Abstract: The article’s research object is the formation and development of the Russian expatriate historical science in the 1920s—1940s in China, as well as the specifics of the Russian historians’ work in the Far-East. The author analyses in detail the various aspects of the contribution of the Russian emigrant scholars in China and their influence on Russian national history. The Russian emigrants fruitfully engaged in scientific research, Russian book publishing, artistic, social, cultural, academic and other types of activities in China. Particular attention is paid to the works of the Russian historians as it is through them that one can recreate the main historical epochs of Mongolia, Russia, China and other countries. Upon the examination of the scientific and socio-cultural activity of Russian emigrants-historians the author used several universally recognised methods that allow to analyse the variety of empirical information. Upon analysing the biographical data of Russian emigrants-historians the author applied the quantitative method. In order to arrive at exact and mutually verified results, the article used the comparative-historical method, which has allowed to synchronise the most important events in the development history of the Chinese historical science circle of Russian emigrants. The study’s main conclusion is the fact that Russian Russian emigrants greatly contributed to the study of history in China, and also that it is necessary to allocate attention to the study of their works as the scientific and research activity of scholar-emigrants continues to this day. The novelty of this research lies in its complex analysis of the contribution, scientific activity and contractual work experience of Russian emigrants-historians in China, thus filling the gaps in the study of the Chinese centre of the Russian emigrant historical study that formed in the Far East in the 1920s—1940s.

Keywords: émigré intelligentsia, educational activity, in China, emigrant adaptation, Harbin, department of judicial studies, Russian history, culture, historical contribution, Russian historians-emigrants

Abstract: The article’s research subject is the cultural and educational activity of mobile institutions – mobile yurts –, in Gorny Altai in the 1920s–1930s. The research object is the process of Gorny Altai’s cultural development. The author examines in detail such aspects of the topic as the particularities of the creation and work of these mobile cultural institutions (the mobile yurts) operating during the named period in Gorny Altai. The aim of the article is to analyse the study of the nature and specifics of the mobile cultural institutions’ work in Gorny Altai in the 1920s–1930s. Particular attention is given to the history of the institutions’ appearance and to elucidate its functions and tasks. The article clarifies the particularities of the mobile yurts' work under the conditions of the native population’s nomadic way of life. The study’s main research method is the systematic method. The research is also based on the principles of historicism, objectivity, unity and interrelation of the general and the particular. The main conclusion derived from the study is the ascertainment that the mobile form of work, under the conditions of sparseness and difficultness of access to the populated settlements and the nomadism of Altaians, was most suitable and fitting for work with the population of Gorny Altai. This mobile form of activity familiarised the population with the unfamiliar to it way of life and raised its general cultural standards. Additionally, these institution actively conducted ideological work, fighting against traditional prejudices and imposing communist ideals. The author’s special contribution to the research of this topic is the use of different sources, including archival material, which have allowed to study the history of creating and of the specific of the mobile yurts’ work. The novelty of this research consists in its complex analysis of the little-studied topic and introducing new concepts for scientific use.

Keywords: cultural institutions, mobile Yurts, Nomadic way of life, mobile institutions, mobile cinema, public education, ideological education, cultural transformation, Altaians, Gorny Altai

Abstract: The subject of the article’s historical analysis is the anti-Christian movement of the Slavic population in the Dniester region at the end of the 10th–second half of the 12th centuries. The study points to the fact that the Carpatho-Dniester region had played the role of the sacred centre of pre-Christian Russia. The author undertook a historical reconstruction of the events related to the confrontation between the Eastern Slavonic tribal unions and the central Kiev government during the religious reforms of the princes Vladimir the Great and Yaroslav the Wise. The article presents an analysis of the anti-Christian movement among the population of Western Russia during the second half of the 11th—12th centuries. In order to address the research questions, the author applied the chronological and analytical methodological approaches, as well as the methods of analogy, interpretative synthesis and generalisation. The research specifies for the first time in Russian historical studies the link between the anti-Christian movement in Rus during the 10th—11th centuries and the city-sanctuaries of the Zbruch cult centre, determines the time frame of the most large-scale anti-Christians manifestations that had swept through the Transnistrian region at the end of the 10th—11th centuries, and analyses in detail the punitive campaigns of the Kievan princes against their recalcitrant subjects – the Transdnestrovites. The author comes to the conclusion that the Dniester-Carpathian region was a sacred pagan centre in Kievan Rus during the pre-Christian and early Christian eras. At the end of the 10th century and the second decade of the 11th century Dniester became the epicentre of two powerful waves of anti-Christian movements in Ancient Russia and Poland. The pagan communities in Western Russia had survived and continued their fight against Christianisation up to the end of the 12th century.

Keywords: anti-Christian speech, city-sanctuary, pagan community, late pagans, priests, Carpathian-Transnistrian region, Christianisation, temples, religious confrontation

Abstract: The article reviews the topic concerning the biography of the prominent Chinese marshal Liu Bocheng – more precisely, the years of his stay in the USSR. During the 1920s the USSR invariably provided uncompensated help to the Chinese Revolution. After the cooperation between Kuomintang and the Communist Party of China (CPC) ended, the Chinese communists, in response to the white terror and massive assassinations of their party members, prepared and carried out the famous Nanchang Uprising. Because of the uprising’s defeat Liu Bocheng, being one of its main organisers, was forced to hide due to the highly dangerous situation in China at the time. In accordance with the decree of the Communist Party of China, Liu Bocheng went to the USSR to study within the framework of a military training program for the realisation of the Communist revolution in China. During his short student years in the USSR (1927–1930), first taking tactical-rifle courses with the commanding officers of the Communist International’s Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army (school "Vystrel") and later attended the Frunze Military Academy, Liu Bocheng received a systematic military education of the highest level. This education had a profound influence on his future revolutionary activities and on his theoretical outlook concerning the field of military preparation. The article’s author, using the historical-retrospective, descriptive-narrative, cause-effect and historical-typological methods, thoroughly examines the details of the life and education of the Chinese marshal within the Soviet military-educational institutions, thus reconstructing the important but little-known chapter of his life. The article’s scientific novelty consists of the fact that the author based his study above all on archival sources from the funds of the Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History (RSASPH), the Russian State Military Archive (RSMA) and memoir literature, and is one of the first scholars to scrupulously study Liu Bocheng's stay in the Soviet country. During his student years Liu Bocheng had distinguished himself with persistence and great diligence in his studies. He benefitted from an esteemed reputation and respect among his teachers and other Chinese students in the USSR. On the example of the examination of this short segment in the biography of one of the representatives of the highest military elites of China, it becomes clear how crucial the international help of the Soviet country was in creating the army of the Communist Party of China.

Keywords: Chinese marshal, biography, international aid, Chinese revolution, military training, Communist Party of China, Education in USSR, school Vystrel, Frunze Military Academy, Liu Bocheng

Abstract: The article presents new facts concerning the history behind the creation of Arseniy Sukhanov’s outstanding publicist work “the Debate with the Greeks on Faith”. The central research objects of the study are the recently found autograph of Sukhanov and the famous authorised manuscript of the Posolsky Prikaz as compared to the subsequent manuscript tradition. The author demonstrates that during the summer and autumn of 1650 the first three versions of this source were created, the last of which was circulated in December by Sukhanov himself. The article reveals the circumstances under which Sukhanov, having initiated an investigation into the case of the affront to the sovereign's honour, as a consequence was forced to reflect in the text the arguments of the debate with the Greeks, which formed the system of substantiating the primacy of the Russian Church and of tsardom in the Orthodox world. The author substantiates the conclusion that the significance of “the Debate” lay outside of the forthcoming Schism of the Church. The fate of Sukhanov and his ideas, which had a major impact on the formation of the 17th century ideology, confirms this conclusion.

Keywords: Debate with the Greeks, Patriarch of Jerusalem Paissy, Mount Athos, Russian Orthodox Church, Eastern Orthodox Church, Posolsky Prikaz, Moscow, Constantinople, New Rome, Arseny Sukhanov

Abstract: The research subject of thå article is, on the one hand, the history of the restoration corrections to the canvas of «The Battle of Smolensk» by Peter Hess. On the other hand, the article examines the practice of commemorating Russia’s military history during the period of Nicholas I. Particular attention is paid to the history of creating the «Rooms of Battle Paintings» in the Winter Palace, which centered around the named picture. The article’s object of research is the official version of the history of the Patriotic War of 1812, formulated in the 1840—50s under the direct supervision of the emperor. The methodological basis of the study is the systematic examination of historical sources (including visual) and of facts obtained from unpublished archival documents. The study’s main results consist in dating the later corrections of the picture to the first half of the 20th century and the reassessment of the painting’s role during the reign of Nicholas I. The relevance of the obtained results lies in their practical application (for museum restoration), as well as in the theoretic sphere by inciting to rethink the concept of «the people’s war» in the history of Russia during the first half of the 19th century. During Alexander’s reign this concept dominated the historiography of the Patriotic War of 1812, while during Nicholas’s rule it was substantially reformed, finding reflection in the painting «The Battle of Smolensk».

Keywords: L. I. Kihl, A. I. Mikhailovsky-Danilevsky, battle painting, Hermitage, Smolensk, restoration, Winter Palace, Patriotic War, Nicholas I, Peter Hess

Abstract: The article presents a Russian translation of M. K. Gandhi’s (1869–1948) letter to H. Polak, dated to the 14th of October 1909. In this text the Indian thinker undertakes one of the first attempts to systematise his views on the issue of the relationships between East and West. The central subject of the letter is the critique of modern society’s external attributes – technical progress, judicial system, medical institutions, etc. This makes the text similar to “Hind Swaraj” – his programme brochure, written soon after the letter. The author examines through a categorical analysis of different sources Gandhi’s key philosophical concepts of “true” and “modern” civilisations, which he created to understand the modernisation processes. For the first time in Russian scientific study the author conducted a comparative analysis of Gandhi’s early texts, which reflect his views on Eastern and Western civilisations. Taking into consideration the Western influences on Gandhi and the Western ideas explicitly and implicitly presented in his philosophy, the author of the article arrives at the conclusion that the Indian thinker was not an absolute antagonist of modernisation. While denying technical progress, Gandhi calls to turn attention from the transformation of the surrounding environment to the development of man himself. This makes his ideas similar to the personalistic tendencies in modern Western social philosophy.

Keywords: East, M. K. Gandhi, West, civilisation, dialogue of cultures, “Hind Swaraj”, traditional society, modernisation, social development, technical progress

Abstract: The article analyses the position of Russia’s creative community during the first years of Soviet rule and the events concerning the strike of the Moscow professorate which was headed in 1921 by A. D. Arkhangelsky, V. S. Gulevich, V. A. Kostitsyn, A. P. Pavlov, D. D. Pletnev, V. V. Stratonov, and supported by M. Gorky. The author studies the unfolding of the strike, the participants’ demands, and the reaction of the Central Committee of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks), the Council of the People's Commissars of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and the Ministry of Education. The author further examines the consequences of the strike that led to the creation of the Soviet model of the relationship between the intelligentsia and the government. This relationship was founded on the one hand on the cultural, judicial, socio-economic (fiscal, housing, staffing, rewarding and repressing) policy of the Bolsheviks, and on the other hand was based on the conformist position of the country’s main body of the creative community. The article analyses the activity of the Central Committee in improving the living conditions of scientists and of the attitude of the All-Union Professional Union of Workers in the Arts towards the intelligentsia, reviewing its members, qualifications, value for the Soviet government, selecting privileged groups of "specialists-communists", "heroes of labour", "honoured workers of science, technology and art". The article ends with the conclusion that despite the suppression of the creative community’s external resistance, the relationship constructed with them by the Soviet government did not withstand the test of time as it denied the main condition of its existence – intellectual freedom, which was pushed into counterculture and which eventually undermined the Soviet regime.

Keywords: higher school, strike, politics, legislation, intelligentsia, cultural revolution, conformism, Soviet Russia, culture, history

Abstract: The question of choosing the heir to the king of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth Augustus II was resolved during the reign of Anna Ioannovna. The most prominent among the contenders were the Saxon crown prince Friedrich Augustus, the former king Stanislaw Leszczynski, the Portuguese infant Manuel and one of the Polish magnates, the so-called "Piast". However, Russia’s position had undergone significant changes over time. The article examines for the first time the formative process of Russia’s outlook on the question of the Polish succession, which became the starting-point for diplomatic relations during the 1730s. The position of the Russian court is studied within the context of the foreign policies of the "great powers". The situation in the 1720s is analysed with regard to the preceding period of the Great Northern War. The article uses the comparative and historical-genetic methods. Despite the traditional opinion, the negative attitude towards the Saxon kurprinz developed only at the end of the Great Northern War in connection with the cooling between Peter and Augustus. Catherine I had sought closer ties with Saxony. Stanislaw Leszczynski, the henchman of Carl XII, was considered by Peter as a substitute for Augustus during the course of the Aland Congress and enjoyed the support of Catherine up to 1726. Only starting from the beginning of 1729 can it be said that Leszczynski began to be seen as a figure dangerous for Russia. The primary Russian candidate during the 1720s was "Piast", which was at different times played by the sons of Jan Sobieski, S. Denhoff, and M. Wisniowiecki. Their weakness forces Russian allies to seek other options. However the Russian government did not notice the futility of the "Piast". It was precisely under Peter II that the idea formed that the unacceptance of the kurprinz and Leszczynski followed the policy of Peter the Great and the state interests of Russia. This paradoxical turn, undoubtedly related to the work of A. I. Ostermann, needs to be further studied.

Keywords: Russian history, Russian foreign policy, Polish question, Polish succession, diplomacy of Peter the Great, Catherine I, Peter II, Stanislaw Leszczynski, Augustus III, 18th century diplomacy

Abstract: The article addresses the topic of the life of Caucasus emigrants in France in general and of one of its key aspects in particular: the preservation of the previous (Russian) and the reception of new (French) citizenship (1919—1939). Obtaining the French citizenship and preserving ties with their homeland during the period between the First and the Second World Wars posed for many emigrants a difficult choice. The article presents an analysis of the interrelations between the socio-political outlooks and the attitudes towards Russia, and gives a description of the fates of people from the North Caucasus and the South of Russia in emigration to France in 1919—1939. The article is based on sources chosen by the author and for the first time introduced into Russian scientific use materials from two archives: the Archive of the Police Prefecture of France (Paris, France) and the Archive of Alimardan bey Topchubashov (Paris, France). The article raises a new in Russian historiography topic: the description of the various aspects of life organisation of the North Caucasus emigrants in France, including those connected to the question of citizenship (1919—1939). Due to the author’s analysis of the collected archival material the article carries out a systematisation of the data regarding the topic of migrants’ citizenship, concerning a particular region – the Northern Caucasus and the South of Russia,

Keywords: Russia, politics, military, Cossaks, archives of France, French citizenship, Nansen passports, France, emigration, Caucasus

Abstract: The article presents an attempt at studying the little-known iconographic image of the Azov Theotokos, considered to have been irretrievably lost. The research subject is the history, iconography, and known manuscripts of the icon "the Sign of the Multitude of the World" (Azov icon of the Theotokos). The article describes the historical context and true history of the creation and historical fate of the studied icon, which is surrounded by many myths and speculations. On the basis of archival materials, art history and theological literature, and available images the authors conduct the first detailed analysis of the icon’s iconography. The research uses the following methodologies: study of theological, historical, art history literature, and examination of archival and museum material. The scientific novelty of the research consists in that this is the first detailed analysis of the Azov Theotokos icon’s iconography brought into the scientific context. Furthermore, the authors bring into the scientific art history context the image of the Vytegorskaya icon, considered to have been irreversibly gone but which was accidentally found in the Regional Studies Museum in the city of Vytegra in the Vologoroskaya region. Furthermore, the article for the first time attempts to textologically analyse the inscriptions made on the studied icon.

Keywords: emperor Peter Alexeyevich, prince Golitsyn, iconographic image, Leontiy Tarasevich engravings, Vytegorskaya Pokrovskaya Church, Kiev-Pechersky Patericon, icon drawing, Azov icon, Theotokos icon, iconography

Abstract: The article focuses on the historical role of the USSR Academy of Sciences in the advancement of scientific knowledge and development of the Northern territories of Russia, The article’s research object is the activity of the Polar Commission of the USSR Academy of Sciences. The author examines in detail such aspects of the topic as the work of the commission in studying the sub-Polar territories, its participation in the perspective economic planning and creation of permanent scientific institutions in the North of Russia. Particular attention is given to the commission’s complex expedition to the Northern Krai in 1933 – the Pechora brigade of the Polar Commission of the USSR Academy of Sciences. The research’s methodology is based on the main principles of modern historical sciences: historicism and scientific objectivity, as well as the general scientific methods: source study, analysis and synthesis, description, analogy construction. The author’s main conclusions are: the Polar Commission of the USSR Academy of Sciences carried out a large-scale project with regard to the North – a project focused on the study of a particular region, rich in energy resources, which in a certain sense determined the development direction of the region and country for the next century, and which linked the future of fundamental sciences with global national objectives.

Keywords: European North of Russia, development of academic research, creating of scientific institutions, national objectives, Pechora brigade, A.P.Karpinsky, sub-Polar territories, archival documents, Polar Commission, USSR Academy of Sciences