Vol 5, No 1 (2023)

Before you is the next, new issue of the journal History and Modern Outlook. Like every number, it is not repeatable. It is distinguished by a wide variety of topics, published works and a wide geography.

The well-established formula of «sciences and arts» contained the main principle of the knowledge structure of the eighteenth century, i.e. the combination of science and practice, science and technology, which meant a special place for the craft workshop as an experimental production space. At the same time, craft workshops, i.e. art chambers at the Academy of Sciences, turned into experimental laboratories of their time, where experimental science took shape. It marked the beginning of the industrial revolution, where fundamental (theory) and applied (practice) science in the development of industry and the entire economy played a decisive role. Peter I started a trend that is clearly visible today, which aimed to promote scientific achievements for the sphere of industry, using the creative potential of scientists, “artists”, artisans, and those referred to as technologists and engineers today. The study employs the methods of social topology.

The article examines the measures of the Russian government for the economic modernization of the city of Derbent based on the analysis of documents and special historical literature. Derbent, thanks to the measures of the Russian administration, became not only the administrative and political, but also the economic center of the North-Eastern Caucasus in 1722–1735. It is emphasized that through the efforts of the Russian authorities in the period under review, a state-owned palace farm was created in Derbent, providing supplies of wine, grapes, fruits, vegetables, etc. to the imperial court. It is stated that the work carried out by the Russian government on the reconstruction of the commercial harbor in Derbent has further intensified commercial shipping on the Caspian Sea. Derbent has entered the sphere of international transit trade on the western coast of the Caspian Sea. It is concluded that, despite the inconsistency of individual projects, the comprehensive measures of the Russian authorities for the economic modernization of Derbent as a whole have yielded tangible results.

The research is devoted to an important topic for historical, economic, and legal science, the implementation of the agrarian policy of the Soviet state in the countryside with the help of an agricultural tax in the initial period of mass collectivization. In scientific works on this problem, it can be noted that there is insufficient study of certain aspects of taxation, especially at the regional level. Therefore, the study of the main provisions of the legislation on agricultural tax and its application in the largest Ural region at that time will make it possible to fill in the existing gaps in science, to determine the place and role of taxation in collectivization. The purpose of the article is to reveal the peculiarities of agricultural taxation in the Urals in the early 1930s, to identify benefits for individual agricultural producers. The object of the study was individual peasant farms, personal subsidiary farms of collective farmers and collective farms, and the subject was the actual application of agricultural tax. The article uses both general scientific methods and historical-genetic, comparative and other methods of historical research. Taxation indicators in the Urals were compared with data for the country in order to identify the peculiarities of the region. The analysis of documentary materials showed how the authorities prioritized the taxation of the village, what a negative impact this tax had on the situation of individual farms, primarily the well-to-do. Dispossession, the decline in the production of agricultural products, the ruin of peasant farmsteads, the forced entry of peasants into collective farms that had preferences in taxation, were the result of socialist transformations in agriculture.

The relevance of the research is due to the great interest shown by the Russian society to the historical period studied in the article. The purpose of writing the work was to study the dynamics of gross production of the main types of livestock products (meat, milk and wool) by all categories of farms in the Sverdlovsk region during one of the most interesting and problematic periods in the history of the Soviet state. The novelty of the research is determined by the use of materials from three archives: the Russian State Archive of Economics (RGAE), the Center for Documentation of Public Organizations of the Sverdlovsk Region (TSDOOSO) and the Current archive of the Territorial Body of the Federal State Statistics Service for the Sverdlovsk Region (TOFSGSSO). It is emphasized that in the history of the USSR it is difficult to find such a contradictory historical period as the rule of N.S. Khrushchev. It is argued that the reforms implemented in the agricultural sector in the 1950s were insufficiently thought out and inconsistent. The authors state that N.S. Khrushchev sincerely wanted to provide food to the Soviet people, but could not find the right way for this. Attention is focused on the fact that the essence of N.S. Khrushchev's agrarian policy was the completion of the process of «defarming» and the transformation of the peasant-collective farmer into a «worker with a vegetable garden». It is proved that a number of negative phenomena, the initiation of which is reproached by the First Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee, have not been slowed down by his successors. It is concluded that it is N.S. Khrushchev became the last sincere reformer of agriculture and the economy of the Soviet Union as a whole on the basis of fully socialized property.

The debate between righteousness and benefit, which originated in the pre-Qin period, is one of the theoretical sources of traditional moral culture. «Righteousness is the benefit brought to the people» [Mozi¹, 2006: 317], which is the cornerstone of Mozi’s theory, and is a major proposition of his ethical system of «Universal Love, mutual benefit» [Mozi, 2006: 203]. From Confucianism’s «Value righteousness and belittle profit» to Mohism’s «Homogeneity of benefit and righteousness», a significant change has taken place. Mozi’s view of human interests is neither «Selflessness» nor «Profit at another’s expense» [Mozi, Mozi, 2006: 143], but rather aims at «Benefit to the state and the people» [Mozi, 2006: 273]. At a time when a socialist market economy and a society based on the rule of law are being built, the reinterpretation of «Righteousness is the benefit brought to the people» [Mozi, 2006: 317] is of both theoretical and practical significance to the critical inheritance of traditional moral culture. It has both theoretical and practical implications.

On the basis of archival materials and published sources introduced into scientific circulation for the first time, the article examines the problems of adapting technologies obtained by the USSR as a result of World War II to Soviet production conditions. A number of them have been developed as a result of cooperation between industry and research institutes, which has allowed them to find new areas of application. Thus, the Ansonite cardboard, as it was replaced in construction with other materials, began to be used for insulating plastered surfaces and water supply pipes. The publication focuses on the impact on the production process of the transition of production from TU (technical specifications) to GOSTs (state standards). In conclusion, it was concluded that the successful development of cardboard production was associated with long-term cooperation between production and research institutes, which ensured the production of new types of «Ensonite» cardboard.

One of the objectives of this study is to study the measures for the reorganization of the central military administration of the army carried out on the initiative of the highest state and military authorities in the first half of the XIX century. In the course of these transformations, a number of scientific and technical bodies were created in the main bodies of military administration, the main task of which was to develop recommendations and solutions for the qualitative improvement of the tactical and technical characteristics of domestic artillery. The article deals with some of such bodies as, for example, the «Temporary Artillery Committee», later transformed into the «Scientific Committee on Artillery», the functioning of which contributed to the transformation of the material part of the domestic smoothbore artillery and a significant increase in its tactical and technical data. The reduction of calibers, the use of the same types of shells to different types of guns of the same caliber made it possible to use the same ammunition in naval and land artillery guns. Simplification of the material part made it possible to reduce the number of heterogeneous carriages. Attention is focused on the fact that many useful reforms in the scientific and technical field of the development of domestic artillery were carried out during the management of the artillery department by A.A.Arakcheev. conducted in the first half of the XIX century. Previously unpublished archival and other little-studied sources are introduced into scientific circulation.

Already in pre-revolutionary historiography, the foundations were laid for studying the history of Armenians in the Tyumen region (S.K. Patkanov). In Soviet times, the creativity of Armenian researchers working in the Tobolsk province was studied. The formation of the Armenian Diaspora in the Tyumen region dates back to the early 90s of the twentieth century. The modern literature on the problem we are studying is numerous and diverse in nature. The history of the formation and activity of the Armenian Diaspora in the Tyumen region at the present stage is studied in an interdisciplinary way. The complex of scientific research on this topic consists of several blocks: sociological research, the works of political scientists, economists, cultural scientists and historians. A great contribution to the study of the topic is made by journalists covering the daily life and socio-political activities of the diaspora. It is possible to identify a number of problems that are raised in modern literature. The researchers note that the Tyumen region is an active participant in migration processes, being a large center receiving foreign citizens and a point of their transit movements. The works of modern researchers contain information on the history of the creation and functioning of the Armenian Diaspora in the Tyumen region.

The defeat of France in 1940 led to the fall of the Third Republic and the creation of the Petain (or Vichy) regime. It is generally believed that the coup took place on July 10, but in fact it happened on June 16, when Petain replaced Reynaud as head of the French government. Moreover, the first steps towards the coup were taken a month earlier, in the second half of May, after the appointment of Petain as deputy head of government, and several of his supporters to other key posts. This article is written in order to prove this on the basis of factual material. The content of the article also shows that, in addition to the generally recognized reasons (the country's unreadiness for a «new type of war», the strong positions of defeatists of different political orientations, etc.), the position of Britain and the United States towards France also played a role in the coup: the former, after Dunkirk, actually left France to its fate, the public opinion of the latter has not yet matured before joining the war. At the same time, the results of the work allow us to reconsider some of the existing points of view on the Vichy government: despite a number of analogies with the Nazi coup of 1933. In Germany, the Petain regime was not completely totalitarian, although it was a kind of «conservative revolution».

The article examines the personality of the leader of the Italian Communist Party Enrico Berlinguer through the prism of his formation as a communist leader, theorist and practitioner of the communist movement. The authors analyze the four most important stages in the activities of the head of the PCI. The first of these is connected with the development of a special position of the PCI in relation to the CPSU and Soviet actions in Eastern Europe; the second is due to the development of the strategy of «Eurocommunism»; the third is related to the development and implementation of the concept of «historical compromise»; the fourth is characterized by the raising of a «moral question». The authors argue that Berlinguer continued the strategic line of the founders of the ICP A. Gramsci, P. Togliatti to develop the concept of a special «Italian path to socialism». The authors consider the discussions in Italy in connection with the assessment of Berlinguer's heritage. In their opinion, the theoretical legacy and practical actions of Berlinguer played an important role in the democratic transformation of the Communist Party and in the strengthening of democratic institutions in Italy.

The review contains the analysis of the monographic study of famous Chuvash ethnographer and historian A. K. Salmin devoted to the most important events, which took place in St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences in the 18th century in connection with the study of the peoples of the Middle Volga region. At that time a number of expeditions were sent to this region, which collected considerable ethnographic material on various issues of their life activity.

The review is written for a book dedicated to the history of the formation and development of the Ural component of the nuclear weapons complex (NWC). In it, for the first time, the multifaceted history of the Ural research and production cluster, which made an unconditionally significant contribution to strengthening the defense capability of our country, was systematically studied. Through the prism of the history of scientific organizations and enterprises of the nuclear industry involved in the creation of nuclear and thermonuclear weapons, the book analyzes the events that took place for seventy-five years both in the country as a whole and in the Ural region in particular.