Abstract: The subject of this study is the Russian memoirs on the defense of Sevastopol in 1854-1855. This complex of sources is considered by the author as a single, historically developed body of work. The study serves to raise the question of the overall chronological parameters of the examined source complex. The article is focused on published memoirs, which the author discovered to be about 200 units. The given formulation of this problem requires special attention towards the socio-historiographic context on the background of which the memoir tradition developed, which the author carried out by analyzing how the historical memory concerning the defense of Sevastopol was formed. The methodological basis of this work is grounded on the principles of historicism and scientific objectivity, and the special methods: historical-typological, problem-chronological, and source-study analyses. The novelty of this study consists in it raising the question of conducting a source-study examination of memoirs on the defense of Sevastopol in 1854-1855. Considering these memoirs from the point of view of their own history as a single complex has allowed the author to write the development process of the memoir genre on this topic into the context of the evolution of the memoir genre in Russia in general. The conducted source-study analysis is the principal foundation for a deeper and more effective uncovering of the factual information embedded in memoires. This study outlines the promising vectors for further searches of memoir works.

Keywords: commemoration work, controversy, historical memory, social conscience, historical source, memoirs, Crimean war, the Siege of Sevastopol, the Russian Empire, source studies

Abstract: The aim of the presented study is to determine the main functions of the visual attributes of military monuments erected during the period between 1881 - 1917 in the formation of the image of the events of the past and their heroes. The subject of this study is the commemoration of war, while the object is the visual features of the military monuments created between 1881 - 1917 and tied to the events of the Russian Empire's military history and its heroes: triumphant victories, heroic defensive actions, victims of military events and outstanding military figures. All indicated monuments are directly related to the commemoration of war, they possess a number of visual attributes, the main function of which is the creation and development of certain emotions and ideas regarding military history in the viewer and, consequently, of the subsequent generations. This article uses the interdisciplinary approach since the analysis of military monuments requires recourse to the history of art and cultural geography. Additionally, the historical-comparative method was used in order to determine the common and distinct features among the analyzed monuments. Turning to the typological method has allowed the author to identify certain groups of symbols, artistic and visual means, common features and differences among the considered monuments. In Russian historiography, military monuments have never been considered as individual and independent components of the process of forming historical memory. However, a partial study of this topic in modern historical science and the popularity of studies in the field of memory studies highlight its interdisciplinary nature and its clear current relevance. The visual features of military monuments had a number of functions: the formation of the cultural landscape, the establishment of the topographical and historical fixation, the formation of the scale and importance of the event, the symbolic presence of the empire and its participation in a particular event, the formation of the image of the enemy.

Keywords: double eagle, symbols, military monuments, comemmoration, Russia, visual qualities, monuments, height, memory, memory studies

Abstract: This article examines the specific features of historical sciences as a topic concerning the interrelation of logical knowledge and intuitive knowledge. The author analyzes various types of convergences of historical and natural science knowledge within the framework of synergetics. The article sets the goal to demonstrate the limits of the applicability of synergetics in historical research. The historical methods applied to this examination include the study of hermeneutics, the reconstruction of motivational, semantic, axiological and aim-orienting factors of self-realization of the person of the past. The author notes the role of Postmodernism in the substantiation of the historical sciences. The author refers to her own personal research practice and illustrates the features of historical transdisciplinarity with examples from Byzantine history. The author focuses her attention to the specific features of historical sciences linked to the role of the narrative and historical events. Additionally, the author considers the limited role in historiography of modern scientific Constructivism. The author furthermore studies the difference between the role of induction in historical and natural sciences. Contrary to the well-known fact that induction in natural sciences does not lead to general conclusions, the author tries to show the significance of induction in historical studies, limited chronotopes of the past. The author examines the differences between the concepts of a long and short historical time and considers the concept of "kairos" used in the framework of ancient and Byzantine cultures. Finally, the author gives a characterization of the role of the concept of "kairos" in modern scientific practices. In the conclusion of the article, the author tries to determine the place of historical sciences in the system of modern scientific knowledge.

Keywords: short historical time, kairos, long historical time, constructivism, historical narrative, transdisciplinarity, synergetic, induction, postmodernism, intuitive knowledge

Abstract: The subject of this article is the work of Vyatka local historians (N. M. Karinsky, V. A. Tanaevsky, P. N. Luppov) in the first post-revolutionary decade in the study of the history, ethnography and culture of the peoples of the Ural-Volga region with the aim of tracing and preserving parts of oral folk traditions, knowledge and information objectively set up to be organically lost under the conditions of the large-scale social cataclysms of the late 19th - first third of the 20th centuries. Their work was carried out by developing plans and questionnaires to collect data directly from the public. The aim of the here-presented article is to determine the origin, composition and informational resources of documentary collections formed as a result of the work of the Vyatka Scientific Research Institute of Local History. The research was carried out on the basis of the most complete detection of primary historical and ethnographical materials in archival depositories, in contemporary and retrospective publications, with consequent textual and archaeographic analysis, source study and identification of informational opportunities. The article's author established that the work of the Institute of Local Studies in Vyatka in the study of the peoples of the region is most fully reflected in the materials of the Udmurt Institute of History, Language and Literature of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the state archive of the Kirov region and the State Archives of the Russian Federation, and local history periodicals of the 1920s. The most interesting of the identified sources are the questionnaires on the daily life of the regional peasantry, the existence of customary laws in the Soviet pre-kholkhoz villages and the "ethnographic break" in the culture and traditions of rural residents at the turn of the 19th - 20th centuries. The particular value of the identified sources lies in the uniqueness of the information they carry, as well as in the aim of the survey organizers to take into account the complex ethnic composition of the local population.

Keywords: revolution, peasantry, archeography, historical and documentary heritage, Luppov, Tanaevsky, Karinsky, local studies, Ural-Volga region, Vyatka region

Abstract: The subject of this article is an in-depth examination of the views on nature and rural life prevalent in Venice during the Renaissance era, which was considered moral and worthy of a noble person. The main sources for this work are the agricultural treatises of Agostino Gallo "Ten Days of Real Agriculture and Pleasures of the Villa" (Brescia, 1564) and Giuseppe Falcone "A New, Charming and Pleasant Villa" (Brescia, 1559). The examination of these texts enriches with new information our knowledge regarding the cultural life of the educated Venetians of the 16th century and their daily living habits. The author's research method is based on the extraction of information from agricultural treatises relevant to our study, whose content was closely tied to reality and which inform us of the nature of an important historical source that allows us to reconstruct in general outlines the typical setup of provincial life characteristic of the studied epoch. The research novelty of this study consists in it analyzing the text of agricultural treatises in terms of what advantages were associated with the way of life on an estate, and what values of a moral order were associated with it. Turning to these sources illustrates how they also contain valuable information about the due organization of the living setup in a country villa, reflecting the real practice of living arrangements.

Keywords: Renaissance, Venice, nature, treatise, villa, agricultural, pastime, benefit, landscape, entertainment

Abstract: This article examines the condition of the Adygeyan peasantry in the second half of the 18th century - first half of the 19th centuries. The author describes the general features of the largest strata of the Adygeyan peasantry, the degree of their enslavement and the nature of their relations with the ruling class. At the center of the author's attention lie the questions of the emergence among the peasantry of ideas of freedom and independence, of their struggle to improve living conditions and to change the correlation of the value of life among the representatives of the upper class and peasants. Additionally, a lot of attention is paid to the migration processes among the Adygeyan peasantry, which had intensified during the studied period in two directions: from the "aristocratic", more rigidly feudalized groups of the Adygeyan society to the Western Adygeyan "democratic"; and from both groups of Adygeyan peoples to Mozdok, under the patronage of the Russian government. Furthermore, the author discusses the impact of entering the pan-imperial space of Russia on the brink of the traditional way of life, and, consequently, the relationship between owners and peasants.

Keywords: North Caucasus, the peoples of the North Caucasus, feudalism, ruling classes, peasantry, circassians, adygea, aristocracy, people, dominant class

Abstract: The subject of this article are the issues of the ideological support for the conflict situation in the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1989-1991. The author set before himself the goal of identifying the main directions and aspects of the activities of the national movements in the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic in the period of the acute escalation of ethnopolitical tensions. On the basis of legislative acts issued by the leadership of the USSR, of program documents of the Abkhaz, Georgian and Ossetian national movements, as well as of statistical data, the author dedicates attention to the examination of the situation without touching upon the issues of the Abkhaz and Ossetian wars. The methodological basis of this study is constructed on the comparative-historical approach, within the framework of which the author tries to understand what was the ideological motive in the opposition of the principal counterparts of the conflict situation. The study's conclusion is that at the heart of the national rhetoric of the representatives of the opposition movement in Georgia lay the idea of the redistribution of the political and economic powers of the republic which affected the interests that were then part of Soviet Georgia, national autonomies, and in particular the Abkhaz and Ossetian autonomies. The fears evoked by the activities of the Georgian opposition prompted representatives of the cultural and political intelligentsia of the Abkhaz Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic and South Ossetian Autonomous Oblast to join the opposition, advocating the maintenance of national sovereignty. The study's contribution to this topic is the possibility of using the materials presented in this article in the development of courses in the history of the countries of the Russian near abroad, as well as the history of Georgia and the history of these unrecognized republics. The scientific novelty of this study lies in its examination of the history of the ideology of national movements in the late period of the USSR, which has not been sufficiently represented in Russian historiography.

Keywords: national question, autonomous republic, USSR, ethnopolitics, South Ossetia, ideology, self-determination, nationalism, Georgia, Abkhazia

Abstract: The author describes in this article the features of the firing structures of the Sevastopol Defense Area (hereafter referred to as the SDA) in October - November 1941. Special attention is paid not only to the issues of construction and arrangement of the firing structures of the SDA (including artillery pillbox and bulwarks, machine guns and bunkers, but as well to other types of firing points), but also a number of structural problems concerning the formation and strengthening of SDA structures, including strategic and tactical flaws and errors in the location of these firing structures, which were one of the key reasons for the subsequent defeat and capture of Sevastopol. The source base for this article is made up primarily of archival materials. The author examines the original battle plans, maps, charts, and tables. It can be positively affirmed that the comparison of the data and figures of the constructed pillboxes, bulwarks and other SDA firing points in the beginning and in the middle of November 1941, along with a careful analysis of the location of these firing structures on maps and charts, is a fundamental means of explaining a number of historical facts and formulations in the analyzed material. In the article the author comes to the conclusion that the firing structures were necessary for the defense of Sevastopol and had positive combat effects in real battles at the initial stage. At the same time, the author recognizes that in planning the construction and location of long-term firing structures there was a number of serious problems, both objective and subjective, and shortcomings that had a very negative effect on the overall combat capability of the SDA.

Keywords: bulwark, defensive area, firing construction, Coastal Army, Crimea, Defense of Sevastopol, pillbox, firing point, field-gun, flank-defense

Abstract: The subject of this article is the architecture of the English country house in the late Victorian era. The author considers the work of major architects of the named era, such as J. Devey, W. Nesfield, R. N. Shaw. The object of this study is the transformation undergone by the idea regarding the national style in the architecture of this time. The author traces the changes in the notion of which monuments of national antiquity became most often a model for imitation and analyzes the method of understanding what constitutes a monument of national heritage in the works of the above-mentioned British architects. The author conducts a detailed art history analysis of the most significant monuments of the British suburban architecture of the studied period and reveals their particularities of style. The author's main conclusions are the constatation of a change in the aesthetic priorities in the British suburban architecture of the period under consideration. Finally, the author demonstrates the interrelation of these processes with the change of the social situation in general: at this time the composition of clients of country houses had significantly changed. It became increasingly made up of representatives of the banking and industrial capital, whose system of values differed significantly from that of the priorities of the old landed aristocracy.

Keywords: local tradition, George Devey, William Eden Nesfield, Richard Norman Shaw, national style, Victorian age, English architecture, country house, vernacular style, façade composition

Abstract: The article is focused on the analysis of the features of the development of tourism in the Russian Empire at the turn of the 19th - 20th centuries. The subject of this study are the prerequisites for the formation and development of touristic activities in pre-revolutionary Russia. On the basis of documentary sources, guidebooks and other pre-revolutionary publications, the authors describe the conditions and factors for the development of educational and health-medical tourism and present the main tourist areas and key monuments of tourist visits. Particular attention is paid to the popularization of touristic and recreational resources: historical and cultural attractions, medical and therapeutic centers. The research is based on the historical-genetic, historical-geographical, topic-analytical and retrospective methods, as well as the method of system-structural analysis. The novelty of the presented research lies in that the authors prove that the foundations of modern educational and health-resort tourism were laid in pre-revolutionary Russia. The authors reveal the main features of the development of tourism in Russia at the turn of the 19th - 20th centuries, identify the main directions of tourist activity and show the role of Russia's cultural heritage in the formation of tourist regions and centers.

Keywords: cultural heritage, educational tourism, medical-therapeutic tourism, guidebooks, photographic postcards, tourist geography, religious tourism, club tourism, tourist infrastructure, history of tourism

Abstract: The subject of this article is the role of agitation trains and steamboats that cruised in Soviet Russia during the years of the Russian Civil War. The author examines in detail the anti-religious aspect of the propaganda activities of the agitation trains: anti-religious teaching and educational work, in which the Bolsheviks successfully used slogans, anti-religious documentary films, publicist and fictional literature, special anti-religious journals, artistic paintings, poster art, and caricatures. The article uses archival materials, as well as collections of documents. The discussed agitational and propaganda work, which also included anti-religious education, very soon bore necessary fruits: the total support of the majority of the population for the new government which allowed the Bolsheviks to cement and to continue the already begun fight against religion. In order to achieve his aim, the author uses comparative, narrative and historical-genetic methods of research. The relevance of this study is determined by the absence in historiography of works devoted to this topic. Agitation trains and steamboats were widely used by the Soviet authorities in 1919-1921 and were the shock force of Bolshevik propaganda. The agitation activity of trains and steamships was directed towards the political context of the time: the struggle of the Bolsheviks against the White Army, the recruitment of workers and peasants to the front of the Soviet government, and the propaganda of its ideas among the population.

Keywords: religion, Russian Orthodox Church, anti-religious education, Soviet authorities, Civil War, Bolsheviks, agitation steamboat, agitation train, propaganda, agitation

Abstract: The subject of historical analysis in this article is the topic of the hierarchy of Old Russian ministers of pagan cults, which is a virtually unstudied topic by Russian scholars. Based on archaeological sources, ancient Russian chronicles and texts of Ibn Fadlan, the author sequentially analyzes the features of the hierarchy of pagan cult ministers of small clan temples, hillforts-sanctuaries, and urban sacral centers. The author dedicates particular attention to the question of the place and role of Old Russian princes and close to them representatives of the military elite in the religious life of the ancient Russian state. The study highlights the characteristic features of the pagan cult in ancient Russian cities, in particular, the unique system of priestly hierarchy in which the dominant position was occupied by local prince-rulers and their closest circle of local military elite. Upon writing this article, the author used the historical-comparative, problem-thematic and historical-analytical methods of scientific research. In this study, for the first time in Russian historical science, a comprehensive analysis of the hierarchical system of Eastern Slavic ministers of pagan cults is presented. The conducted historical analysis allowed the author to come to the conclusion that in the pre-Christian era the Eastern Slavic pagan cult ministers had a complex hierarchical system. All the Eastern Slavic sanctuaries from small temples located on the outskirts of rural settlements to large hillforts-sanctuaries were served by hierarchically organized professional priests. The pagan cult ministers were united in priestly clans led by the high priests of the most revered shrines in Ancient Rus.

Keywords: The prince's squad, Princes, Priestly clan, The Priestly Hierarchy, Magi, Cult, Sanctuary, Sacral center, The temple, Sacrifice

Abstract: The subject of this study is the contribution of V. V. Rozanov to the formulation of the doctrine of the "new religious consciousness," which started the movement for the modernization of the Orthodox Russian Church. 120 years ago, the writer became interested in the history of Christianity and put forward a hypothesis concerning the religiousness of gender. Perhaps the only person who supported this hypothesis was the priest of the Russian Church Alexander Ustinsky. In 1901, the works of V. V. Rozanov, included among other topics, were brought to the meetings of religious and philosophical assemblies in St. Petersburg (1901-1903), while the doctrine of the "new religious consciousness" was proposed to the Russian Church as an alternative to historical Christianity. In this study the author applied the method of historicism, which assumes a sequential description of events and their analysis on the basis of their chronology and internal logic, as well as in connection with the general historical process, in this case - with the post-reform history of Russia, on the eve of socio-historical modernization. The author also applied the retrospective-associative method, which allowed to identify the preconditions of the studied phenomenon. The author adheres to the principles of academicism and scientific objectivity. The novelty of this research consists in its introduction into scientific circulation of V. V. Rozanov's archival correspondence from 1898 - 1899, which shows that one of the theoreticians of the religious movement for church modernization in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century, V. V. Rozanov owes his fame as an expert on the history of Christianity and as a religious thinker (candidate of theology) to a great extent to the Archpriest Alexander Ustinsky. The author comes to the conclusion that by the beginning of the 20th century, both activists created the conditions for translating into the public consciousness the idea of the need to introduce into practice church divorce, remarriages for the clergy and to overcome the ascetic tradition.

Keywords: religion of Rozanov, Church modernization, new religious consciousness, priest Alexander Ustinsky, Russian Orthodox Church, gender issue, religious movement, marriage in Christianity, Vasily Rozanov, living Church

Abstract: This study is dedicated to a source study analysis of the materials from the journal of the Russian Ministry of Finance: "the Vestnik of Finance, Industry and Trade". This journal is one of the main sources on a wide range of topics concerning the economic history of Russia in the period between 1883 - 1917. The materials published in "the Vestnik..." are characterized by a high level of analytics, due to its authors being prominent Russian economists of their time. The aim of this study is to examine the dynamics of the complex economic processes that took place in the revolutionary year of 1917 as reflected in the pages of the named journal. This article applies the methods of quantitative analysis to journal publications. In structuring the subject matter of the articles and messages, the journal's headings from the quarterly "Systematic Lists" are used, as well as the bibliographic database developed at the Novosibirsk State University. The author's quantitative analysis of the evolution of the topics raised in the journal demonstrates the value of "the Vestnik ..." as one of the most interesting sources in the study of the economic processes that took place in 1917. This article shows that the calculation of the distribution of the subject matter in analytical publications (articles and messages, without ads, announcements and statistical material) in general and by quarters provides the most reliable estimates of the structure and dynamics of the coverage of economic processes in the examined journal.

Keywords: economic processes, year of 1917, mass media, authors of articles, source analysis, quantitative methods, headings, thematic categories, dynamics, Vestnik of Finance