Отечественная история

This article examines the question of how the development of education and librarianship influenced the changing interests of readers in Russia in the second half of XIX and the early XX century. The author relies on the study of published and archival materials of the Vyatka province. The comparative analysis of the data of the Zemstvo and library statistics gives the basis to draw a conclusion about the relationship between the readers’ demand and the increase in the number of students of educational institutions.

The article analyzes the literary creativity of one of the leaders of the Socialist Revolutionary Party, Boris Savinkov. The influence of creativity on the reliability of memoirs is investigated. From the standpoint of documentary facts, the objectivity of Savinkov’s memoirs as a historical source is considered. The author explores the reasons that prompted Savinkov to write memoirs. The author investigates the importance attached to the memoirs. The influence of memoirs on his contemporaries is investigated.

The article is devoted to the study of little-known facts of the biography of the famous Soviet historian – Nikolai Mikhailovich Druzhinin. On the basis of unpublished archival materials, memoirs and diaries of the scientist, new pages in the biography of Druzhinin, which cover the period from 1886 to 1904 are presented. Family relationships, education, lifestyle – all this formed the inner world, the features of the personality of Druzhinin.

The article deals with the problem of functioning in the post war period of educational institutions of the system of labor reserves-schools of the Federal district, vocational and railway schools. The goals, methods and results of these institutions are outlined. There are marked deformities in the functioning of the system associated with the use of methods of coercion against mobilized, as well as unsatisfactory material and living conditions provided to students.

The role of Peter I in the development of Russia, including the field of education, is huge. This is recognized by all researchers. However, assessing the personality of the Converter and the results of his activities have always had deep differences. The most heated discussions took place in the XIX century. They were held by both loyal supporters and active opponents of Peter. The leading place was taken by researchers who through serious academic analysis tried to give an objective assessment of the policy implemented by the Emperor.

Based on a wide range of sources and archival materials the article analyzes the position of the Russian publisher and publicist I. A. Arsenyev on the Polish issue on the eve of the Polish Uprising of 1863–1864. Arsenyev, seconded to Warsaw in 1861 to compile correspondences, was a journalist of a new format. He not only objectively recorded the events that contributed to the escalation of the Russian-Polish conflict, but after analyzing them, outlined his vision of the problem in a special note, which aroused interest in the highest government circles.

The paper regards the experiments of Russian Internal Affairs Ministry conducted alongside with drafting bills on local management of gubernia and uezd institutions supervised by N. A. Milyutrin. The author is a pioneer in introducing the archive materials which prove that General Governor Prince I. I. Vasil’chikov, being in charge of the reforms in Kiev Gubernia, acted in accordance with the directions of Internal Affairs Ministry.

The results of the work of the first Russian cooperative congresses, their composition and size are investigated. The decisions of the congresses, which determined the direction of development of agricultural, credit, consumer, industrial, creamery and processing cooperatives, are analyzed for many years to come. Special attention in the article is paid to the reaction of the authorities to their organization and to identifying the reasons for participation in political parties in cooperative congresses.

The article considers public and political stance of one of the respected thought leaders within the Russian “first wave” emigration, a front man of the Eurasian community, duke Nickolay Sergeevich Trubetskoy. His attitude to the key issues of state-building formed under the influence of radical societal transformation in Russia has been analyzed on the basis of different sources.

The article is devoted to the analysis of American observers’ views on the status of religion in the Soviet society in the 1930s. There were two different groups among them: engineers and workers who came to participate in the industrialization of the USSR, and professional journalists from the United States. Perceiving the socio-political processes that took place in our counrty often in different ways, the American observers agreed on one position.