Региональная история и краеведение

The paper analyses the condition of the Volga river transportation in the beginning of the 1942 navigation and the peculiarities of its organization. The author demonstrates the outcomes of the measures on improvement of the Upper-Volga, Middle-Volga and Lower Volga Steamship Lines as well as the “Volgotanker” Steamship Line. The paper concludes on the exceptional character of transportation of cargoes, oil included, on the Volga in the period.

The article analyzes the dynamics of income and consumption of the population of the Lower Volga region during the pre-perestroika twenty years. Based on a wide range of evidence sources, we reveal the impact of the economic and foreign policy factors on the living standards in the region in 1965–1985. In conclusion, an assessment for the development level of the Soviet society in the mid-1980s is given.

The article considers unknown pages of the history of the left-bank Saratov in 1616–1674. Special attention is paid to the characterization of sources about events in Saratov during this period. For the first time, the most comprehensive list of all currently known published sources on the left bank of Saratov is presented. It was concluded that this list of sources can be significantly replenished as a result of targeted searches in the archives, first of all of the RGADA, the main funds in which these sources can be found are noted.

The article considers unknown pages of the history of Saratov since a quarter of a century after the restoration of the city at the end of the Time of Troubles on the left bank of the Volga. For the first time, a detailed chronology of all the currently known events that took place in this city in 1641–1650 is presented. The Saratov Chronicle, compiled about 120 years ago, is supplemented over the years, and the main sources on the history of Saratov of this period are also indicated.

Saratov historians have long been interested in Kostomarov’s impact on the cultural environment of Saratov. The discovery by Kostomarov of new sources on the history of the Saratov province and the presentation of his views on the features of the regional historical process stimulated the development of scientific knowledge in this area and influenced the social and cultural scene of the principal town of the province.

The article is devoted to the financial activity of the Saratov City Duma in 1839–70. The city budget, structure of income and expenses are analyzed. The author identifies the main sources of cash receipts and the course of spending. Also he explores the peculiar relationship of the municipality and the state in this area.

The article attempts to rethink one of the clichés of Soviet historiography of the great Russian revolution, known as the «triumphal March» of the socialist revolution in the country. The author, on the basis of the analysis of sources of personal origin and materials of periodicals, considers political, moral and psychological collisions, and also characteristic features of usurpation of the power by Bolsheviks in Saratov and the cities of province after October revolution.

In this article, the scientific relations of N. P. Kondakov’s Seminar (Archaeological Institute) in Prague with Saratov University and its structural subdivisions in the 1928–1936 are reconstructed on the basis of new archival documents. It is shown that in the interwar period Saratov University was drawn into the cultural orbit of the Russian Diaspora. Saratov scientists were involved in international intellectual contacts, which had different forms, and were expressed in book exchange, reviewing and quoting.

This article aims to analyze the process of preparing and holding elections to volost zemstvo of the Saratov province in 1917. The author comes to the conclusion that reform of the volost zemstvo by Temporary Government did not achieve the desirable result due to the lack of development of the legislation in the sphere of competence of volost zemstvo and the lack of financial independence of the new structure and absenteeism among peasants.

The author of the article disputes the opinion about the motives and nature of the Fedotov’s activities in Saratov in 1920–1922. Relying on official documents stored in the archives of St. Petersburg and Saratov, as well as sources of personal origin, the author shows that it is necessary to take into account not only ideological, but also vital, «mundane» motives of his behavior. The historian who was married shortly before arriving in Saratov needed to feed his wife and adopted daughter in the harsh conditions of the civil war in Russia.