Vol 16, No 3 (2017)

PEOPLES OF THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE AND THE USSR

RUSSIAN PERIODICALS AT THE TURN OF THE 19TH -20TH CENTURIESON RUSSIAN MIGRANTS’ SOCIOCULTURAL ADAPTATION IN CENTRAL ASIA

Arslanov R.A., Klimashin A.L.

Abstract

In the Russian historiography, the views of the publicists of the early 20th century of the Russian colonists’ life in Central Asia aren’t duly highlighted. The novelty and aim of the research consist in revealing the general and particular in the Russian periodicals’ percep-tion of the colonization of Turkestan, in determining their ideological bent. The authors have discovered that all the reviewed periodicals were adherents of Central Asia colonization. They supported the imperial policy of the government with minor reserva-tions. Most publicists noted that the settling of colonists depended on the actions of the central government, which insuffi ciently took into account the local conditions. However, publicists differed in the choice of the main direction and in the assessments of the value of colonists’ adaptation activity; they proposed various ways of developing the intercultural dialogue.The authors come to the conclusions that liberal periodicals paid special attention to the economic activities of Russian immigrants, assessing the degree of their adaptation by the level of well-being achieved. The Narodnik periodicals considered migrants as a part of the peasant world of Russia. They were concerned, above all, about the colonists’ commu-nity, which they considered an effective means of adaptation, preserving the culture and moral qualities of the Russians. Probably, they considered it a pledge of building fair relations with the local population. Conservative and offi cial publicists viewed Russian immigrants primarily as support of the Russian government in Central Asia. That is why they paid special attention to the preservation of assimilation qualities of the Russians, the loss of which could become, in their view, an obstacle to the strengthening of the empire positions in the region.

RUDN Journal of Russian History. 2017;16(3):347-363
pages 347-363 views

PROBLEM OF LANGUAGE ADAPTATION OF THE RED ARMY SOLDIERS OF NON-RUSSIAN NATIONALITIES IN THE 1920-1930-s

Bezugolny A.Y.

Abstract

Under combat conditions, it is mutual understanding between a commander and a soldier by means of a simple language communication which becomes the cornerstone. The absence or lack of such communication may lead to excessive losses and hinder the execution of combat missions. The author for the fi rst time addresses the problem of mass conscription of soldiers from the Union and Autonomous republics of the USSR, who understood the spoken Russian speech very little or didn’t understand it at all. The author aims to fi nd out the degree of effi ciency of solving the problem of the Russian language in the ranks of the Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army (RKKA), undertaken by the Soviet leadership in the prewar years.The author has found that in order to overcome this problem, there were taken actions in two directions. On the one hand, there was training of youth of pre-military age due to the introduction in 1938 of the mandatory teaching of the Russian language in national schools. On the other hand, there was training of recruits due to the introduction in 1939 of a three-month course for the soldiers of non-Russian nationalities. The work in these two directions failed to give the desired result in a short time due to the lack of teachers, unifi ed curricula, textbooks and books in dozens of languages of the USSR peoples. The author comes to the conclusion that the emergency measures taken by the government and the military command in the prewar years proved to be ineffective due to the complexity and large scale of the problem. In turn, the unresolved language issue lowered the level of com-bat readiness of the RKKA in the war.

RUDN Journal of Russian History. 2017;16(3):364-377
pages 364-377 views

HISTORY OF REGIONS OF RUSSIA

ECONOMIC “DISCOVERIES” IN CRIMEA IN WORKS BY V. F. ZUYEV AND C. L. HABLITZ: “DEFECT IN DESCRIPTION”

Konkin D.V.

Abstract

The problem of adequate and reliable evaluation of the economic and social potential of re-gions plays a key role in the successful actions of state authorities on their economic development. The historical retrospective shows that incorrect evaluation of economic potential and erroneous shaping of perspective branches may hinder the economic and social development of the region.The works on Crimea by Vasilii Zuyev and Carl Hablitz are well-known in historiogra-phy. However, researchers are usually interested in the “illustrative” materials of theses works, which concerned the “natural history” of the peninsula; fl ora, fauna, geographic and geological peculiarities. The author analyses the works by Zuyev and Hablits from the point of view of their practical use and profi t for the regional economy at the initial stage of the region integra-tion into all-Russia economic space. The author has found that the data on Crimea collected by Zuyev and Hablitz were rather superfi cial, with incorrect evaluations of the region’s economic potential and its natural re-sources, with overestimation of its benefi ts in comparison with risks and objective diffi culties of economic transformations. In spite of their obvious shortcomings, these works were published and widely spread among the literate audience, thus shaping a fair public opinion regarding the economic perspectives of the region among the potential colonists of Crimea: Russian land-owners, offi cials, retired military men, and others.The author comes to the conclusion that these researches often contained factual errors, thus giving readers and potential colonists incorrect ideas of the economic and natural wealth of this region.

RUDN Journal of Russian History. 2017;16(3):378-399
pages 378-399 views

SIBERIAN POLICE BUREAUCRACY IN THE STATE APPARATUS OF ABSOLUTISM IN THE FIRST HALF OF THE 19TH CENTURY

Konovalov I.A.

Abstract

Based on the pre-revolutionary legislation and archive materials, the article comprehen-sively considers the process of the formation of the Siberian police bureaucracy in the early 19thcentury. The objectives of the article are as follows: the reconstruction and comprehension of both positive and negative experienceaccumulated by the prerevolutionary regional govern-ment bodies, as well as of the peculiarities of the Siberian police bureaucracy; the explanation of the nature of the interrelations between the government and the population of the outskirts of the Russian Empire; the identifi cation of those aspects in the activities of local authorities, which for various reasons rarely come into the view of researchers. The author concludes that in the fi rst half of the 19thcenturythe State administration was not separated from police activi-ties, the administrative and police authorities in the region were de facto merged. A specifi c feature of the Siberian administration was the greater autonomy of the political machinery rather than in the country’s centre. It was conditioned by the remoteness from the centre and by the absence of nobilityassociations in the region.Due to this, the controlling,judicial and trustee functions,exercised by the nobilityin the centre,in Siberia were assigned to civil ser-vants. The mainconclusion is that the powers of the administrative and police authorities in the region had their own features and were much wider than in the central provinces of the Russian Empire.

RUDN Journal of Russian History. 2017;16(3):400-413
pages 400-413 views

NEW DATA ON VICTIMS OF CHURCH PERSECUTIONIN THE USSR IN THE 1920-1930S (BASED ON THE MATERIALS OF THE VYSOKOPETROVSKY MONASTERY IN MOSCOW)

Balashova E.G.

Abstract

The article gives examples of obtaining new information about martyrs in the 20th century, namely the clergymen and parishioners of the Vysokopetrovsky Monastery in Moscow, including its abbot Archbishop Bartholomew (Remov). The new data are obtained by researching the newly discovered documents in private and foreign archives, a more thorough critical and comparative analysis of the already well-known sources, and interviewing individuals who personally knew those people, who were repressed and lived up to the second half of the twentieth century. The sources introduced into the scientifi c activities come from the private archive of his-torian Sergey Belyaev, as well as from the archives of the General Curia of the Assumptionist Congregation in Rome (the letters from Bishop Pie Eugene Neveu, apostolic administrator in Moscow in 1926-1936) and the Historic archives of the Secretariat of State. There are subjected to critical examination the investigative materials against Archbishop Bar-tholomew (Remov) and the members of the community, who in the investigation case were named members of the “Catholic group of the counter-revolutionary organization under the illegal “Petrovsky monastery”. The author refutes the conclusions made earlier by the researchers on the existence of a Catholic group in the Vysokopetrovsky Monastery, as well as casts doubt on the hypothesis on the adherence of the monastery abbot Archbishop Bartholomew (Remov) to Catholicism.

RUDN Journal of Russian History. 2017;16(3):414-428
pages 414-428 views

FOOD PROBLEM AND STRATEGIES FOR ITS SOLUTION IN VLADIMIR REGION DURING THE GREAT PATRIOTIC WAR

Tryakhov I.S.

Abstract

In the hierarchy of human needs, food takes fi rst place. Therefore the relevance of this topic during the intransient shocks. The article discusses the complexity of the food problem during the Great Patriotic War (on materials of the Vladimir region). The author examines the strategies for solving the food problem, the inhabitants of which were used in the edge of the war years. The material for the study is based on documentary sources of local supplies and memoirs of contemporaries. The author has reviled that supply of urban population with food conducted by cards, and all the inhabitants were divided into categories with different supplies. The card system is not fully secure the large mass of the population needs in food, but because they had to look for different ways of obtaining additional products. Special attention is paid to the creation of individual farms residents and farms businesses that became essential for survival of the people of that time. The study of the problem historian draws attention to other ways to ensure yourself of food the population of the region. These include assistance for the inhabitants of the cities from rural relatives, exchange things for food and work in the collective farms, that is a tempo-rary move from the city to the countryside. It was a process of reverse trend to mobilize the So-viet authorities on youth enterprise in the city. Permanent deterioration of the food situation in the war years becoming a signifi cant part of the population on the brink of survival. The author has come to the conclusion that the country’s leadership could only provide a minimum level of survival for people with any serious deterioration of the situation at the front could lead to the most dramatic consequences in the rear.

RUDN Journal of Russian History. 2017;16(3):429-444
pages 429-444 views

INTERNATIONAL CONTACTS AND RELATIONS OF RUSSIA

COMMERCIAL RELATIONS BETWEEN RUSSIA AND SPAIN IN THE EARLY 19TH CENTURY

Volosyuk O.V.

Abstract

This article examines the development of trade relations between Russia and Spain during the reign of two Spanish kings: Charles IV and Ferdinand VII. The author’s attention is focused on the agency of diplomats, who made a big advance in the formation of trading relations between the two countries. The author concentrates on Ivan Muravyov-Apostol, the Russian ambassador to Spain (1802-1805), his Spanish partner Gaspar Maria de la Nava y Álvarez de Noroña (1802-1807), and on the consuls of Spain Antoni de Colombí (St. Petersburg) and Francisco de Baguer y Ribas (Odessa). Based on their reports, which are located in both Rus-sian and Spanish archives, it is possible to trace the dependence of commercial relations from the political situation in the world, established in Europe in the era of Napoleonic wars. Their information also allows revealing the main stages of development in trading during these years and the future, observe the merchantry on the Baltic Sea and in the area of the Black Sea. Ana-lyzing these materials, conclusions about the cause of diminishing of the commercial activity between Russia and Spain during the reign of Ferdinand VII can be made. The attention of the author is also paid to the conditions, which were established for the trade of Spain´s main export product to Russia - wine, and trading of grain through the area of the Black and Mediterranean Seas, which received special progress in the beginning of the 19th century.

RUDN Journal of Russian History. 2017;16(3):445-461
pages 445-461 views

RUSSIA - MONGOLIA FROM THE 1990S TO 2016: ON THE WAY OF STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP

Ganhuyag E.

Abstract

In the article the author analyzes the development process of the interstate relations of Mongolia and Russia from the 1990s to 2016: the role of internal and external factors that in-fl uenced the Russian-Mongolian relations. The author shows that from the Declaration of independence in 1911 up to the end of the 1980s, the history of Mongolia was closely associated with the Soviet Union. With the Soviet help, Mongolia turned into a developed, modern state from a backward region of the Chinese Empire. The USSR was Mongolia’s reliable ally, the guarantor of indepen-dence and a generous sponsor. With the beginning of Perestroika, the new Russian leadership abandoned their former allies and friends, and began to build friendly relations with Western countries. Mongolia was left without support and help of its powerful neighbour. In its turn, the Mongolian leadership managed to fi nd new economic partners. Western companies began to invest in the mining industry of Mongolia. The author comes to the conclusion that the positive historical experience of the Russian-Mongolian intergovernmental relations suggests that in the current diffi cult conditions of sha-ping the new world order, Russia could provide Mongolia with considerable political and diplomatic support towards the development of the Mongolian state and bilateral relations. In the evolving political and military situation in the Asia-Pacifi c region, the author justifi es the need for further development of Mongolia-Russia relations.

RUDN Journal of Russian History. 2017;16(3):462-476
pages 462-476 views

NIGERIA - RUSSIA BILATERAL RELATIONS: PROBLEMS AND PROSPECTS

Adetokunbo A.

Abstract

In diplomacy, the interests of an individual nation largely determine the form of relations it maintains with other states. This gives credence to the notion that there is neither a permanent friend nor permanent enemy in international relations; rather, it is interests of a country which is permanent. In the pursuance of their national interests, diplomatic relations between Lagos and Moscow were formally established on November 25, 1960 soon after Nigeria’s gaining in-dependence. The embassy of the Soviet Union was established in Lagos in 1961, while Nigeria established its embassy in Moscow in 1962. On December 26, 1991 the Soviet upper chamber under the chairmanship of A. Alim-shanov (Declaration № 142-H) decided to discontinue the Soviet Union existence as a state. This was in line with the outcome of the meeting of December 8, 1991 between Boris Yeltsin (Russia), Leonid Kravchuk (Ukraine) and Stalinislav Shushkevich (Belarus) that later came to be known as the Belovezha Accords of 1991. Russia, a prominent union republic of the for-mer Soviet Union, gained international recognition as the successor to the Soviet Union which thereafter took up both the assets and liabilities of the former Soviet Union. Nigeria-Russia Bilateral Relations (NRBR) had been developing over the years and cul-minated in the visit of Nigeria’s President, Olusegun Obasanjo to Russia in 2001 and Russian President Dmitri Medvedev’s visit to Nigeria in 2009. Undoubtedly, the NRBR has had both good and diffi cult experience. This paper is an assessment of NRBR and it provides answers to the questions of the desirability and necessity of strong Nigeria-Russia diplomatic ties. Besides, it makes recommendations on how the two countries can elevate their bilateral relations to a more functional cooperation in the key and strategic sectors.
RUDN Journal of Russian History. 2017;16(3):477-490
pages 477-490 views

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