Vol 6, No 3 (2024)

The purpose of the article is to substantiate, from the standpoint of the author’s idealistic approach, the theoretical and methodological foundations of Russian history of the 10^th–17^th centuries. It outlines both a general view of the ideological foundations of national history in a given period, and the influence of ideas on the formation of the main spheres of public, state, cultural and economic life. The ideological foundations of the history of the pagan period of the Eastern Slavs, and their impact on the life of society, the state and the individual are considered. Paganism achieved its greatest successes in agriculture and crafts; achievements in culture and art during the pagan period were small. The renunciation of paganism and the baptism of Rus' was a voluntary decision of Prince Vladimir, who ceased to believe in the former gods. Baptism is an ideological revolution that determined the history of Rus' and Russia until the twentieth century. With the adoption of Christianity, the national idea of the Russian people became the Symbol of Faith, and the ideological basis was the ideas of the Holy Scriptures. The Christian Orthodox worldview, while remaining unchanged in its main idea, changed over time in the ideas of the second and third levels, which determined the consciousness and historical actions of Russian people in the political, social, legal, cultural, economic and other spheres of life, which determined both the evolution of the worldview and the nature of the historical actions of the Russian people. The initial period of the dominance of theocentrism was replaced by pragmatism and anthropocentrism, and then by humanism and rationalism. These changes in public consciousness underlay the history of the Russian people in the 10^th–17^th centuries. The Orthodox worldview was refined and changed both under the influence of external factors, and during the struggle against heresies, and discussions about ways of development within the Church. As a result of intense creative work, the main ideological, political, and social concepts were developed that guided the church and government in their historical activities. The Orthodox national idea formed the Russian national identity by creating the Russian people and formed the social structure of society, filled the ancient Russian state with high meaning and purpose, ensured success in those areas of activity that helped medieval man achieve his main goal — the salvation of the soul, as well as the preservation of Orthodoxy, spread and protection faith.

A great Russian scholar, educator, and traveler, Academician Gerhard Friedrich Miller (1705–1783), headed the Academic Party of the Second Kamchatka Expedition and conducted extensive historical, geographic, and ethnographic studies in Siberia over ten years, from 1733 to 1743. During this expedition, he visited Yekaterinburg twice, studied its history, and examined the Yekaterinburg factories and settlements, which was reflected in the first Russian geographic dictionary, published in 1773. The history of Müller’s stay in Yekaterinburg in 1734 is reviewed in this article for the first time.

Based on a wide range of unpublished historical sources, the paper examines the functioning of the city government system during the Great Patriotic War. The paper analyzes in detail the structure of the city government, noting that it was a multi-level system that included both Party authorities (Regional Committee, City Committee) and Soviet (Regional Executive Committee, City Executive Committee, District Executive Committees). The paper pays special attention to the main directions and aspects of the activities of the city government during the war years. In particular, the paper shows what difficulties the authorities had in solving urban problems.

The article analyzes the history of preparation, the specifics of conducting operations during the Battle of Kursk, and the role of counterintelligence agencies in it is highlighted separately. The author's view on the significance and place of the Battle of Kursk in the history of the Second World War and the Great Patriotic War is presented. The purpose of the article is to continue the author's research on the problems of the history of the Battle of Kursk in the context of today's events related to its. The article was prepared on the basis of data from the Central Archive of the Ministry of Defense, archives of the Voronezh and Kursk regions, modern Russian and foreign sources. In preparing the article, the authors widely used comparative historical, historical-genetic, historical-typological methods, and also conducted a structural and functional analysis of the features of the Battle of Kursk in comparison with the realities of today.

One of the purposes of historical economics is to illustrate economic theory. At present, within the framework of the regional economy, the concept of territorial resilience is being developed. This article illustrates the process of formation of a new post-revolutionary economic mechanism, in particular, the establishment of work on monitoring and planning the economy of the Urals in the first years after the end of the Civil War. The specifics of the activities of the Yekaterinburg Provincial Council of National Economy and the Yekaterinburg Provincial Economic Conference, as well as the Ural Regional Economic Council, in the context of the transition to the new economic policy are noted. It is concluded that, despite the lack of experience, the economic management bodies of the province were able to ensure the viability of the territory and contributed to the formation of a single industrial complex of the Urals.

The article contains an analysis of the monetary circulation of the USSR in the post-war period and gives an assessment of the causes, conditions for the implementation and consequences of monetary reforms of 1947 and 1961. Their fundamental differences are indicated and the common features that emerged during the implementation are analyzed. The results of reforms in the economy and social policy of the country are presented. The article is a scientific response to the public interest in Soviet economic history, which has manifested itself in recent years and the need to use the positive experience accumulated by previous generations in the implementation of state economic and financial policy by decision-making bodies.

The paper analyzes the process of socio-cultural transformations that took place in Russia under the influence of radical restructuring of economic and political foundation of the country caused by the overthrow of monarchical regime and the beginning of construction of a socialist society. The paper shows that Yekaterinburg (since 1924 — Sverdlovsk), being a large urban center, was objectively involved in the cycle of revolutionary events and learned all the positive and negative consequences of perturbations associated with the cardinal reform of fundamental cultural spheres of the city. The paper notes that hardships of Russian revolution, horrors of Russian civil war and difficulties of the initial stage of building socialism had a huge impact on the formation of new models for development of literature, theater, cinema, fine arts and music. They also strongly influenced the creative activity of urban artistic intelligentsia and the content of its works. The paper concludes that after several changes of power, Bolsheviks established themselves in the city, in accordance with the directives of the top leadership, sought to create a «new type of culture» that increases cultural level of the population under state control. Therefore, in the end, they limit the «freedom of creativity» inspired by revolutionary illusions, ideological and administrative dictates.

The article analyzes the coverage of the «German CHK» case, which was considered by the Supreme Court of Weimar Germany in 1925, in the local press. which was considered by the Supreme Court of Weimar Germany in 1925 in the local press of the USSR. The subject of the study is the materials of local newspapers' publications. Attention is paid to the style and tone of the materials placed in the regional press on the event in question. It is noted that the publications may have had discrepancies in the presentation of individual details and facts in the coverage. The author notes that the Soviet press during the period under review followed the process quite closely. This is especially noticeable when considering the publications in February–March 1925. The newspapers described in detail the details of the interrogations of the defendants, noting the particularly negative role of the police during the preliminary investigation and the judge presiding over the trial. The reader was led to believe that the trial was intended to divert the attention of the German and foreign public from political scandals in which representatives of the ruling parties were involved. As a result of the review, the author concludes that local periodicals actively contributed to the formation of the citizens of the USSR, by all possible means, both verbal and visual, a negative attitude to the policy of bourgeois parties, to the institutions of judicial power of Weimar Germany.

The article deals with the transformations of the central management bodies of the army and reforms in the field of artillery management and scientific and technical work. The management of scientific and technical work in the field of improving artillery weapons, equipment and ammunition, as well as their production in the first half of the XIX century was entrusted to various scientific and technical bodies that changed their name, organization and range of tasks assigned to them. One of these bodies in the period under review was the «Artillery Department of the Military Scientific Committee», which was tasked with monitoring scientific and technical activities in the field of improving artillery weapons, equipment and ammunition and their production. It is noted that one of the directions that contributed to the dissemination and improvement of special knowledge by officers and non-commissioned officers of artillery units was the publication and distribution of the «Artillery Magazine», the publication of which resumed after 1812 in 1839. It is concluded that the Artillery Department received from various sources many different proposals for new models of artillery weapons, equipment and ammunition, and methods of their combat use, as well as scientific and technical literature published abroad, according to which the department should prepare reasoned conclusions about the possibility or impossibility of using them in Russia, about the advantages and disadvantages of foreign publications. Previously unpublished archival and other little-studied sources are introduced into scientific circulation.

One of the most important subjects of the economic policy of the CPSU in the 1970s was the introduction of scientific and technological progress in production. There was a detailed mechanism for implementing such measures. It was well thought out and scientifically substantiated. However, the implementation of such measures did not give the expected effect. In the article, using the example of a single enterprise — the Grodno Chemical Fiber Plant, it is described how and why such a mechanism did not work effectively.

The review analyzes a recently published monograph by N. S. Volkovich, an ethnographer from St. Petersburg, devoted to the pre-wedding rituals of the Chuvash people living in the Chuvash Republic and beyond its borders in the Samara and Ulyanovsk regions, the Republic of Tatarstan, St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region. The research is based on the analysis of materials covering the period from the early 18th century to the present day.

The author of the article continues the research devoted to historical education in the USSR, presented through the prism of school textbooks on the history of the USSR, published in the first half of the 1960s, and the fate of their authors. Particular attention is paid to the discussions of the late 1950s and early 1960s. about the structure of the history course at school and the textbook competition held in 1960. The editorial changes made to the textbooks of the “Stalin” era, and developed by the Institute of History of the USSR Academy of Sciences, and the content aspects of the new textbooks are considered. The difficulties of the authors in working on educational publications published under the ideological control of the CPSU Central Committee are shown.