Vol 3, No 3 (2021)

The paper is devoted to the study of the peculiarities of the reflection of the deaths of the first pagan representatives of the princely dynasty of Rurikovich in the minds of the druzhina (prince’s squad). The main attention is paid to the features of the position of the druzhina in the traditional society of Ancient Rus and its interaction with the princes. The author identifies the main aspects of the druzhina culture, reveals the symbolic and mythological meaning of life and especially the death of the prince in the perception of the druzhina. The paper covers the main options and complexes of actions of the druzhina in relation to the dead prince. The problem is considered on the basis of modern achievements of Russian humanities.

The article is devoted to a complex of problems associated with the participation of the Russian Orthodox church in organizing of assistance to the liberation struggle of the South Slavs during the Balkan crisis of 1875-1878. The authors analyze various aspects of the assistance of the Russian Orthodox church to the South Slavs.

The author systematizes information from archival and published sources on the formation of organizational structures of the forest industry and forestry on the example of the Penza province. He traces evolution of the formation of provincial forest committees (gubleskoms) and logging committees for railways (zheleskoms) at the regional level, as well as the expansion of the range of firewood producers due to the admission of military units and industrial enterprises to logging. The author reveals the role of temporary emergency commissions and the commissioners in destabilizing the production process in 1920-1921.

The article presents the research of the working norms and practices of the Soviet elite in the 1945-1950. The main attention is paid to the political biographies of the chairmen of Leningrad local government (Soviets). The research is based on methods of the oral history and the history of emotions; its source base includes documents from the archives of St. Petersburg, Moscow, and Crimea. The studied generation of Leningrad leading cadres came to government positions in the late 1930s, after the repressions of the “Great Terror”. The members of the Soviet elite passed the testing of their professional skills during World War II and the Blockade of Leningrad, and directed the forced postwar reconstruction of the national economy. In the late 1940s, they became victims of the so-called “Leningrad affair”.

The use of clergy in public administration was a tradition of medieval England, including in the counties bordering Scotland. The first Tudor also engaged representatives of the clergy for diplomatic missions, participation in local government and even in the military-administrative sphere. Richard Fox, Bishop of Durham, was perhaps the most striking example of such participation of prelates in government. But Fox’s special role in the affairs of the Anglo-Scottish borderland was connected not so much with his spiritual rank as with his proximity to the monarch. Here we can trace the desire of Henry VII to control the provincial administration with the help of loyal individuals who were not associated with the elites of the region.

The article is devoted to the problems of trade and economic rivalry between the Russian Empire and Great Britain in the first half of the XIX century, when the two powers were looking for adequate methods and forms of protecting their interests in Central Asia and Afghanistan. The author pays special attention to the problems of economic development and foreign trade of Afghanistan in the period under review. He examines the main objects of export and import, trade volumes, channels for the sale of goods, ethnic and confessional characteristics of merchants who participated in trade with Kabul. The role of the diplomatic service of Russia and Great Britain, travelers, scouts, merchants in collecting the necessary information about the situation in the Middle East is noted. The author focuses on the role and importance of the Central Asian khanates and merchants in promoting Russian goods to Afghanistan. The regional peculiarities of the organization of foreign trade are noted (by the example of Baloch).

The author discusses the need to expand the source base for studying the history of everyday life. It is noted that a solid pool of historiographic works has already been accumulated in this area of research. Recent publications focusing on the reconstruction of everyday life in national capitals and provincial centers contain extensive generalizations and conclusions. At the same time, almost all studies are based on various legal acts, current records, statistical materials, publications in periodicals of a relevant period, and written sources of private origin. Subjects of material culture, the «world of things» that surrounds people in their everyday life, receive much less attention as a potential source of research. The article demonstrates in what way the analysis of numerous household items, various accessories for hobbies and pastime, as well as personal care items, may contribute to a better understanding of both the material side of everyday life and the diversity of individual and group preferences, behavioral and communication styles, and value orientations of the people. The author draws a conclusion that this approach is particularly important for studying the changes in everyday life observed in critical periods in the Russian history characteristic of the early 20th century.

The Krasny Gorodok site, explored in the late 1980s, has long attracted the attention of specialists in the Neolithic. There archaeologists discovered a small but very interesting collection of ceramics. At the same time, the flint complex of the site raised several questions even at the stage of primary comprehension of the material, and researchers made assumptions about the presence of two cultural-chronological groups of flint materials in the complex of the site. In connection with the expansion of the source base on the Early Neolithic and Mesolithic of the forest-steppe Volga region, as well as the acquisition of a significant array of natural science data, it became necessary to verify the conclusions drawn by more than a quarter of a century ago. In particular, the question of the homogeneity of the flint collection of the site and the possibility of identifying an early admixture remains relevant. During the reanalysis of the flint collection of the Krasny Gorodok site, about 600 units of stone artifacts were examined. This complex was divided into two groups depending on the color and quality characteristics of the flint. The first group is represented by artifacts made of high-quality flint of gray color and its various shades. The second group includes artifacts made of low-grade colored flint, mainly brown and of various shades of brown, without a stable shape. The first group is characterized by a large orientation towards obtaining plates of a regular shape and their relatively high specific gravity (23%). In addition, this type of raw material was used to make all the angular cutters on the plates found at the site and, in general, most of the tools were made from plate blanks. The collection of tools made of colored flint is less indicative, however, one can state a lesser orientation towards obtaining plates from this type of raw material and, predominantly, their irregular shape, while few tools were made on flakes and chips. In our opinion, the marked differences between the first and second groups of stone products from the site are of a cultural and chronological nature. The first group of flint, in terms of raw materials, shape and technique of making tools and applying retouching on them, can be attributed to the era of the late Mesolithic of the forest-steppe Volga region. The second group, in terms of the nature of the raw materials and the morphology of tools, belongs to the Early Neolithic.

Understanding the issues of the historical development of Eurasia that have accumulated over many years is impossible without the equal participation of all scientific disciplines. Due to the specificity of its methods, archaeology seems to recede into the background, giving way to the natural sciences (genetics) and the most accurate of the humanities, namely linguistics. This article is nothing more than another attempt, using traditional archaeological methods, to draw attention once again to archaeological cultures located on a vast territory in the very heart of Eurasia. First of all, we are talking about the Kelteminar cultural and historical community, its relationships with neighboring communities, participation in the genesis of the Yamnaya and especially Fatyanovo cultures. Inevitably, this analysis touches upon the problems of the Proto-Indo-European (PIE) language community, its localization and areal connections.