Abstract: The article is dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the Department of Historical Information Science of the History Faculty of Moscow State University. It provides a brief analysis of the areas of scientific work of the Department during the second decade of its existence; thus, new trends in the development of Historical Information Science are also traced – an interdisciplinary area of contemporary historical studies which dates back to the early 1990s. The origins of this area are associated with the activities of the group on the application of mathematical methods and computers in historical research, formed in the 1970s at the Department of Source Studies by its director, Academician I.D. Kovalchenko. On his initiative, in 1991 the group became the departmental laboratory of historical information science, which in 2001 received the status of a general faculty laboratory, and in 2004 was transformed into the Department of the same name. The article notes that in the 2010s the "Renaissance of quantification" took place, mainly due to the growing interest in big data technologies, artificial intelligence, machine learning, artificial neural networks, etc. In this regard, Data Science, which is considered a section of computer science related to the processing, analysis and presentation of data in digital formats, is acquiring an important role. The scientific work of the department is largely implemented in the course of research projects supported by Russian scientific funds. The article provides a brief description of these projects carried out at the department in 2014-2024. It is noted that their main goal is to increase knowledge in a particular areas of historical studies (mainly in the economic and social history of Russia), as well as in the tasks of studying and preserving (digital) historical and cultural heritage.

Abstract: The article contains an analytical description of the main directions of work of the All-Russian academic and methodological seminar, which took place in January 2024 at the Faculty of History of Moscow State University and was oriented to the problems of digital transformation of university historical education, as well as the development of educational programs in the field of "Historical Information Science" and related program profiles. The seminar was organized by the Faculty of History of Moscow State University and the interregional association "History and Computing" (АИК). The purpose of the seminar was to discuss the current experience accumulated by historians of Russian universities in the use of digital technologies, data science methods and artificial intelligence in the educational process. Another direction of the seminar was the exchange of experience in the development of educational programs in the field of “Historical Information Science”. Other educational programs of similar profiles were also discussed, for example, “Applied Informatics in the Humanities” for bachelors. More than 80 university representatives from six countries took part in the seminar. A number of reports examined new formats of educational work that have been introduced in universities in recent years in the context of the digital transformation of higher education, including project activities of students, the work of a tutor in a digital department of a university, and the organization of a research and educational group based on scientific partnership between students and teachers.
The article notes that during the seminar, noticeable interest was shown in organizing the educational process in the field of “Historical Information Science” using the example of the experience of the History Faculty of Moscow University over the past two decades. The second part of the article provides a brief description of MSU educational programs.

Abstract: The year 2023 marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of academician I.D. Kovalchenko, an outstanding Soviet and Russian historian. This article is devoted to important aspects of his academic and organizational activities in the field of application of mathematical methods and computers in historical research. This is a look through the prism of the academician's personal archive. The article describes the discussion on the problems of modeling historical processes and phenomena, in which academician I.D. Kovalchenko participated, and also reveals his position on the analysis of alternatives to the historical process. As the main example of an alternative historical situation analyzed by I.D. Kovalchenko, the "Great Turning Point" is considered, the end of the 1920s. Bukharin's alternative is considered as actually existing. The materials of Academician Kovalchenko's personal archive clearly demonstrate his conviction that the application of mathematical methods in historical research is not a "purely technical" task, he formulates a number of methodological issues that arise in this kind of interdisciplinary research. The materials of the academician's personal archive reveal an important feature of his research – attention to the correctness of the using mathematical and statistical methods. While working on his doctoral dissertation, he tested its methodology at a seminar of the specialized Department of the Faculty of Mathematics of Moscow State University. The work on the monograph (jointly with L.V.Milov) on the formation of the All-Russian agricultural market gave rise to correspondence with N.S. Chetverikov, a famous Soviet and Russian statistician of the Chuprov school, who developed, in particular, mathematical methods for analyzing dynamic series. In this correspondence, controversial issues of statistical methodology were clarified. Quantitative history, the founder of which in Russia is academician I.D. Kovalchenko, is again an urgent trend today. In the 21st century, there has been an actual increase in interest in Data Science, the traditional core of which is statistical methods.

Abstract: Regulating wages in the state industry was an important socio-economic task during the NEP years. The general direction of this regulation can be characterized by an leveling trend, which was initiated and supported by trade unions. At the same time, enterprises sought to achieve a certain differentiation of employee's wages in order to maintain the required level of labor incentives. The implementation of this policy in the Urals had some peculiarities. Thus, the wages of Ural workers were on average noticeably lower than in the industrialized areas of the center of the country. The article provides examples of protests by various layers of workers in the Urals regarding the course towards “leveling”. The characteristics of the tariff reform of 1928 are given.
The article sets the task of assessing changes in the level of differentiation of wages for industrial workers in the Urals during the years of the “late NEP”. The measurement of differentiation and wage inequality is carried out in the article using the decile coefficient and the Gini index. The article shows that carried out in the 1920s the policy of equalizing workers' wages was not only proclaimed in governing documents, but was also implemented, in this case, in the Ural industry. Measurements carried out using various methods confirm a decrease in the degree of differentiation of wages for workers in the Urals at the final stage of the NEP. At the same time, the gap in wages between blue-collar workers and industrial employees was significant and showed a tendency to further increase.
However, after a couple of years, the policy of leveling wages was decisively condemned. The authorities claimed exiting tariff scales represented the “cultivation of petty-bourgeois egalitarianism” and hampered the stimulation of raising the qualifications of workers.

Abstract: The article contains a critical analysis of two theses presented in a recently published monograph on historical information systems. The book contains a lot of useful information, including a description of the author's experience in developing such systems. Both theses discussed are related to the authors' assessment of the evolution of an interdisciplinary field focused on the use of information/digital technologies and data analysis methods in historical research. We are talking about historical computer science, which has passed a 30-year path in our country. The first controversial thesis of the authors of the book boils down to the statement that "historical informatics has not found sufficient and deserved recognition among traditional historians." В  The first controversial thesis of the authors of the book boils down to the statement that "historical informatics has not found sufficient and deserved recognition among traditional historians." In the second thesis, we are talking about the fact that in many ways the field of research and development, previously related to historical computer science, is now being considered in line with digital history.
Both theses are disputed in the article, the corresponding arguments are given. The specificity of the Russian model of historical informatics, which distinguishes it from the relatively recent versions of digital history, is shown. This specificity is determined by the balance of the structure of historical informatics, combining its "resource" component with an analytical one aimed at obtaining meaningful meaningful results (and with an emphasis on the second component).

Abstract: The article aims at characterizing the joint project of archivists and historians, the Main Archive of Moscow Oblast and Moscow State University. The project virtually reconstructs historical manors using 3D modeling technologies on the basis of archival materials. The paper briefly examines the evolution of dvoryanstvo manors in the 18th - early 19th centuries, their role in the formation of rural society and their culture as well as the manors’ state at present when most of the remaining manors are in ruins. The article formulates three principles that should be observed when choosing objects for their virtual reconstruction. The author shows the optimal set of sources for solving the problems of such projects. These are, first of all, graphic and text sets of design and restoration documentation which was created for restoration work in the second half of the twentieth century including dimensional drawings, opinion of engineers on the state of structures, draft restoration projects, working drawings for strengthening structures, etc.) as well as albums of photographs characterizing the current state of the object. The final part of the article describes the project work of students to virtually reconstruct five historical manors of Moscow Oblast which are objects of cultural heritage of federal or regional significance.

Abstract: The article addresses methodological and methodic issues concerning the study of historical urban landscape. The methodological basis of the work is a concept suggested by UNESCO. It is a developing field of contemporary historical urban science. Its methodic and technological basis is digital technologies, primarily 3D-modelling and 3D GIS. The article describes foreign and Russian studies reconstructing historical landscapes with the help of modern technologies. The research subject is a virtual reconstruction of Bely Gorod’s landscape in the 15th-18th centuries – a historical site in Moscow’s center. The author describes the interdisciplinary research project, its source base including different sources as well as technologies of their analysis and synthesis. The sources and methods used provide for the first virtual reconstruction of the landscape and the main objects of Bely Gorod which 3D models are “introduced” into the historical landscape being reconstructed throughout its three centuries of evolution. Additionally, laser scanning and digital aerial survey technologies providing for building 3D models of objects at their later time slices are used in the study.

Abstract: The article discusses contemporary challenges and problems related to historical science in the digital turn era as well as large scale digitization of historical sources. It also analyzes relations of historical information science and digital history (digital public history included) in detail. Emphasis is laid on data problems traditional of historical information science which has received a new impetus in recent years. The author discusses an expanded definition of “big data” and its specificity as applied to historical research giving a number of large-scale international research projects as an example. The article explores opportunities provided by the use of concepts and technologies of big data in history-oriented research projects and identifies promising areas to apply mathematical methods and digital technologies in historical research and educational programs.
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Abstract: The article discusses topical issues of the development of methodological tools of historical research in the light of the “digital turn”. The current agenda is formed today in the framework of international conferences and round tables. In the first part of the article the authors characterize the interdisciplinary discussion that took place at the Helsinki conference in 2019. The discussion focused on the role of digital data and tools in historians' research practices and forms of cooperation. Special attention is paid to the question of the extent to which the “digital turn” affects the fundamental aspects of historical research and its results. In the second part of the article it is noted that the answer to this question can be obtained through concrete historical research projects. The characteristic of a number of the latest works of Russian and foreign historians using digital resources and technologies in concrete historical research is given.

Abstract: The article discusses “invariants” of historical information science (concepts, categories and characteristics of this interdisciplinary research field) which have been practically unchangeable for its nearly 30-year development. At the same time, the dynamic development of new technologies, the “digital turn” in history brought out new challenges and made a number of historical information science categories update. The article touches upon some recent discussions on the relationship between historical information science and digital history affecting, in particular, the issue of the extent to which the digital turn which has dramatically expanded access to digitized historical sources may affect the analytical work of a professional historian.

Abstract: The article discusses reflections of history students history related to digital media resources of public history. It is mainly about the project “1917. Free history” which published various materials about personal 1917 daily events and moods. The student read the media resource and its critical analysis publications and wrote their essay reviews estimating them. The article is in line with modern current debates of historiography on the problem of “history consumption”, development of principles and criteria for professional assessment of digital historical media resources. The estimates of digital media resources in total are of interest from two points of view. Firstly, this is the young audience who are accustomed to digital information. It is “their environment”. Secondly, these are opinions of future professional historians. As can be seen from the presented materials, the majority of students agree with the critical estimation of the media projects of public history reviewed.

Abstract: Russian quantitative history studies began in the 1960s when historians started to use mathematical methods and computers. Those activities contributed to the establishment of the Commission on application of mathematical methods and computers in historical research at the Department of History of the USSR Academy of Sciences in 1968. So, this event initiated by I. Kovalchenko, the future academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences, marks the 50th anniversary of Russian quantitative history. The article, written for the column "Editor-in-Chief", through the prism of the materials of this issue of the journal describes current trends in historical information science, which origin was largely due to the experience of computer applications in the quantitative history studies. New approaches are characterized in the application of technologies of virtual and augmented reality creating 3D reconstructions of historical and cultural heritage. The new trend is software modules development aimed at providing validation of virtual reconstructions in historical and archeological studies. New approaches to the study of spatial aspects are developed using GIS technologies in combination with the analysis of narrative sources.
 

Abstract: The article analyzes the formation and the development of educational programs in the field of historical information science at the History Faculty of Lomonosov Moscow State University. The topicality of the issue is the growing demand for specialists in humanities who have professional experience in the expanding information environment. This demands further development of a relative component of historian’s education considering those innovations which characterize “digital shift” in historical studies. Development of this educational component provides history graduates with conspicuous advantages at modern intellectual labor market. The article systematically studies the structure of educational programs in this interdisciplinary field and characterizes the main scholarly work of the academic staff at the same time. This article is the first to provide a detailed description of historical information science educational programs realized in Lomonosov Moscow State University at all three levels of university education. The experience of the Department of Historical Information Science of Moscow University may be in demand in other universities as well.

Abstract: The article briefly describes the integrated software R and the book by American authors about the use of R in humanities and social sciences. This book demonstrates functions of R which has become popular in applied studies of different research fields and now is widely used in humanities as well. The authors’ aim is to teach the humanities readers to use R functions in four spheres of data work which are important for humanities scholars and represented by networks, texts, maps and images. The book employs the comparative approach (to compare R package with other software tools) and is the first to characterize R when one works with data of studies in humanities. Taking into account that R is not widely applied by Russian humanities scholars, brief information about this nontrivial software is provided. The open source programming language R and its numerous packages is conspicuous of modern approach to analyze heterogeneous data. 

Abstract: The author considers the main achievements and discussion points of the monograph which proposes the principles of chronology and periodization of the archaeological epoch, its generalized numerical model combining the Fibonacci's and the informatics-cybernetics models.
The capabilities of inductive and deductive models are discussed. Numerical modeling is considered within the framework of the deductive approach. The universality of the mathematical model based on the Fibonacci series defining the "golden proportion" is noted. It is shown that the use of a multidisciplinary approach based on mathematical modeling of long-duration archaeological epochs allows us to consider it as a new concept of global history. The author discusses the problems of the monograph within the framework of the methodology of modeling historical processes and developing concepts of “Big history”. Consideration of the issues of periodization of long-duration processes is carried out within the context of their predictability, the relationship of regularities and randomness, mechanisms of self-organization and algorithms of "adaptive random search". The article concludes that it is important to estimate the moments of system information transformations within the framework of the Fibonacci model and emphasizes the role of this model for the formation of new hypotheses in historical and archaeological studies. 

Abstract: The article is dedicated to the 25th anniversary of the History and Computer Association (HCA) that united Russian and foreign specialists working within the interdisciplinary filed of history and information technologies. The article concentrates on the development of this association in the first half of the 1990s. The idea to create the association came, on the one hand, from the Council of the International Association “History and Computing” (АНС), its president professor Manfred Thaller, and, on the other hand, from a group of Russian specialists who had used computers to analyze statistical sources and create digital archives of historical data and participants of “quantitative revolution” that had a great influence on a number of historical fields. The article data demonstrate the formation of the main research domain of historical information science that is creation and use of electronic versions of historical sources. The article is of a historiographic character and employs historical and genetic approach joining historical information science with quantitative history (following HCA periodicals of the 1990s). These materials provide for reconstructing the initial stage of this interdisciplinary community. One can see the atmosphere of positive professional cooperation within HCA and international АНС as a whole. It is the first time when the information value of the HCA bulletin is studied to analyze the HCA initial stage.

Abstract: The second 2017 issue of Historical Information Science journal is characterized. The main sections of the issue are presented. These are “Databases and Data Retrieval Systems”, “Quantitative History”, “Digital Resources”, “Information Technologies in Archives and Museums”, “Information Technologies in Historical Education”. The basic content of the articles is analyzed. Emphasis is laid on the articles describing the use of geoinformation systems in historical studies. The authors of these articles emphasize the necessity to modernize opportunities of spatial historical processes dynamics analysis on the basis of GIS-technologies. In this respect, they suggest the use of available GIS-packages as well as their own software. The editorial board plans to publish at least two issues of the journal and focus on research in this domain in one of them. The second issue is likely to address the analysis of historical texts based on modern software application.

Abstract: The article addresses the issues of network analysis within historical studies. It is a comparatively new trend to modernize techniques and methodology of history (though sociology has been considering this approach as one of the main ones starting with 1950s). The article discusses the specific character of network analysis within historical studies which can bee seen in the problems set, source structure peculiarities and methods of their analysis. Such studies have been carried out within the framework of Historical Network Analysis. The theoretical basis for the network analysis is a mathematical theory of networks (a branch of graph theory) proving the formal apparatus for describing the graph links, its clusters and nodes. The goals of micro and macro analysis of history oriented networks are set for the first time. The task to find networks of individuals on the basis of historical texts (ego type documents) is a special research issue. The article focuses on the projects dealing with the network analysis of the structure of Russian medieval political and polemical texts (when the problems of their attribution are being solved) as well as migration flows in Russia in the first quarter of the 20th c.

Abstract: The authors mainly focus on the aims and goals of Historical Information Science journal that continues to publish articles within the frames of this interdisciplinary domain as it originally did 5 years ago in a different format though. In Russia this domain has been related to computer technologies and mathematical methods use in history and education for 25 years already. The authors state that its basis is a complex of theoretical and applied knowledge needed to develop, process and analyze electronic versions of various historical sources. Characterizing methods and technologies of historical information science the authors note the broadening of their potential due to the “microcomputer revolution” of 1980-1990s and two decades that followed. The conclusion is that the main issue addressed by historical information science specialists is the question: How do new methods and technologies enrich historical studies? This question is sure to be the key one in new issues of Historical Information Science journal.