Vol 2, No 1 (2020)

The article contains the results of studying the activities of the Orenburg Governor-General’s office in 1865-1881. The author identifies several areas of activity of the personal secretariat of the Governor-General, characterizing its structure, which included several departments: border, economic, irregular troops, civilian, and secret. Each department had its own list of functions. The author attempts to analyze the power of Governor-General in the period under review. She singled out officials of special assignments and the head of the chancellery into a special group of employees of the office of the Governor-General, and assigned them to the number of officials who influenced the decision-making process of the Orenburg Governor-General.

The article is devoted to the study of the Russian-Danish (Russian-Norwegian) state border that was located near the Varangerfjord. The author confirms the fact of the state border’s existence in the middle of the 16th century and correlates the status of the border with the status of Russian-Danish joint taxable district frontiers. He highlights the differences in the perception of the Russian-Danish (Russian- Norwegian) state border by various circles of Russian authorities.

The author explores the possibilities of reconstruction of the Russian city (on materials from Astrakhan) of the late XIX - early XX century based on access to photo documents. Using visual sources, she reveals the characteristics of the city as an integral economic, cultural, infrastructural, and everyday life space of society. The article contains an analysis of the approaches to the characterization of Astrakhan as a city with a certain social and confessional composition of the population, the possibilities of cultural and leisure practices, and the diversity of economic activity.

The article is devoted to the evolution of the place occupied by local history in the Soviet school curriculum. The author traces the main stages of this evolution which were linked to the development of the country. He comes to the conclusion that it was the experience of the Soviet period in the development of local history that served as the basis for introducing «regional component» in the contemporary Russian school education.

The article is devoted to the history of studying of the archaeological sites of the Stone Age (Upper Paleolithic and Mesolithic) in the Mari Volga region. The author emphasizes the role of Mari Research Institute, Leningrad branch of the Institute of the Archaeology of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, and Kazan branch of Academy of Sciences of the USSR (A.Kh. Khalikov, G.A. Arkhipov, A.N. Rogachev, K.S. Andrianov, V.V. Nikitin etc.) in the discoveries of the sites of the ancient peoples. 400 Mesolithic sites were discovered in the Mari Volga region as a result of the work of the Mari Archeological Expedition, including 140 sites with the remnants of ancient buildings.

It is the first time that the transversal grooved artifacts, better known in the literature as «utyuzhki» («small ironings»), found in the layers of the archaeological site Kordon Miassovo 1, are introduced to the scientific world. The archaeological site is located in the Chelyabinsk region on the shores of Big Miassovo lake in the forest zone of the eastern spurs of the Urals. The materials of Kordon Miassovo 1 are multi-temporal and cover the period from at least the Neolithic era to the XIII-XV centuries AD. Transversal grooved artifacts from the collection of Kordon Miassovo 1 are represented by three whole products and one broken in half product. Three of these objects can be definitely included in the category of classic «utyuzhki» by all morphological characteristics (shape, ornament). The fourth artifact, also with a transversal groove, is less typical morphologically: it is not elegant in its shape, devoid of ornament, there is a visible negligence (incompleteness) in its manufacture. It more closely resembles an object not of cult, but of economic (household) purpose, but it is difficult to determine what its function was. The stratigraphic occurrence of the third of the described «utyuzhki», close to the vessel of the Poludenskaya culture of the Late Neolithic era, uniquely determines the time of its existence. There are few such indisputable facts of the connection of «utyuzhki» with specific archaeological complexes (cultures) in the Trans-Urals. It is really difficult to date the remaining exemplars, however, they should most likely also be correlated with the Neo-Eneolithic stage of the functioning of the archaeological site. The traces in the form of chips, scratches and potholes on the products, as well as the presence of «utyuzhki» in the layers of short-term seasonal sites may indicate the utilitarian purpose of these artifacts.

The article contains the historiographical analysis of studying of the archaeological complex Zolotarevka fortified settlement, an unique source of information about medieval civilizations. The studying of the materials of this settlement allowed to fill the gaps in our knowledge about economic, political, and cultural relations between Ancient Russia and Volga Bulgaria. In addition, this settlement was subjected to the invasion of the Mongols in Eastern Europe, which led to disastrous consequences. A large number of tools, craft products, and weapons allow to trace the evolution of material culture from the 8th to the 13th century. That’s why Zolotarevka fortified settlement may be considered as a significant monument of the medieval history of Eastern Europe.