Abstract: The article is devoted to the analysis of the dynamics of fertility and mortality of the Turkic-speaking population of the Tobolsk province. The analysis of the materials was preceded by research work in the state archives of Tobolsk (National Archive of the Republic of Bashkortostan) and Tobolsk (State Budgetary Institution of the Tyumen region "State Archive in Tobolsk") to identify the necessary sources, as well as systematization of the received materials, transliteration and translation into Russian. The material of our research is the metric records of the Komarov mosque of the Bukhara parish of the Tobolsk district of the Tobolsk province from 1835 to 1862 (with the exception of 1853). The novelty of the work is seen in the use of unexplored materials in the Old Tatar language – Muslim metric books "on the note of those born, on marriages, divorces and death" written on Arabic graphics. The study of the dynamics of fertility and mortality based on the material of mosque books will reveal the main demographic trends in the XIX century among the Turkic-speaking population of the Tobolsk province. The author comes to the conclusion that the observed: 1) excess of fertility over mortality, 2) excess of infant mortality over adult mortality, 3) a tendency to decrease the mortality rate by the end of the calendar year, 4) excess mortality (in some years) from epidemiological diseases (measles, smallpox, dysentery, rubella, etc.).

Keywords: demography, Old Tatar language, metric records, Tobolsk province, quitrents, Siberian Bukharians, old-yasak Tatars, Turkic-speaking population, mortality, birth rate

Abstract:   The object of this article is the Russian officialdom. The subject is the social image of the officials arrived to Perm Province for servicing in the police and prison departments (end of the XIX – beginning of the XX century). The authors meticulously review the social and professional characteristics of the officials-migrants, comparing them with the “local personnel” (confessional affiliation, family composition, social class, education, term of service, post and rank). The article specifically analyzes the causes and directions of migration of the “police and prison officers” to and out of Perm Province. The scientific novelty lies in introduction to the scientific discourse of new sources from the Perm State Archive systematized in form of the two prosopographic databases. For the first time the officials-migrants are subjected to analysis using such databases. A conclusion is made that the officials-migrants significantly outstripped the local police and prison officers by educational, class and professional characteristics.  

Keywords: penitentiary system, police, Ural, Russian empire, bureaucracy, migration, collective portrait, prosopography, database, social mobility

Abstract: This article meticulously examines the current situation of the development of historical science, as well as the dynamics of its changes pertinent to the methods of acquisition and validation of the historical knowledge. Special attention is given to the questions of the methodology of history, particularly associated with the “digital turn”, as well as the reassessment of the role of specialization and professional knowledge within the historical community. Under the new circumstances, the teaching the discipline “Quantitative Methods in Historical Research” should assume new importance, and the course itself – the new content. The author comes to a conclusion that the process of professional education of a contemporary historian fundamentally relates to the formation of methodological knowledge of the future specialists, familiarization with the structure and multifacetedness of the modern methodological space within which currently exists the historical community. The updated course “Quantitative Methods in Historical Research” is addressed to a student, who expects to solve the heuristic tasks namely in the context of information society, where dimension will become the key instrument of cognition.

Keywords: quantitative data, mass historical data, datification, the dimension of the past, big data, the digital turn, methods of historical research, quantification, history department, Moscow State University

Abstract: The subject of this research is the soil resources of the of the Starorussky District of Novgorod Province. Over centuries, the lands of the district have been actively assimilated, as well as considered ones of the most fertile in the Novgorod Region. The article evaluates the soil resources of the Starorussky District in the late XVIII century and determines the criteria that defined the highest fertility of the land, which as a result were cultivated more than others. The sources are the brief economic notes to the General land-surveying of Starorussky District in the late XVIII century and the soil research of the first Russian soil scientists conducted in the district territory at the turn of the XIX – XX centuries. The author created the database that contained the facts about the soil on the territory of rural settlements of the late XVIII century alongside the mechanical composition of the soil of the rural settlements in the late XIX – early XX centuries. For analyzing the mass data, have been used the quantitative methods of research. The work allowed evaluating the specificities of soil and land fertility in the Starorussky District during the late XVIII century, as well as comparing for the first time the acquired data with the facts regarding the mechanical composition of soil of the late XIX – early XX centuries. In conclusion, it was determines that the majority of lands were located in the various types of clay loams, which contained a large amount of silt fraction. The presences of light clay loam in combination with other types of soils significantly improved the characteristic of soil. Overall, the mild and heavy clay loams prevailed in the district. The author underlines that the land-surveyors of the XVIII century defined the dominant type of soil. Evaluation of land fertility by the land-surveyors had a direction link to a specific territory.

Keywords: fertility, soil scientists, soil surveys, General land-surveying, Novgorod Province, Starorussky District , soil, clay loam, ground, crop productivity