Abstract: This review presents a critical analysis of A. A. Tikhomirov’s newest study dedicated to the cult of Stalin in Eastern Germany during the formation period of party and government structures. The review’s author notes that the monograph is a worthy contribution to the current discussions regarding the transnational measurement of late Stalinism history, to the reconstruction of the peripheries of the Soviet empire’s symbolic mechanisms of assimilation, and to the study of the working specifics of the “discourse dictatorship” and (self)creation of “dictatorial subject”. The key points of the analysis are the specifics behind the creation of Stalinist symbolic space in Central and Eastern Europe, its homogenisation and encapsulation, as well as the role of government, group, and individual actors. The most significant conclusions the author comes to are his comments on the decisive role of the “patriarch generation”, which lived for a long time in Soviet emigration and thoroughly studied the rules of the Soviet discourse games and sought to follow them for securing and strengthening their own power, and on the mutual beneficial creation of a structure to subordinate the peripheries to the centre of the empire. The reviewer criticises the part of the author’s argument that is based on initially ideologised materials of the West German Social Democratic Party of Germany, logical contradictions, and unbalanced national and transnational perspectives. Valuating positively the book author’s research overall, the reviewer notes possible direction for its continuation as a detailed analysis of the competition of the imperial peripheries between themselves before of Moscow regarding questions of the correct symbolisation of the cult community.

Keywords: cult of Stalin, SUPG, SMAG, history of USSR, history of GDR, visual anthropology, new political history, cultural transfer, generation of patriarchs, dictatorial subject

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

Abstract: This newly published terminological dictionary provides interpretations of the basic concepts, of the main theories and methods of historical science, and also of the fields of modern historical knowledge. Separate entries are dedicated to the concepts and categories that comprise the theoretical-methodological space of historical science. These entries present the history of the origin and existence of particular concepts in specific national scientific schools and historiographical traditions, as well as the most reputed, widespread, and accepted by the modern professional historiographical community variants of concept interpretations. Through this approach the continuity in the development of historical knowledge is manifested and the traditions and innovations in the field of historical science terminology are linked. The publication of this dictionary attests the professional historians’ awareness of the importance of being attentive to the field’s modern language. The necessity of clarifying and structuring a historian’s language is due to the fundamental changes in the theoretical and methodological spheres of historical research, both in the global scientific community because of the “linguistic turn” and in post-Soviet Russian historiography in particular, due to its switch in methodological approaches and change towards theoretical-methodological pluralism and indeterminacy. The published dictionary contributes to establishing a clear dialogue between historians within the scientific community, facilitates understanding and creates a basis for a comparative study of the practice of research projects. This publication is also particularly significant for educational purposes, in helping to prepare the next generation of professional historians, mindful of historical science's modern language.

Keywords: historical discipline, basic concept, methodology, theory, historicism, scientific language, historical knowledge, professional community, historiographical tradition, national school

Abstract: The reviewed book studies the modernisation processes that occurred in Belarusian society during the course of more than half a century – beginning with the Great Reforms up to the First World War. The reviewer notes that the social transformation of society on the territory of Belarusian provinces is addressed in the wider context of the modernising processes concurrently taking place in the Russian empire in general. The book analyses the most diverse aspects of the given subject: the government policy itself, directed towards social transformation, the dynamics of the literacy level indicators among the population, the changes in the structure of the population and demographic processes in the region in general, the evolution of estate institutions in Belarusian society, the formation processes of a bourgeois society and its institutional foundations. The reviewer highlights the exceptional scientific value of this research and of its conclusions. In particular, the author’s assertion that the government introduced restraining laws had the aim of not only enforcing the Russian influence on Belarusian provinces, but also of changing the traditional system of social and economic relations. Also noteworthy is the author’s comment that in the studied provinces – in comparison with other regions of Russia – the government often played a more reserved role in the realisation of modernising changes. The review contains some critical notes, among which is the author's insufficient attention to statistical data, which describes the dynamics of work conflicts on industrial enterprises in Belarusian provinces.

Keywords: estate, social mobility, early stage of industrialization, province, modernization, history of Belarus, post-reform period, Russian Empire, bourgeois society, population migration

Abstract: The reviewed publication is a work of significant scientific value. The author of the review presents the general information pertaining to the exhibition itself, as well as to its catalogue, and notes that at the heart of the exhibition lies the collection of Moscow university professor A. L. Khazin, which is one of the foremost private collections of the highest West-European state awards in the world. The review analyses the content of the catalogue, including the collector’s foreword to the publication and the introduction written by L. M. Gavrilova, the curator of the exhibition and of the Moscow Kremlin museum collections. A major part of the review is dedicated to the analysis of the informational value of the catalogue and demonstrates on a series of examples the value of phaleristics in elucidating various historical facts. The reviewer outlines the most important objects of the exhibition, among which are the so-called joint stars of several orders, order chains, and other rarities. The reviewer highlights the elaborated system of presenting the exhibits in the catalogue, set according to phaleristic categories and historical significance of the orders. Additionally, the reviewer points out the importance of the appendixes to the catalogue, which contain reference information on European award systems. The reviewer corrects some inexactitudes – unavoidable, as he notes, in the compilation of such publications.

Keywords: orders, exhibition catalogue, collection, L. M. Gavrilova, A. L. Khazin, award system, phaleristics, Moscow Kremlin museums, exhibit, joint star of orders

Abstract: The article is a review of the new book by the famous Russian historian Boris Lvovich Havkin dealing with the most illustrious figures and events in the Russo-German history of the 20th century. The publication analyses the historical portraits of Alexander Parvus (Helphand), Ulrich von Brockdorff-Rantzau, Wilhelm von Mirbach-Harff, Friedrich-Werner Graf von der Schulenburg, Friedrich Wilhelm Paulus, Ewald von Kleist, Ferdinand Schörner and others. The review gives a description of the theses written by the book’s author on such current and contested questions as the role of Germany in the preparation of the Bolshevik overturn of 1917, the Soviet-German pact of 1939, the activities of the “Red chapel”, etc. A series of conceptual positions of the reviewed study are subjected to a critical analysis, concerning the general aspects of the Russo-German history of the 20th century. At the reviewer’s centre of attention lie the historical figures and events, which united the histories of Russia and Germany since 1917 up to 1945. The reviewed volume is of the highest scientific quality, furnished with source publication and photographic documents, and is of unquestionable interest for specialists in the field of Russo-German relations, as well as for those interested in history in general.

Keywords: Great Patriotic War, Bolshevism, National socialism, “Rapallo policy”, 1918 Treaty of Brest, Russo-German relations, German history, Russian history, Resistance movement, Second World War

Abstract: The review introduces the new comparative study of A. Stanziani, a renowned French historian, to the Russian specialists, discussing the author’s general approach, thesis and arguments. The book considers the dominant concepts of West European and American historiography on the specifics of Russian variant of the transformations of the Early Modern era. Using the wide range of modern historiography, A. Stanziani reveals that the conventional perceptions of the major problems of Russian history of that period strongly affect the general schemes of historical development, which often contradicts the current level of knowledge attained by specialists. The reviewer suggests that the work of A. Stanziani, with its balanced and broad vision, is an important step to overcoming the alienation between the studies of Russian history in Russia and abroad, and is of great importance for both Russian and Western specialists.

Keywords: Alessandro Stanziani, “Oriental Despotism”, History of Russia, Early Modern period, social and economic history, economic backwardness, “military revolution”, serfdom, kholopy, territorial expansion.

Abstract: The article presents a review of the new book by the German historian Peter März, a recognized specialist in the history of World War I. His work is predicated on the basic idea of the interrelation and continuity of European history between the modern and the contemporary times. The starting point is set with the Peace of Westphalia of 1648, which ended the first pan-European war. The next important time mark is the end of the War of the Spanish succession and the Peace of Utrecht of 1714. According to März, the established system of international relations continued until the period of the Revolution and Napoleonic France. In 1815 began a new chapter of European history resulting from the decisions of the Vienna congress. The author considers that the Treaty of Versailles of 1919 determined the shape of Europe in the XXth century until the events of 1990: the end of the Cold war and the collapse of the Communist regimes. The structure of the reviewed book combines chapters both traditional for a general work on the history of World War I, as well as methodologically innovative sections. The book presents a prominent general research on the history of World War I and its consequences for Europe on the whole, and Germany in particular. On the basis of modern publications, the author draws a striking picture of the global catastrophe of 1914-1918. Among the undeniable merits of this book are its limpidity in the written language and the clearly identified methodological accents.

Keywords: World War I, historiography, Treaty of Versailles (1919), German history, Germano-russo-polish relations, Russian history, Weimar Germany, World War II, Cold war, Pan-Germanism idea.

Abstract: The research subject of this article is the book by E. A. Vorontsova “Entrepreneurial organizations in Russia: historiography, sources, history” (Moscow, 2013). The authors consider the book in the context of the current historiography and they retrospectively analyze each chapter of the book (Historiography, Sources, Outline of the history of entrepreneurial organizations, Articles for encyclopedic entries, Appendix) identifying (from their point of view) important aspects and noting elements interesting for researchers of socio-economic history. The unified information from the authors, belonging to different schools and research centers, allows for a multi-sided review of the publication. The reviewing authors note the novelty of Vorontsova’s approach to the researched problems, and the educational and methodological potential of the book, which comprehensively presents the basic research procedure (from source study and historiography heuristics to source study and historiography analysis, to result presentation in different formats). The authors consider that the second edition of these scientific articles makes practical sense since they were dispersed among various publications, journals, monographs, etc.

Keywords: history, Russian history, interdisciplinary approach, history of entrepreneurship, historiography, historiographical fact, source study, information accumulation, entrepreneurial organizations, renarrativization.

Abstract: The article reviews the solid publication of the correspondence between E. Bernstein and K. Kautsky, which sheds light on many points in the biographies of these two leading theoreticians of the German Social Democracy movement in the period between the wars (1918–1932). This book also contains vast information on the history of the Socialist movement of practically all the European countries. The letters of Bernstein and Kautsky are an extremely valuable historical source that will be useful to modern, as well as to the future generations of researchers in Social Democracy and Socialism histories. The study of the publication is based methodologically on the principles of historicism and scientific objectivity. The biographical method, also applied to this private correspondence, has allowed reconstituting in a most complete form the biographical information of E. Bernstein, K. Kautsky, and of other leaders of German Social Democracy. Examining the letters and their content evolution through conceptual constructions permits to view this source body as a certain social reality. The analysis of the correspondence led the authors of the review to conclude that both Bernstein and Kautsky after 1918, and certainly in the 1920s – beginning of the 1930s, had to be content with the status of cabinet theoreticians, being honored for their past contributions, but their role and influence on the political line and ideology of Social Democracy were not great. This makes all the more valuable the comments on the events of the 1920–1930s in their correspondence (such as on the question of the restoration of the Social Democratic International and its functions, the formation of new states and the national question, attitude towards Fascism).

Keywords: history, German Social Democracy, Eduard Bernstein, Karl Kautsky, Weimar Republic, correspondence, Labour and Socialist International, Fascism, ideology, Luise Kautsky.

Abstract: This article examines several investigations of recent years that were ahead of their time for understanding the question and a scholarly methodology and vector for further development of certain directions in the history of science: Kramarovskii, M. G. Man of the Medieval Street. The Golden Horde. Byzantine, Italy. St. Petersburg, 2012; From the Onon to the Thames. Chingizids and Their Western Neighbors. On the 70th Year of Mark Grigorevich Kramarovskii. Moscow, 2013; Ponomarev, A. L. Evolution of the Monetary Systems of the Black Sea Region and the Balkans in the 13th– 15th Centuries. Moscow, 2011. In these works we deal with scholarly discoveries at the crossroads of several disciplines.

Keywords: history, medieval studies, historiography, methodology, contact zone, multiculturalism, Golden Horde, M. G. Kramarovskii, quantitative numismatics, A. L. Ponomarev.

Abstract: The article explores the monographic study of Professor. Pc. Plaggenborg which is dedicated to the comparative analysis of fascist Italy, Kemalist Turkey and Bolshevik Russia (USSR) during the period between the World Wars. The reviewer examines the methodology and structure of this work, while pointing out the scientific novelty of a comparative approach within the suggested “triangle” of countries, and provides detailed critique of some of the author’s positions. The critic positively regards the author’s research of how each country viewed the others, as well as the study of the works of analysts and little-known Soviet turkologists. The critic outlines the precision and appropriateness of a comparative analysis of the preconditions for the emergence of the three regimes - the backgrounds of the ruling elites, representation of authority, the growth of the oppression mechanisms and the relations between authority and religion. Other theses seem less persuasive – the essay on the post-war history of Italy, Turkey and USSR appears incomplete, and the research of the economy of the three countries is not deep enough. Moreover, the place of the studied countries in the greater global political picture is not given enough attention, which further reduces the complicity of the analysis. Overall, the monography is regarded as broad research that unveils new horizons and provides perspective for further comparative research in a refreshed interdisciplinary format, its scientific relevance and significant importance, as well as its conclusions are highly regarded by the scientific community.

Keywords: history, USSR, Italy, Turkey, fascism, socialism, dictatorship, comparative history.

Abstract: the article analyzes the fruits of historical research of the “Bruzhalovo village and its surroundings. Past and present” book (M.:Smireniye, 2012) which studies the Bruzhalovo village and its surrounding landscape in the Istrinskiy district of Moscow region (other researcha ttempts dated at 1920s and the turn of XX and XXI centuries). This research is characterized as one of the turning points in deep and broad-viewed study of Russia’s cultural history.

Keywords: history, Bruzhalovo village, Moscow suburbs, Istra, culture, local history, landscape, church of Preobrazhenie, holiness.

Abstract: the paper presents the analysis of the book “Historical science at the turn of XX-XXI centuries: theoretical foundation and practice of historiography” (Moscow, 2011) written by Doctor of History, corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences Laura Petrovna Repina. Author marks the scientific merit of the monograph: a high theoretical level, taking into account the methodological requirements of the professional historical community, the adequacy of the main areas of study of scientific research of historians. This far-reaching work of Repina L.P. opens up prospects for further study of the whole complex of issues related to intellectual culture, as well as the relation of intellectual culture and historical knowledge. In addition, the author notes that a more complete disclosure of historiography of everyday life, the influence of the international congress of historical sciences in research practice is needed and offers a wider use of the term “historiographic situation”.

Keywords: history, review, historiography, communication, intellectual culture, interdisciplinary, theory, methodology, gender, Repina L.P.

Abstract: The article contains detailed analysis of the monograph by I.G. Kovalev “The House of Lords in the XX century. The hundred years of reforms.”, which is a first monograph in the Russian science, which is devoted to the political struggle among the parties on the issue of modernization of the first chamber of the British Parliament. It is noted how topical this study is, and how the British experience may be used for the modernization of the Russian parliamentarism. The peculiarities of preparation and discussion of plans of reforms, their advantages and disadvantages. Much attention is paid to the parliamentary debates and political campaigns, which were organized by the leading political forces in Great Britain. It is also noted for which set of people this article may be of interest.

Keywords: history, Russian studies of England, Russian historiography, inter-disciplinary approach, reforms, parliamentarism, constitutional changes, party and political struggle, the House of Lords, XX century

Abstract: the article illustrates the contribution of both fundamental edition «Gedenkbuch: the Memory book of German Labour Army members of Bogoslovlag. 1941–1946» and the project «Returned Names» as a whole in the development of a topical scientific issues of totalitarianism and authoritarianism in the USSR and the creation of the Book of Memory — a historical source, which appears as a result of purposeful work of researchers with substantial massif of different types and sources of and returns forgotten names to the historical memory of the people.

Keywords: history, concepts of totalitarianism and authoritarianism, repressive system, a historical source, the Book of Memory, the project «Returned Names», the Soviet Germans Labour Army members, analysis of labor activity, collective social portrait, map of Bogoslovlag.

Abstract: The refereed collective work “Essays on the history of the town of Sergiev Posad. The end of the XVIII— XX century.” is a study of the socio-cultural and social environment of one of the oldest Russian cities. The work is based on a wide range of sources and literature. One of the scientific merits of this research is a technique of inspection of the urban environment and description of its current state developed by the authors. Elected perspective study of using this technique can be considered a form of translation and study of cultural heritage.

Keywords: history, regional historical and cultural study, cultural studies, social and cultural studies, socio-cultural environment of the city, historical regional studies, cultural heritage, historic cities of Russia, the history of the Sergiev Posad, the history of the Laura of the Holy Trinity and St. Sergius.