Abstract: The article’s focus is on the transfer history of the princess Z. N. Yusupova’s archive, as well as on the most valuable part of the Yusupov book treasures, originally held in the “Arkhangelshoe” estate and then moved to the Rumyantsev Museum in 1919–1920. The research, based on the documents in the Rumyantsev Museum Archive (today – the Russian State Library Archive), provides insight into the unique circle of specialists-bibliographers in the Rumyantsev Museum who during the first post-Revolution years worked to rescue Russian archives and libraries. The minute study of the preservation history of the intellectual heritage of the princes Yusupovs leads to the necessity of bringing back to memory the unjustly forgotten figures in Russian bibliography: V. D. Golitsyn, V. O. Nilender, A. S. Petrovsky and others. Information regarding these people, who not only collected and preserved the archival and book treasures of Russia, but also multiplied them, can be drawn from sources that contain little known historical facts. A comparative analysis of all referenced sources allows to better understand how the post-Revolutionary “spirit of the time” and the genesis of the socio-cultural phenomenon of the “little person” of the Soviet epoch transformed from the pre-Revolutionary Russian intellectual.

Keywords: princes Yusupovs, Z. N. Yusupova, estate “Arkhangelskoye”, Rumyantsev Museum, Andrey Beliy, N. S. Voskresenskaya, V. D. Golitsyn, V. O. Nilender, A. S. Petrovsky, L. I. Speranskaya

Abstract: The theoretical work of the founder of Russian museology A. M. Razgon (1920–1989) was further expounded in modern museum science and practice in Germany. The author points attention to the fact that German museologists valued Razgon’s contribution to theoretical museology: his publications in German journals regarding the problem of his country’s museum network became the foundation for the German concept of “museum landscape”, actively used in the modern museum management system. German museology during the 21st century substantially elaborated the two main parameters in the definition of a museum, proposed by Razgon in the Russo-German textbook published in 1989, namely that a museum is an institute of social information and an institute of documentation of the processes and phenomena of nature and society. In the country’s museum landscape new groups of museums appeared in the form of centres of documentation that allow to illuminate as objectively as possible (in comparison to traditional museums) the complicated and painful history of Germany in the 20th century. Razgon’s thesis concerning the spread of information through museum objects is being developed by the theorists of the working group “Documentation” of the German Union of Museums. The aim of the German and Russian museologists is to unite their efforts in the preparation of a modern museology dictionary as a continuation of A. M. Razgon’s work in the field of terminology.

Keywords: museum studies, informational centre, museum documentation, museum science, museum landscape, centre of documentation, Avraam Moiseevich Razgon, museology, museological terminology, Russo-German contacts

Abstract: The jubilee of the 300-year reign of the House of Romanov was the occasion for charity events all over the Russian Empire, initiated by the emperor Nicholas II. The assembly as an institute of local government in the Kalmyk steppe during the 19th–20th centuries was introduced on the legislative level by the Highest Decree of Nicholas I on the 23th of April 1847. The Ulus and Aimag assemblies discussed ways of perpetuating the jubilee date. The operative part of the resolutions recorded the decisions of these societies, which devoted particular attention to the social sphere. The article’s aim is to review the activity of the institute of local government in the Kalmyk steppe within the context of the commemoration of the 300-year rule of the House of Romanov. On the basis of an analysis of the unpublished sources in the funds of the National Archive of the Kalmyk Republic the author comes to the conclusion that the jubilee date served as a pretext for the initiation of socially-orientated construction projects, such as schools, hospitals, as well as the establishment of stipends for students in various educational institutions. The issue of the local government’s activities in the Kalmyk steppe during the 19th – early 20th century has not been addressed as a separate topic. This is why its analysis in this article allows to clarify the currently existing perceptions regarding the specifics of social policy implementation in the national peripheries of the Russian Empire.

Keywords: governor, elected official, Khoton elder, resolution, assembly, Kalmyk steppe, local self-government, Romanov dynasty, social policy, starshina

Abstract: This article is devoted to the research of the little-studied aspects of the formationand evolution of Rasputin’s media myth, which at the beginning of the 20thcentury became one of the most important factors in the general political crisis onthe eve of the February Revolution of 1917. The authors analyse in detail theprocess of the publicist diversification regarding the topic of Rasputin on the pagesof Russian newspapers that lead to the appearance of three main journalisticapproaches to this topic: impartial-analytical, liberal-oppositional, and “yellow”(tabloid). Each of these approaches is subjected to a comprehensive review,including a comparative analysis with other types of approaches. The article notesthe role socio-political, as well as journalists’ commercial motivation in presentingthe Rasputin question. The author identifies the different aims that journalists andthe media pursued, which developed each of the three approaches respectively. Theanalytical direction was characterised by its interest in Rasputin as a separatefigure, as well as a professional approach to facts, which were published withreferences to their sources and were strictly separated from personal commentaries.The aim of oppositional publications, devoted to “the elder”, was his ultimatediscretisation and, through him, of the whole ruling regime. The “yellow”approach sought only to “escalate passions” and was deprived of an analyticalcomponent, placing its main emphasis on rumours of erotic nature about Rasputin

Keywords: liberal opposition, exclusive material, “yellow press”, newspapers, journalism, “elder”, Rasputin, cadets, far right, Khlysts

Abstract: One of the most difficult problems in the study of the statistical sources concerning the demographic history of the Kalmyk-nomads is the instability of the applied systems in record keeping. The scientists who wrote and are writing today on the Kalmyks have not paid attention to the peculiar method of population recording that was used for the nomad society. The main aim of this article is to attempt to characterise the evolution and transformation of demographic recording of nomad populations on the example of the Kalmyks and to resolves the questions regarding what socio-political course was followed upon organising these records and how much the government measures in this sphere influenced the merging of the Kalmyks with the rest of the population of the Russian Empire in the 19th century. The analysis of the sources leads to the conclusion that the question of recording Kalmyk-nomad population was one of the most difficult problems in historiography: many factors influenced the reliability of the population record counts, and the general direction of the evolution and transformation of record keeping. At the same time, scholars could also ignore the principle of subjectivity that underlay this recording, i. e. they were certainly aware of its inaccuracy. These circumstances in fact reflect the specifics of the practiced record keeping of the Kalmyk-nomad population, as well as had an effect on the calculation of the final record figures. This practice with its initially implanted error existed before the beginning of the 1860s.

Keywords: kibitka records, kibitka, Yasak, calculation methods, demographic records, demographic history, Kalmyks, nomad population, capitation count, historical source analysis

Abstract: This article is devoted to the activity of the Zemstvo in the sphere of public education. The author reviews the relation between the organs of local government with the central authorities, the changes in local governments regarding the problems of theoretical and practical works, and their involvement in financing this sphere. The study of this topic allows to enter the wider discussion concerning the question of public education in the post-reform period, the role of the Zemstvo in the formation of a new kind of public school, and the relationship between government and society. The attempts at introducing a general primary education became one of the most important events of the early 20th century. The position of the ruling circle was significantly determined by the mobilisation of social forces. The most radical project of introducing a general primary education was developed by the Ministry of National Education in 1905 – during the period of the relative equilibrium between revolutionary forces and the government. With the strengthening of the government’s position the degree of radicalisation among the ministry officials subsided and the budgets of local programs were cut. As a result the question of the general primary education had not been resolved, but the 50-year activity of the Zemstvo in the sphere of public education nonetheless bore its fruits having increased the level of literacy in the rural population.

Keywords: local self-government, zemstvo, Ministry of National Education, educational policy, school reform, turn of the century, Russian culture, authorities, public education, attitude of society

Abstract: This article addresses one of the key questions regarding the socio-cultural life of the post-reform town: civic engagement, community organisation, and the influence of the crown administration that in many ways determined the appearance and the level of development of various forms of social initiatives. The research is based on materials from Russian towns in which occurred these phenomena – the town being the most creative of all socio-cultural organisms. The study of these aspects of social life substantially helps to resolve the question of whether it was possible to form a civic community in pre-Revolutionary Russia. The relationship between government and towns was secured by legislation in 1870 and 1892. The organisation of town communities happened under conditions when towns sought to change the nature of their relations with the central administration and to receive more autonomy in resolving their problems. The revolution of 1905 and the First World War contributed to the growth of civic engagement, and also to the government making some concessions to towns under the influence of society’s demands. The pre-Revolutionary decade was a time of the social forces’ consolidation and the appearance of new forms of its organisation. The existing opposition of the official authorities to this process determined the failure of the “dialogue” between government and society.

Keywords: revolution, projects of town reform, electorial right, local self-government, forms of community self-organisation, Regulation of Towns, crown administration, post-reform town, First World War, All-Russian Union of towns

Abstract: This article examines the formation process of Neo-Hindu thought in Bengal at the end of the 19th century on the basis of the religious and philosophical material from the works of the author, publicist, and public figure Bankimchandra Chattopaddhyay. The interpretation of Hinduism in his works of 1880–1892 presents the creation of a positive image of his native religion, directed at exonerating it from the criticism of Hindu Religious reformers and Christian missionaries. In creating an image of Hinduism Bankimchandra proceeds from recognising it as a multifaceted whole (the metaphor of the tree) tied by fundamental principles. For the description of the image of Hinduism in Bankimchandra’s works the author used the method of reconstruction, which is based on the hermeneutical analysis of the texts of the corresponding period, as well as taking into account the socio-cultural context of the time. For the first time in Russian Indology the author describes the complete image of Hinduism resulting from the reflections of one of the founders of Neo-Hinduism as a direction of social thought. Bankimchandra’s version of Hinduism was the worldview justification of this religion as a comprehensive spiritual tradition rooted in deep antiquity. Having appeared as a religion of nature, Hinduism evolved from the original form of the Vedic religion to the enlightened and good religion founded on the interpretations of the Dharma in the “Bhagavad Gita”.

Keywords: dharma, stages of religious development, monotheism, polytheism, natural religion, social thought, Neo-Hinduism, ethics, image of Hinduism, Vaishnavism

Abstract: The reviewed collection of papers was put together from the presentations made during the international conference “Current Problems of Parliamentarism: History and Modernity” that took place in December 2013. The conference was held within the framework of the annual “Tauride Readings” and was organised by the Centre of the History of Parliamentarism at the Interparliamentary State Assembly – members of the Commonwealth of Independent States. At the conference, the topic of the relationship between parliament and monarchy in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century was addressed, which included questions regarding the perception of the Duma by the Grand Prince environment and by right-wing Russian circles, as well as the role of the monarchy in the constitutional projects of Russian liberals. Particular attention was also devoted to the question of the correlation between political motivation and parliamentary rhetoric of the various sides represented in the pre-Revolutionary Duma. The conference also discussed the role of the Russian parliament in the preparation and victorious completion of the February Revolution of 1917. A separate section was devoted to the source study and archeographic problems concerning the history of Russian parliamentarism. The scientific articles were prepared on the basis of the presented papers and included in these volumes. This collection introduces for the first time special sections related to the organisation of Duma elections in the Russian Empire, as well as the parliamentary traditions of the far abroad (including a few papers on the history of the British parliament from its inception to the middle of the 20th century).

Keywords: Constitutional Democratic Party, liberals, State Council, State Duma, House of Romanov, constitutionalism, parliamentarism, Russian Empire, Black Hundreds, February Revolution