the city in the second half of 1918. Conflicts between local and central authorities are an integral feature of the initial stage of the formation of Soviet power.

The article deals with a plot not previously touched upon in historical science: the initiatives put forward in 1948 to revise the administrative-territorial division (ATD) of several USSR republics: RSFSR, Belorussian and Kazakh SSR. Until now, it was believed that the second half of the 1940s and early 1950s was a period of “calm” after a series of reforms and counter-reforms in this area. However, documents discovered in the archives show that there were ideas to continue the transformations. They were motivated by the need to increase the efficiency of the work of the party and Soviet authorities through the reduction of the administrative apparatus and the elimination of its redundant links – regions – by their consolidation. These proposals were ignored, but the problem of improving the efficiency of management in its territorial aspect persisted. This series of initiatives, despite its seeming insignificance, had far-reaching consequences for the political and economic system of the USSR, marking the beginning of an active, albeit rather haphazard search for improvement in spatial organization, the stages of which were attempts to create a bureaus of the Central Committee of the CPSU(b) for several macro-regions of the USSR in 1949 and the introduction of regional division in the republics that didn’t have it in 1951–1952.

The article describes the monograph by A. Vereshchagin devoted to the cassation activities of the Governing Senate. The author's assessments of the Senate as a judicial authority, the composition of the senatorial corps and their influence on the development of ideas of the rule of law in Imperial Russia are analyzed. The significant role of the judicial reform of 1864 was noted, after which the activities of the Senate exacerbated the contradictions within the autocratic model. It is concluded that this book is of great value for a more objective assessment of the political system and public relations in Russia in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

A new study by A.N. Vereshchagin, dedicated to the cassation activities of the Senate, is aligned with the contemporary historiographical trend that generally offers a positive evaluation of the outcomes of the 1864 judicial reform in the Russian Empire. The monograph focuses on the internal organization of the highest imperial court and the increasing judicial workload as a key factor in its transformation. It also examines the legislative work of the Senate and evaluates its contribution to the integration of the country’s judicial and legal system. The article provides an analysis of the core ideas presented in Vereshchagin’s research, the novelty of the author’s approach, and identifies issues that remain unexplored and require further attention.

The monograph by A.N. Vereshchagin devoted to the Cassation Senate of the Russian Empire in the second half of the 19th – early 20th centuries is analyzed. The thoroughness and historiographical relevance of this work are emphasized. The publicistic nature of the text, which is unnecessary for research of this kind, is noted. Disagreement is expressed with the author’s opinion regarding the time of the end of the unlimited nature of the Russian autocracy, but at the same time the validity of the historian’s conclusions on the significance of the reform of the Russian judicial system for its modernization is emphasized.

The text is devoted to the analysis of Nancy Shields Kollmann`s book "Russia and its Empire. 1450–1801». This generalizing work by an outstanding American historian of Russian studies is an attempt to review the Russian history of the XV–XVIII centuries. Although the book has a number of disadvantages, nevertheless it is useful for the Russian reader.

Edition of the journals of the Committee of Western Provinces (1831–1840) introduces an important historical source about preparation and implementation of the government policy in the Western Provinces of the Russian Empire after Polish uprising 1830–1831. Publication of this materials allows to clarify the conclusions of historians about the mechanisms of decision-making and the process of functioning of central state institutions in Nicholaevan time.

The article presents a review of G.N. Bibikov's monograph devoted to clarifying the role played by the III Branch of His Imperial Majesty's Own Chancellery in the system of public administration of the Russian Empire under Nicholas I.

The paper discovers the contents of the international scientific edition, which was published in 2022 and devoted to the more than a thousand-year history of research, exploration and development of the Northeast Passage and Northern Sea Route. The author describes how this international scientific project was born over three decades of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. The paper characterizes the structure of this collective monograph, the authors of which are scientists from four European countries. The book contains a bibliography of research on this topic, which consists of 26 pages of text and approximately 900 titles of works in different languages. The article characterizes the most significant milestones in the exploration and development of the Northeast Passage and the Northern Sea Route, which is embodied in seven chapters of the reviewed monograph: 1) 9^th - mid-16^th centuries; 2) mid-16^th - mid-18^th centuries; 3) mid-19^th centuries; 4) mid-19^th century – 1917; 5) 1917 – 1991; 6) the end of 20^th century – beginning of 2020s; 7) historical experience, modernity and prospects of the Northern Sea Route development. The author briefly characterizes the content of each of these parts and reveals the significance of this international scientific edition.