Abstract: The subject of the study is the visual aspect in historical and anthropological study of the population and ethnic groups of the Yakut Autonomous Soviet Social Republic, implemented in the course of field research by employees of the Research Institute of Language and Culture at the Council of People's Commissars of the Yakut Autonomous Soviet Social Republic (1935) and the Yakut Museum of Local Lore by Em. Yaroslavsky name. In the 1930s-1940s through the joint efforts of the staff the Institute and the Museum, a new array of visual sources is being formed that characterizes the traditional everyday life of the population and ethnic groups living on the territory of the republic. The purpose and objectives of the article are determined by the need for a special review the corpus of visual sources, and in it a special analysis of the author's photographs collected as part of expeditions by employees of the first research institute and the local history museum of the Yakut Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic during the period under study. The methodology for studying visual heritage is based on an interdisciplinary approach to the study of traditional culture and its objective world, as well as expeditionary photo projects as phenomena the visual culture of their time.

Keywords: visual observation, scientific programs, oral tradition, national institute, Yakut intellectuals, Soviet ethnography, ethnic communities, expeditions, museum collecting, visual researches

Abstract: The memoirs of GULAG prisoners are an underestimated source on the history of repression in the USSR, although written and oral memories allow a deeper understanding of what prisoners had to go through and complement the dry and incomplete data from official sources. In this study the memoirs of prisoners published on the resource of the Sakharov Center "Memories of the GULAG and their authors" and transcripts of video interviews with the repressed of the project "My GULAG" of the GULAG History Museum were used as a source. The paper analyzes the features of working with written and oral memories. The comparison of the results of content analysis in groups by gender as well as by the form of fixation of memories - written (memoirs) and oral (interview materials) – was carried out to identify various gender characteristics of perception and broadcasting of camp life. The analysis suggests that despite the gender differences in the perception and translation of the camp stage of life by men and women in written and oral memories the global view of former prisoners on the period of repression does not depend on gender or on the form of fixation of memories. The more texts of memoirs and transcripts of memories there are in the group, and the larger the group of texts is studied, the more common features of the perception of camp life appear. This confirms the hypothesis about the massive nature of large arrays of thematically similar texts.

Keywords: gender studies, content analysis, mass sources, sources of personal origin, interviews, memoirs, memories, gender, repression, GULAG

Abstract: The subject of this article is manipulation techniques used by journalists of one of the most authoritative newspaper (The New York Times) in order to create an image of the USSR during the Perestroika period. The purpose of the article is to show the potential of the publications of The New York Times, which captured the image of Perestroika in the USSR. The article discusses such manipulative techniques as stereotepization, information selection, fabrication of facts, and so on. In addition, this article shows how language techniques – periphrasis, antithesis, hyperbole can be used to manipulate readers' opinions. The research includes articles of the newspaper 1987-1991 devoted to the events in the Baltic States, the activities of M. S. Gorbachev, B. N. Yeltsin, A.D. Sakharov. The analysis shows how the methods of affirmation and repetition allow the readers of the newspaper to form geopolitical ideas about the Baltic states, methods of stereotyping, mixing fact and opinion help to create stable images of politicians and public figures of the period of Perestroika, and cliched formulas fix the image of the USSR leadership in the minds of readers. The study of language techniques resorted to by the authors of the publication makes it possible to identify the implicit meanings contained in the texts of publications. The correlation of the created image and manipulation technique revealed in this article can be extrapolated to a fairly wide field of application – the study of the press as a source. The publications of The New York Times are considered for the first time from the point of view of manipulative techniques that contribute to the creation of the image of the USSR during the Perestroika period.

Keywords: image, regional studies, Media, implicit information, the USSR, Perestroika, speech manipulation techniques, New York Times, source studies, history

Abstract: This article is first in historiography to set the subject of the analysis as the political language of the “Notebooks of the Upper Ural political detention center” – a body of texts written by the incarcerated oppositionists of Communism during 1932-1933. These documents became part of public domain only as recently as 2018. They have practically not been implemented into the scientific discourse, which complicates the task of authorship, detailed reconstruction of the practices of creation and proliferation of the “notebooks”, but at the same time raises the relevance of these texts from the political and cultural perspectives.  The author poses the question of rhetorical and pragmatic peculiarities of the texts of various genre. The texts are viewed in the context of the discourse on the language of the 1920s and early 1930s, canonic formulas of writing of the revolutionaries, as well as the factor of incarceration and internal discussions among the authors. The article highlights similarities and dissimilarities with the so-called “Soviet language” in the aspects of usage of clichés, citation techniques and stylistics eclectics. A hypothesis is advanced that the stylistics of texts carried an imprint of the cultural level of the authors and the conditions of incarceration, combination of which showed traces of the canonical political narratives of the revolutionaries, as well as bureaucratized depersonified language. The conclusion is made that the “notebooks” served as support of collective identity of the oppositionists, and can be viewed as the language of opposition.

Keywords: Soviet Socialism, Stalinism, Soviet political history, Trotskyism, Soviet political language, communist opposition, Bolshevik-Leninist, USSR, anti-stalinism, Soviet repressions

Abstract: Skeletal remains from the burials of timber-grave period of the Late Bronze Age originating from kurgans of the Archedino-Chernushensky group served as the material for this research. The archaeological monument is located in the territory of the Frolovsky Municipal District of Volgograd Oblast. The remains of 12 individuals (6 adults, 4 children, and 2 adolescents) were explored. In the course of this research, the author applied the method of account for the occurrence of discretely varying traits on the skull and bones of postcranial skeleton, as well as evaluation program for dissemination of pathological characteristic developed by the national researchers A. A. Movsesyan, E. V. Pererva, A. P. Buzhilova. The archaeological explorations of group Archedino-Chernushensky Kurgan group were carried out in 2020. Therefore, the acquired anthropological materials are introduced into the scientific discourse for the first time. The author was able to establish that the equal number of children and adult burials can be attributed to timber-grave period. The examined skeletal remains of the Late Bronze Age of the Lower Volga Region demonstrate the signs of episodic stress (enamel hypoplasia) and distribution of diseases related to the deficiency of microelements in the body (porosis of the diaphysis in individuals who did not reach the age of puberty). The records of such type of deviations on anthropological materials of deviations indicates chronic stress associated with systematic occurrences of famine, which is natural for the population of the Late Bronze Age of the Lower Volga Region, who were involved in mixed farming. The excavations reveal the series of injuries of household and battle nature among adult population. The prevalent burial method of timber-grave culture Archedino-Chernushensky Kurgan group of appears to be the cremation ritual.   

Keywords: stress, traumas, paleopathology, Late Bronze Age, Lover Volga river rigion, mound group, srubnay culture, cremation, skulls, burials

Abstract: The article's study is an analysis of the distribution of pathological deviations and stress markers in the Late Bronze Age population found in the burial mounds of the Volgograd Region and the Republic of Kalmykia. A total of 199 bones with varying conservation degrees have been studied. Among these, 113 skeletons belonged to adults, 71 skeletons were of men and 34 were female skeletons. In 6 adult the gender could not be determined. In 88 cases, bone remains belonged to children and adolescents. The study of this group was carried out using a standard technique for fixing pathological and stressful conditions (Buzhilova, 1995, 1998). The analysis of the frequency of pathological conditions and stress markers in the group was carried out by the methods of one-dimensional and multidimensional statistics.As a result of this study, the author established, based on a number of paleoanthropological and paleopathological criteria, that the population of the Late Bronze Age stands out compared to previous historical eras because of the processes of climatic humidization in the Lower Volga region.The author notes a specific paleopathological profile in the population found in the burial mounds from the later epoch.The conducted comparative analysis of the examined group with other groups from the Early and Middle Bronze Age using the non-parametric Kruskal-Wallis test has demonstrated the absence of statistically significant differences in the occurrence and manifestations of mostly pathological signs, indicating that despite the changes in the economic structure (transition to complex economy ), the lifestyle and, consequently, the stress pressure of the Late Bronze Age population did not radically change, compared with previous historical periods.

Keywords: hyperostosis frontalis interna, caries, statistics methods, Lover Volga river rigion, Late Bronze Age, stress, paleopathology, paleoanthropology, trauma, pathological profile

Abstract: The focus of this article is placed on the literary magazine Rubezh, published in Harbin from 1926 to 1945. The article's aim is to determine the value of this publication as a source on the history of the development of the global fashion industry in the 1930s - 1940s. In order to achieve the set goal, the author analyzes a wide range of publications by the Rubezh devoted to fashion topics (articles on men's and women's fashion with illustrations and photographs; tips on needlework, makeup, face and body care, etc.; advertisements of manufacturers and traders of clothing and accessories) by identifying the relationships between fashion trends and the socio-political and economic processes of this period. The article pays particular attention to the study of the fashion industry in Harbin in the context of examining the anthropology of Russian diaspora's fashion. To obtain the most objective and representative research results, the author relied on the methods of historicism, objectivity, integrity, and comparative analysis while conducting this research. The scientific novelty of this article lies in the fact that, for the first time in historiography, a comprehensive analysis of the émigré magazine "Rubezh" has been conducted, considering it as a source on the history of fashion in general, and on the anthropology of Russian diaspora in particular. During the course of this work, the author came to the conclusion that the materials of Rubezh help to recreate a retrospective picture of the development of the global fashion industry in the 1930s - 1940s. and serve as a serious aid in the study of the unique socio-cultural phenomenon of Russian Harbin.

Keywords: Russian Diaspora, Russian emigartion, fashion trends, global fashion industry, history of fashion, Rubezh magazine, print media of the Russian Diaspora, fashion anthropology, Russian Harbin, emigre press

Abstract: The article is focused on the topic of the representation of human corporeality in Soviet periodical editions. The relevance of this study is founded on the fact that corporality and its key feature as a social construct are exposed to the external influences of socio-political institutions and, in turn, they themselves influence the formation of individual and collective values. On the example of the sources from the central Voronezh newspaper "Molodoy Kommunar", the author analyses the most common images of physical suffering (illness, mutilation, death) and their political and ideological content as a means of influencing the public consciousness. The central place in this study is occupied by M. Foucault's postmodernist concept of power which regards the human body as an object of social control, placed in special disciplinary spaces and subject to constant external influence, including through mass media. The presented work is of an interdisciplinary nature, as it integrates the methods of discourse analysis, cognitive history, and historical visualistics. The scientific novelty of this article lies in its recourse to conduct an analysis of the history of corporality through an examination of the provincial periodical press as its main source. The author introduces into scientific cirrculation previously unused text and illustrated material. The author comes to the conclusion that the representation of suffering as a physical feature was of an ideological nature. Within the framework of the becoming of Soviet indoctrination, the formation of a lasting stereotype of the socialist system's superiority over the capitalist one played an important role. This is why the author pays special attention to the sources' contrasting images of the physical perfection of Soviet citizens with the bodily defects of the other peoples which were affected by the policy of the countries from the imperialist camp. The author also demonstrates how the positive image of Soviet medicine was used for the implementation of the strategy of state control over the corporality of citizens.

Keywords: death, disease, suffering, social engineering, visual history, history of the body, body, medicine, public health, periodical press

Abstract: The article focuses on the history of studying the anthropological material found on the territory of the Lower Volga region dating to the time of the Golden Horde. The historiography regarding the examination of the anthropological material collected on the territory of the Lower Volga is relatively scarce andfragmented. Unfortunately, none of the modern works on this subject are dedicated to the compilation of all the anthropological works, whose published conclusions concern the whole period of study of the Golden Horde. This article summarises and systematises various paleoanthropological works. In this study the systematic method of processing data was applied, which works with the method of logically analysing source material. This article reviews the history of study of yet another important source of anthropological material. The anthropological material from the towns of the Golden Horde in the Lower Volga region has been studied from the 1920s–1930s and is still studied today. From the whole body of examined material, the author comes to the conclusion that the population of the Golden Horde was not homogenous in its racial composition, but combined Mongoloid and Caucasian traits. The main population component was Caucasian-Mongoloid mestizos, with varying proportions of Caucasian and Mongoloid miscegenation, which has been identified as a local substrate. Along with the local component of the substrate on the territory of the Lower Volga region, there was also a component of alien population, which can be identified as Khorezm, Central Asian, and Russian. The Mongols in a relatively short period of time almost completely dissolved into the conquered tribes. Wherein two methods of miscegenation can be identified: mechanical and biological.

Keywords: anthropology, Golden Horde, Lower Volga region, craniology, osteometry, paleoanthropology, pathologies, historiography, Caucasians, Mongoloids

Abstract: The article illustrates the key milestones in the professional biography of the Grand duke Konstantin Konstantinovich (1856–1915), presented in the context of the socio-political events during the reigns of the last three emperors. The aim of the study is to analyse, on the example of Konstantin Romanov’s biography, the career development particularities of the Romanov dynasty members, to reveal the objective and subjective factors that influenced their sociopolitical activity, and to show how the significance of the dynasty’s members in the state life of the Russian empire changed in the course of the late-imperial period. The author comes to the conclusion that the career advancement of the Grand duke Konstantin Konstantinovich depended on the monarchs’ individual perceptions of the role of dynasty members in the socio-political life of the state. At the same time, professional appointments could be made on high officials’ initiatives, which were eager to reach their ambitions through this. The opposition against Alexander III had a decisive influence on the careers of the Grand dukes of his time, as the emperor did not deem necessary to engage his relatives in state affairs. This, in consequence, under Nicholas II led to Konstantin Konstantinovich having the possibility to influence state life, but not to fulfil his initiatives. The absence of experience gave the Grand duke a sense of incertitude in his abilities as a statesman and made his private life more appealing than the life of a public figure. Thus, on the example of the professional biography of the Grand duke Konstantin Konstantinovich, one can see how the dynasty’s members lost their fundamental roles in the life of the state, which ultimately led to the crisis of the dynasty as a political institute of authority.

Keywords: Grand duke Konstantin Konstantinovich, Grand duke Konstantin Nikolaevich, Romanov dynasty, Alexander I, Alexander II, Alexander III, Nicholas II, literacy committees, Imperial academy of sciences, military schools, first Russian revolution.