Vol 21, No 4 (2022): To the 100th Anniversary of the Formation of the USSR

The correlation between the categories of rational and irrational in the philosophy of the Enlightenment and classical Marxism, which found its embodiment in Russia in the form of Bolshevism (Leninism), is studied. The authors identify that rationalism as a kind of "mythology of Reason" arose in the Enlightenment era and reached its apogee in the Great French Revolution and German classical philosophy. Despite the fact that in a number of works of classical Marxism heuristically valuable ideas were put forward to reformulate the problem of the essence and correlation of the categories of ration-al and irrational, rationalism prevailed in the understanding of reality and practices of the first years of the October Revolution. This found expression in the works of V.I. Lenin, in the socio-political and spiritual atmosphere of revolutionary Russia, which had far-reaching consequences for Soviet society. This phenomenon paved the way for the state-political mythology of Reason and its fetishization, the mystification of science (which, like magic, "can do anything"). These rationalist schematisms penetrated deeply into all forms of mass consciousness and gave rise to the cult of Reason, on the basis of which all spheres of life of Soviet society were supposed to be transformed.

The study is devoted to the analysis of the process of formation of the Soviet system of school education in the 1920-1930s. The policy of the Soviet government in this area and its specific results are also considered. The authors find out that the experiments, carried out in the course of reforming education, were accompanied by both positive and negative paradigms. Of the positive results that were already observed by the end of the 1920s, the quantitative changes, marked by an increase in the number of educational institutions, as well as the number of teachers and students, stand out in particular. Of the positive results that were already observed by the end of the 1920s, there particularly stand out the quantitative changes marked by an increase in the number of educational institutions, as well as the number of teachers and students. Also progressive, although slower, was the strengthening of the material and technical base of schools. Large-scale transformations related to the destruction of the old Russian school and the construction of a new Soviet school took place against the backdrop of important historical events (the Civil War, famine, industrialization and collectivization, etc.), which influenced the course of the modernization processes. Along with objective factors, the development of the educational sphere was also affected by subjective reasons: the dissatisfaction of the population with certain measures in the field of schooling, the conservative views of the peasant population, etc. As a result, in the early 1930s, the course of the Soviet government with regard to the general education school was revised. In order to correct the mistakes made, the Soviet government had to return to the traditional class-and-lesson system. In the 1930s, there increased the budgetary financing of the school education system. The policy pursued allowed the Soviet state to achieve noticeable results in improving literacy of the population, quantitative expansion of primary and secondary education, qualitative improvement of the level of education in general.

US policy in Central Asia is a topical issue that causes discussions among researchers. One can't help wondering about the origins of this policy, particularly during the Cold War era. This, in turn, leads scholars to question the U.S.'s role in the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the formation of independent states in the former territory of Soviet Central Asia. This article discusses the effectiveness of American propaganda services operating in Central Asia during the Cold War. The most prominent structure which tried to influence political sentiments of population of this region was Radio Liberty (RL). It consisted of former Nazi collaborators during World War II, and Soviet propaganda apparatus used this situation. RL used the concept of a united anti-communist Turkestan which was unacceptable for real situations in Soviet Central Asia. Jamming and the lack of feedback from listeners made great obstacles for activity of RL in this region. That is why the author attempts to prove that the effective-ness of this activity was not so great as its financial support. Using archives of Russian and American security services and documents of Central Asian archives, future scholars will have the possibility to clarify this conclusion.

The involvement of Kalmyk princess Anna Taishina in the process of baptized Kalmyks fitting into the economic, political and administrative-legal space of Russia is examined. Based on extensive documentary data, the author notes that the formation of a separate Kalmyk principality on the Middle Volga was the consequence of the Russian policy of Christianization and purposeful settlement of baptized Kalmyks outside the Kalmyk Khanate. The transfer of territories with a special ad-ministrative status to a sole female administration, albeit being under strict government control, is the only example in the history of Tsarist Russia. In the chronicles of the mid-1720-1730s Anna Taishina was mentioned solely in connection with the active political activities of her husband, Pyotr Taishin, and the interest of the Russian authorities in his services. A. Taishina was granted authority not due to coincidence: it was not only the unexpected death of her husband and the absence of high-born off-spring among the baptized Kalmyks, but also the desire of the Russian government to settle baptized Kalmyks in the remote territory. Within the short period of A. Taishina's reign, there were laid the foundations of the administrative-territorial structure of the Kalmyk settlement, its power structure and order of administration, economic and social development. The high legal status of the Kalmyk princess was evidenced by the transfer of the Kalmyk settlement to the Collegium of Foreign Affairs. It is confirmed that all innovations supported by the government were carried out on the initiative of Anna Taishina, or the Stavropol commandant, but always considering her opinion. The conclusion is that the order that took shape during the life of Anna Taishina set the vector for the development of the Kalmyk settlement until its abolition in 1842.

The authors analyze the activities of Iran's consular services in the Caucasus, their role in Russian-Caucasian diplomatic relations, in particular, in the processes of Iranian labor migrants’ adaptation to host societies. The authors aim to expand historical knowledge of Iranians’ staying in the Caucasus, to restore a complete picture of the history of migration processes in the region. There are revealed the features of Iranian-Caucasian diplomatic relations in the pre-Soviet period, the situation of migrants and their legal support, the activities of the consulates in preserving the Iranian cultural identity, internal and external problems in Iran’s consular services. There have been introduced into scientific use the documents of political and consular missions of Iran in the Caucasus for 1905-1911 stored in the Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic of Iran, materials of Iranian periodicals of the period under consideration, as well as the personal files of the vice-consuls stored in the Persian Table Foundation (f. 144) of the Archive of Foreign Policy of the Russian Empire. They made it possible to determine the significant contribution of consular services to the development of diplomatic relations between the two countries. The conclusion is made about the greatest success of these relations in the Terek region, which is due to the favorable conditions of its developing economy for labor migrants and such subjective factors as the personal qualities of a number of vice-consuls, the level of their interaction with the Russian authorities. The activities of the vice-consuls successfully combined the promotion of the incorporation of migrants into the Russian economy and culture with the creation of conditions for the preservation of Iranian cultural identity.

The author proposes a new historiographic approach which is based on the identification of the essential lines of the historiographic split without dividing the works according to the disciplinary principle. The author connects another historiographic turn in the study of the phenomenon of Sovietness with the expansion of the source base and, above all, with the appeal to mass personal sources, in particular, letters to the authorities, which, due to the representation of different social groups, make it possible to clarify the process of establishing new Soviet values and, accordingly, existing historiographic conclusions, as well as to verify the theoretical and methodological foundations of modern research. The analysis showed that with all the variety of theoretical and methodological approaches, the idea of the dual nature of the phenomenon of Sovietness and the appeal to “greater meanings” seems to be the most promising one, and mass sources contribute to the transition from the study of the abstract Soviet man to the study of “homo soveticus” in all the diversity of his life at different stages of history.