Отечественная история

The article shows the scale of the problem of tram accidents in early Soviet cities, identifies its causes, proposed and implemented measures to eliminate them, and assesses their effectiveness. The main factors of the disasters were disregard for safety rules, mistakes of the tram drivers, a small number of tram cars and their poor quality. Despite a number of measures taken, the issue of creating a safe urban transport system could not be resolved in the unstable economic and social conditions of the 1920s.

The article presents for the first time the biography of Ivan Fedorovich Leontiev, who was the father of one of the governors of Saratov. Brief information about his ancestors is provided. I. F. Leontiev began his service back in the Time of Troubles, as a representative of the Kashirsky “military city”, fought as part of the army of Prince M. V. Skopin-Shuisky. At the court of Tsar Mikhail Romanov, I. F. Leontiev served as a solicitor, a steward and a royal hunter. At the beginning of the Smolensk War, he was a voivode in Yelets.

In the second half of the 19th – early 20th centuries, the legalist (juridical) press played a prominent role in the Russian liberation movement. Its leading publications professed the principles of legality and law and order. In fact, the term “Order” itself appeared thanks to the newspaper of the same name, and supporters of legalism were called “people of legal order”.

In the fund of the nobility deputy assembly of the State archives of the Saratov region there is a collection of 21 volumes of the unique documents, known as the Nobility family register books of the Saratov province (1787–1861). Their analysis brings us to the conclusions concerning the structure of the noble society of the Saratov province as a whole. The documents also give the opportunity to clarify many private issues on history of the concrete representatives of the hereditary nobility of the Saratov province.

The article is devoted to the formation and activity of military statistical institutions in the Russian Empire in the first half of the XIX century. The ruling circles faced the task of establishing a serious and permanent organization of administrative and military statistics for the best management of the Russian armed forces, which were the backbone of the autocratic regime. In addition, it was necessary to collect comprehensive military statistical data on the country’s capabilities and on the military systems of leading nations.

The little-known history of the counterintelligence department of the 12th Army headquarters is examined through the prism of the activities of two tools for countering espionage – the spy squad and secret employees.

The presented article shows the evolution of ideas about the War of the Polish Succession in Russian historiography, starting with the appearance of the first works on this problem in the XIX century and up to the most recent studies. The author concludes that three stages can be distinguished in the development of the study of this topic: pre-revolutionary, Soviet and postSoviet, each of which is characterized by specific features.