Abstract: This article focuses on the Greek narrative sources written during and about the Nicaean Empire (1204–1261). The principal authors of historical texts during this period were Niketas Choniates and Georgios Akropolites, as well as Michael Choniates and Nikolaos Mesarites. The article presents brief biographies about each author and notes the value of their contributions to the historical knowledge concerning the Nicaean Empire. These authors’ lives were closely connected to the events of the Fourth Crusade and the capture of Constantinople in 1204, and their works shed light on the subsequent events in Byzantine history – at Nicaea and in its subordinate territories. The main common attribute of the named authors is that they do not express a discontinuation of the Byzantine government and society after the loss of the ancient capital. On the contrary, their texts clearly reflect a historical continuity of the Nicaean government and ideology from the old Byzantine capital. The article considers the historical sources within the context of the writers and their biographies and the general socio-political situation of the period. The author also analyses the features of these sources and traces how they reflect the personal elements of their creators.

Keywords: Vizantiiskaya imperiya, Nikeiskaya imperiya, istoriopisanie, narrativnyi tekst, pervichnyi istochnik, biografiya, mirovozzrenie, ideologiya, obshchestvo

Abstract: This article is devoted to the study of the public mindset towards the USSR among various population categories in Italy at the end of the twenty-year period of the Fascist regime. The author attempts to analyse the policy of the Fascist regime and its results in achieving a public consensus by means of implanting ideological concepts on the example of forming the image of the USSR, its introduction into the public consciousness, and its fight against the legally functioning Soviet structures on the territory of Italy that were developing propaganda in the opposite direction. The article presents the numerous factors that brought about the formation of a heterogeneous image of the USSR. The study of the public perceptions of the USSR was carried out by means of a comparative analysis of various sources. The sources include both previously unused materials, as well as documents that were already subjected to analyses by foreign and Russian scholars, however, examined under a different light in this article. This set of sources has revealed the dynamics of the changing perceptions of the USSR during the war under the influence of a whole range of factors. The author conducted for the first time in historiography a comprehensive analysis of the accumulated in Italian society knowledge, perceptions, and opinions regarding the USSR, which has allowed to evaluate the efficiency of the Fascist’s regime propaganda activity, on the one hand, and to study the reaction of the Soviet authorities within the framework of the “communications war” at the end of the 1930s – beginning of the 1940s, on the other hand.

Keywords: SSSR, fashistskaya propaganda, obshchestvennye nastroeniya, formirovanie konsensusa, antisovetskaya propaganda, kommunikatsionnaya voina, ideologicheskaya politika, obraz vraga, antikommunisticheskaya ideologiya

Abstract: The scientific archival commissions of the Ryazan, Kaluga, and Orlov governorates at the turn of the 19th–20th centuries played an important role in the advancement of archaeological studies of the Tula krai. Members of these commissions launched a vigorous study of the hill forts and burial mounds of the Upper and Middle regions of the Oka river. Research was focused on the Kashira, Aleksin, and Belyov uyezds of the Tula governorate, as well as on the Likhvin and Tarussa uyezds of the Kaluga governorate (modern Suvorov and Aleksin districts of the Tula oblast). Along with preserving the records of monument locations and descriptions, archaeological excavations took up a predominant place. This allowed the introduction into scientific use of valuable archaeological finds, to use them in scientific elaboration towards new information, and to identify the cultural significance and dating of monuments. The basis for this article is the examination and analysis of archival materials concerning the relevant archaeological studies, as well as the publication of results in scientific volumes. The scientific investigations by the members of the governorate scientific archival commissions neighbouring the Tula governorate contributed to the accumulation of new data and of widening the source base for the archaeological monuments of the Tula governorate. The introduction into scientific use of the research results helped to bring the attention of representatives of central archaeological societies and organisations to this territory, and to initiate the study of history and archaeology of this region by local ethnographers.

Keywords: reka Oka, uchenye arkhivnye komissii, arkheolog, raskopki, gorodishche, arkheologicheskie kollektsii, Moskovskoe arkheologicheskoe obshchestvo, Imperatorskaya arkheologicheskaya komissiya

Abstract: At the end of the 13th – 14th centuries the administration of the Republic of Venice thrice tried to establish trading posts on the Crimean peninsula. For this purpose they used at different stages both old Byzantine towns, such as, for example, Sudak, and unpopulated bays, such as Provato. All these attempts were not met with success. At the end of the 14th – 15th centuries the Venetian presence in Crimea was limited to brief (from one day to three) ship moorage on the line to Tana. The main aim of this study is to localise the navigational point known in Venetian documents as the anchorage at the cape of St. John. The author compares three principal source types: written evidence, cartographical data, as well as archaeological material concerning this anchorage. The modern-day cape of Kiyik Atlama was named during the Middle Ages as the cape of St. John. The location of this anchorage has been established through the systematic archaeological investigations on the coast of Eastern Crimea. The ruined remnants of this navigational point were located in the eastern part of the shore of Tikhaya Bay. In 2000 this was the location of extensive archaeological excavations which uncovered material evidence allowing to precisely identify this location with the Venetian anchorage at the cape of St. John.

Keywords: Venetsianskaya respublika, Genuya, Genuezskaya Gazariya, Vostochnyi Krym, mys sv. Ioanna, Provato, Zolotaya Orda, kartografiya, arkheologicheskie issledovaniya, mys Kiik-Atlama

Abstract: A visit to Italy was part of the program of the Grand embassy. The prospects of a political and military-technical cooperation with the Italian government, in the first place with Venice and Rome, were evident and primary causes for Peter I. Within the context of the previous and, especially, the last contacts between Russia and the Venetian Republic a planned visit there should be considered very significant. The official historiography, however, does not present us with information regarding this trip, not leaving space for it after the sovereign received the news of the uprise of the Streltsy. Although Peter formally, being forced to urgently return to Moscow, cancelled the voyage, there is indirect evidence indicating that he unofficially made a “lightning-visit” for a day or two to Venice. The author goes back to this seemingly closed topic in view of the publications of S. O. Androsov, who suggested that this visit could have taken place. The study of the published documents, in the first place the reports of diplomats and secret agents, led the author to certain conclusions. The author decided to once again address this question, using supplementary sources not cited by S. O. Androsov. The result was the revelation of additional arguments in favour of the hypothesis of the Saint-Petersburg scholar and art historian.

Keywords: Petr I, Aleksandr Menshikov, Karlo Rudzini, Fedosei Sklyaev, Venetsiya, vizit, inkognito, kavalery

Abstract: This article undertakes an attempt to reveal the influence of the “Chyhyryn conspiracy”, organised by the group of revolutionists-populists (Y. V. Stefanovich, L. G. Deutsch, I. V. Bokhanovsky) with the aim of arousing a peasant uprising in the Kiev governorate with the help of a forged imperial manifest, on the further development of the revolutionary movement in 1878–1880. Turning to the practical experience of the “Chyhyryn conspiracy” allows to specify the realisational direction of the Black Repartitioners’ ideological constructions. For the study of the practical and publicist activity of the revolutionary-populist organisation the author uses the topical-chronological method. Upon the analysis of the opinions and assessments voiced during the discussions in the populist camp the comparative method is applied. The author comes to the conclusion that the discussion within the populist environment regarding the use of the Chyhyryn experience in the following revolutionary practice played a key role in the ideological and theoretical crisis of “Land and Liberty”. The direct role of Y. V. Stefanovich in the split of “Land and Liberty” in August 1879 and the consequent creation on its basis of the “People’s Liberty” and “Black Repartition” is clarified. Through arguments the author demonstrates the influence of the Chyhyryn events on the development of the tactic of “propaganda by deed” in the populist camp.

Keywords: revolyutsionnoe narodnichestvo, bakunizm, «Chigirinskii zagovor», «Zemlya i volya», «Chernyi peredel», narodnyi monarkhizm, «propaganda deistviem», agrarnyi terrorizm, narodnicheskaya publitsistika

Abstract: This article analyses the agrarian policy in Belarus during the first quarter of the 20th century. It studies the mechanisms and forms of tradition transitioning through the economic behaviour and social psychology of the peasantry. The particularities of applying the Stolypin agrarian reform in Belarus are examined. The concept of “gromada” with respect to the peasant obschina is clarified, as well as its evolution. The author considers the changes in the Bolshevik agrarian reforms at the turn of the second and third decade of the 20th century, the reasons and premises for the transformation of the concept and content of the new economic policy. The features of the New Economic Policy in BSSR are defined in the process of the enlargement of its territory. The development of agrarian legislature at the stage of the formation of the Belarus state is analysed, as well as the main directions of its realisation. On the basis of a comparative study, this article examines the agrarian policy in the Belarus village, traditionally delineated at 1917, as well as the transformation of the traditional institutes of peasant self-management. The interdisciplinary approach has allowed to clarify the specifics of the economic behaviour and of the changes in public psychology of the Belarus peasantry. The author affirms that the basic element for the historically formed concept of justice in Berlarus peasantry was labour. It was precisely through this attitude to labour that the idea of property was defined, above all, land property, which for a Belarus was the greatest asset. The author formulates the hypothesis that the changes in the approach to property (the nationalisation of land) was perceived positively by the peasantry under the condition of being able to exploit land and independently manage the results of one’s labour. The taking into consideration of the historical traditions during the agrarian reforms in the middle of the 1920s was made possible as a result of the establishment of the institutes of BSSR state power. As an example of the more significant and considerate towards tradition measures of the agrarian policy of the Belarus authorities the author examines the establishment of the maximal and minimal norms of land allotment and the idea of the development of multifunctional cooperatives based on the form of individual villages.

Keywords: ekonomicheskoe povedenie, stolypinskaya agrarnaya reforma, novaya ekonomicheskaya politika, D. F. Prishchepov, kooperatsiya, modernizatsiya

Abstract: The system of labour relations in the Russian industry which took shape during the period of the pre-Revolution industrialisation was subjected to drastic changes after 1917. However, conflicts in their diverse forms, including their most acute manifestations (strikes), continued to be a significant indicator of the workers’ mood, of their perception of the new developments in the system of stimulating labour and organising production activity and daily life. The examination of the causes of conflict in industrial enterprises during the years of the New Economic Policy (1922–1928) is conducted on the basis of archival and published documents. Attention is predominantly focused on the question of the relationship between workers, on the one hand, and representatives of factory-plant administration and engineer-technical workers, on the other hand. The negative attitude of the workers towards “specialists” and “red directors” could result in serious and prolonged conflicts ending with assaults and even assassinations of engineers, masters, and managers. This kind of “opposition” stood in the way of the enterprises’ stable production, leading to equipment failures and losses in employee salaries. The use of microanalysis methods has allowed to investigate in detail the reasons for the workers’ discontent and to conduct a comparison of it with analogous data indicative of conflicts in the pre-Revolution Russian industry.

Keywords: nep, trudovye konflikty, stachki, rastsenki, zarabotnaya plata, «spetsy», inzhenerno-tekhnicheskie rabotniki, «krasnye direktora», profsoyuzy, fabzavkomy

Abstract: This article discusses how in the winter of 1942 the Italian SM-81 transport aircrafts flew across the line of the Soviet-German front. The triple-engine “Savoia-Marchetti” SM-81 was widely used in the operations of the 245th and 246th squadron of the Italian Royal air force to supply the garrison of the 8th Italian army under siege by the Soviet troops in Millerovo and Chertkovo. On the 29th of December 1942 the SM-81 plane of general Enrico Pezzi, commander of the Italian air force on Soviet occupied territories, flew out on his last flight from the Chertkovo airport without extort. The plane did not return and its crash site on the territory of Lugansk region has not been identified to this day. In recent years Italian historiography has dedicated new studies on the fate of Pezzi, the last general of the 8th Italian army, missing in action on the Soviet-German front. On the basis of published literature and documents the author describes the different possible hypotheses regarding the crash of Pezzi’s plane, as well as the research on this topic conducted by Italian and Russian scholars. The author comes to the conclusion that the place of the SM-81 plane crash should be searched for in the region of Lugansk.

Keywords: Vtoraya mirovaya voina, sovetsko-germanskii front, Enriko Petstsi, komanduyushchii, Chertkovo, Millerovo, general, transportnyi samolet

Abstract: This article is focused on the stages of adoption into the Russian cultural tradition of the theme of the Passion of Christ. The Ancient Russian icon-painters inherited the Byzantine iconography of the Theotokos of the Passion with worshipping angels and the Instruments of the Passion (13th-century icon from the museum of Kalyazin). The theme of the Passion seems to disappear later on from the artistic usage and only reappears again in the middle of the 17th century in the form of an icon, miraculously acquired in 1641. Using the semiotic approach in interpreting the pose and gestures of the icon’s figures, the author identifies a particular accentuation on the “vulnerability” of Christ, concerning his human nature. The author further traces a link between the canonisation of the icon and the establishment of the Moscow Monastery of the Passion (Strastnoy monastery) with the ruling dynasty of the Romanov family. The article reviews the different directions of the Passion theme’s distribution in Russian culture during the 17th–19th centuries: “the Legend” recounting the appearance of the miracle-working icon; the venerated prototype established in its lists; the symbols of the Passion in the adornments of the decorative and applied arts and book illumination; the cycle of engravings and literary compositions. The author proposes to consider the origins of the Passion theme’s adoption not only with the transfer of the European Baroque tradition, but also with the very complex environment of the early Modern period.

Keywords: ikona, ikonografiya, dinastiya Romanovykh, skazanie, atributy Strastei, tserkovnoe iskusstvo, emblematika, rannee Novoe vremya

Abstract: During the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878 Russia was under tremendous informational pressure from the Western press. The British press in particular not only criticised all steps that Russia undertook during this campaign (from military operations in the Ottoman Empire to the activity of Russian diplomacy at the Congress of Berlin), but also mispresented some facts with the aim of discrediting Russia’s operations and to conceal Turkish revelries. O. A. Novikova, a Russian publicist, had attempted to convince the English political elite and public opinion of the legitimacy of Russia’s actions. Furthermore, Novikova sought to persuade English liberals to act in the interest of Russia in solidifying peace in the Balkans. The publicist severely criticised the articles of the Congress of Berlin, which undid the significant victories of the Russian army and belittled the interests of the Slavs. She was especially concerned about the question of Bulgaria’s repartition into several parts which in the future developed into the acute political crisis of 1885–1886. Additionally, Novikova emphasized the illegality of the occupation of Bosnia and Herzegovina by Austria-Hungary and the consequent annexation of that territory to the Empire of the Habsburgs – she regarded this action as a direct violation of the conditions of the Congress of Berlin. Foreseeing the consequences of the Congress of Berlin, Olga Alekseevna Novikova, both in the press and in personal interviews, criticised the actions of the Russian diplomacy regarding them as irresolute and ideologically uncommitted.

Keywords: Berlinskii kongress, Vostochnyi vopros, O. A. Novikova, U. Gladston, I. S. Aksakov, B. Dizraeli, Aleksandr III, Bosniya i Gertsegovina, San-Stefanskii dogovor, Vostochnaya Rumeliya

Abstract: The object of this research is the question of corruption within the local administration of the Russian Empire. The author for the first time in historiography attempts to demonstrate on the basis of relevant historical materials the level of corruption in local government agencies during the first half of the 19th century. The research source base consists of documents preserved in the State Archive of the Vologda olblast (protocols and registrars of the Vologda Chamber of the Criminal Court for the years 1802–1855), which up to today has not been subjected to a complex analysis nor has yet been introduced into scientific circulation. The identified material from the judicial-investigative practice has allowed the article’s author to establish the number of corruption-related crimes and to reveal the particularities of their investigations and judicial trials. In the presented study the author used general scientific, as well as specific methods of research. To achieve the set scientific aim the author applied the means of the interdisciplinary approach that allowed to examine corruption in its historical-judicial context. The article’s main conclusion resulting from this research is that the operative conditions of the local administrative apparatus during the first half of the 19th century was a favourable environment for the illegal enrichment of officials. The analysis of the judicial-investigative practice concerning corruption and extortion cases has allowed to establish that the acting legal norms during the studied period could not ensure the eradication of corruption and the lowering of its dissemination within the local administration.

Keywords: gosudarstvennye organy, chinovnik, nakazanie, dolzhnostnoe prestuplenie, vzyatka, likhoimstvo, korruptsiya, mestnoe upravlenie, Vologodskaya guberniya

Abstract: This article is focused on the study of the young population’s participation in the economic life of Soviet Belarus in 1921–1939, as well as on the analysis of the role of the republican Komsomol organisation in mobilising young people to actively integrate into the socialist system of economy. The author examines in detail the documents of the central and local Komsomol authorities of Belarus that shed light on this subject. For this study the author systematised the information stored in the relevant funds of the National Archive of the Republic of Belarus. The author presents his conclusions pertaining to the particularities of the young workers’ participation in the processes taking place in the Republic’s economy and in the country in general during the pre-War period, and of their attitudes towards campaigns undertaken by the republican Komsomol in this sphere. The methodological base of the conducted research is the principles of historicism and objectivity, a systematic examination of facts and phenomena, and a comparative analysis. The article underlines that the republican Komsomol had played a significant role in organising the young population for its participation in the economic reforms within the BSSR and the USSR. However, the question of mobilising new young workers by the authorities of the Belarus Komsomol was not formulated immediately, but only starting from the middle of the 1920s. But towards the beginning of the 1930s the Republic’s scope of the Komsomol and of the young working population increased due to the socialist competition. The young population actively participated in developing the industry, agriculture, and transportation of the Soviet Belarus, worked on building industrial facilities in the BSSR and in pan-Union constructions. Additionally, the author also notes the limitations of the Belarus Komsomol’s work in this direction during the pre-War period.

Keywords: komsomol, politika, ekonomika, vosstanovlenie narodnogo khozyaistva, transport, udarnichestvo, sotsialistichekoe sorevnovanie