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Keywords: The Food Commission; the Military Council of the Leningrad front; the blockade of Leningrad;1942
In the article based on archival materials, it is considered the history of creation and the initial phase of functioning of the Food Commission of the Military Council of the Leningrad front. The work of the Commission has not received full coverage in the historical literature up to present day. The authors show how in the most dramatic period of the siege of Leningrad in the winter 1941/1942 the distribution of scarce food supplies in the besieged by enemy troops city was carried out. The article presents the personnel of the Food Commission, which at its inception in January 1942 included: the Second Secretary of the City Party Committee A. A. Kuznetsov; authorized representative of the State Defense Committee on the food supply of the Leningrad front and the city’s population D.V Pavlov, the Chairman of the Leningrad City Council P. S. Popkov, and the Chairman of the Leningrad Regional Council N. V. Solovyov. The Commission received the right to deal with all issues related to the increase in the consumption of food for both civilian and military organizations as a whole, and individuals. At the same time, the Commission was to proceed from the limit set by the Military Council of the Leningrad front. Throughout 1942, the Commission meetings were attended by the Secretary for Trade and Industry of the Leningrad Party Council P. G. Lazutin, as well as Deputy Chairman of the Leningrad City Council and head of the Department of trade I. A. Andreenko. According to the authors, the activity of the Food Commission in 1942 was aimed at supporting the social and professional groups vitally important in the city’s surviving; those whose work had great impact on the fate of the besieged city: industrial workers, managers of plants and factories. At the same time, the Commission gave support to a rather narrow layer of prominent scientists and cultural figures.
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Keywords: Soviet POW; Norway; 1941–1945; memorials; Soviet soldiers; Soviet-Norwegian relations
The article examines the history of the Soviet POWs, who were transported to the German concentration camps in Norway in 1941–1945. The author points to about 100 000 people, sent by the German authorities in the Norwegian camps, of which about 90 000 were prisoners of war, and the rest - the civilian population, which had been taken out by the Nazis from occupied Soviet territories. Soviet prisoners of war were forced to work in the construction of various facilities, including the railway in northern Norway and highway infrastructure. There were four main camps (Stalags), each of them provided labor force to the building projects in various regions. All works were supervised by German military construction organization Todt. The author emphasizes that Soviet prisoners of war were kept in appalling conditions: they suffered from cold in the harsh climate of Norway, from hunger, poor sanitation, medical care’s lack. It was impossible to fix POWs up after hard work because of short commons. What is more, specific ill-treatment of Soviet prisoners of war was justified by the racist ideology of German Nazism. Soviet POWs were punished ruthlessly for attempts to escape as well for the slightest resistance and disobedience. The Geneva Convention of 1929 was no help to Soviet POWs, since Soviet Union had never ratified it. Such factors as prisoner’s ethnicity, nationality of the guards at the prison camps and the guard’s attitude towards prisoners, and whether they belonged to the Vlasov’s liberation Army or not, became very important for Soviet prisoners’ living conditions in the camps and the treatment. Norwegian people displayed sympathy and care for the abused prisoners. Many people gave them food and clothing, encouraged them with smiles and showed that they were friendly. Locals also assisted prisoners during theirs escape, at great risk to their own lives. Author focused on the problem of preservation of historical memory and described the place which memory about Soviet POWs taken in the social memory of the Norwegian people, how the attitude of society and the state to these pages of the mutual history changed. Government policy is often determined by foreign factors, especially in the era of the Cold War, while the citizens, especially in the northern provinces, have kept the memory of Soviet prisoners of war. The situation changed in the 1990s. The increased interest in the topic of scholars and public has given rise to projects for the creation of a unified database of Soviet prisoners of war in Norway and international cooperation in this field.
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Keywords: Leningrad; new economic policy (NEP); consumer credit; pawnshop; money loan
Article is dedicated to the activity of Petrograd-Leningrad pawnshops in the first post-revolutionary decade. The activity of the establishments of consumer crediting in the first post-revolutionary years is investigated in the first time in historiography. For the case study author used documents and statistical materials from several archive funds for the central Public Archive of Saint-Petersburg, normative-lawful reports, sources of personal origin. And it is shown that pawnshops played large role in the survival of population in the social cataclysms 1917–1919, especially for the so-called “byvshie”. But credits and loans were received as the elements of bourgeois economic mechanism by the Soviet regime. It became the reason for the municipalization of the pawnshop matter in Soviet Russia in 1919. The creation of joint-stock pawnshops since the beginning of the NEP did not change their economic nature. They worked as social establishments and they were called attend only poor population. Citizens employed the obtained moneys for the daily needs. The data about the postponements of the return of loans and a constant increase in the period of the use of loan testify about the low solvency of the clients of Leningrad pawnshop. The guarantee activity of population is tall during all 1920s. But especially pawnshop credit was claimed under the conditions of social and economic crises. The maximum number of contributions was necessary on 1928 – the year of the coagulation of NEP and worsening in the material position of workers. The investigation makes it possible to come to the conclusion, that the majority of the families of residents of Leningrad used the services of pawnshop. Thus, the pawnshops justified their name «of banks for the poor» in the first post-revolutionary decade.
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Keywords: Otdel pechati; Central Committee apparatus; book publishing; 1920s; politics
This article examines a series of on-going debates between Viacheslav Molotov and the staff of the Central Committee’s Press Department (Otdel pechati) about that body’s responsibilities and powers regarding the Soviet book publishing industry during the 1920s. Molotov wanted the Otdel pechati to focus on a specific set of tasks that revolved largely around Central Committee initiated campaigns. The staff of the Otdel pechati maintained that campaign goals could only be attained through a more general regulation of the publishing industry, which required the Otdel pechati’s oversight. This set off a series of confrontations between Molotov and the Otdel pechati’s staff about that organ’s proper functions and powers over non-party institutions, as Molotov insisted that the Otdel pechati focus its efforts narrowly on the tasks it was assigned, and its staff tried to use its authority to bring order to what they saw as a chaotic publishing industry. These conflicts likely contributed to the Otdel pechati’s reintegration with the Agitational-Propaganda Department in 1928. This subject provides insight into several important aspects of Soviet rule, such as the evolving relationship between central party and state institutions, the function of the Central Committee apparatus, and the ways Molotov and Stalin manipulated that apparatus for political gain during the mid-1920s. It also considers whether or not the later establishment of the Central Committee apparatus as the apex of Soviet power was inevitable.
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Keywords: AGSh; Red Army; “reds”; “whites’; teacher
“Double shifters” in the history of the “second Russian Troubles” by the start of the last century — a phenomenon all the more remarkable that it affected members of the intellectual elite, as the Russian Imperial Army, and the Red Army — the graduates of the Academy of General Staff (AGSH, “General Staff”). For a very brief historical period of these characters (there were more than 20) were able by starting the service in the camp of the “red”, then served a certain period at the “white” and then come back again to serve in the Red Army, and even make the latter a very decent career. The hero of our article is the General Staff, Lieutenant-Colonel Alexander Dmitrievich Syromyatnikov. After a short period of teaching military sciences in AGSH of the Red Army in the spring — not later than the 23–24 July 1918 resulting in the evacuation AGSH from Ekaterinburg to Kazan Syromyatnikov not just happened in the service of the “white” camp in the east of the former empire, and was later one of the authors and active participants in the Kolchak`s coup in Omsk, November 18, 1918. With the collapse of “kolchakovshina” he returned to serve in the Red Army and not only was no immediately shot by the Bolsheviks as “former Kolchak,” but did have in “red” camp in the beginning a very successful career in the military educational system, becoming the head of a very prestigious regional military school — Higher Military School of Siberia.
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Keywords: Leningrad Oblast; Karelian Isthmus; Ingrian Finns; forced migrations; Karelian fortified district
The paper deals with insufficiently explored episode in the history of forced migrations in the Leningrad oblast — resettlement of population from the border zone of the Karelian Isthmus in 1936. It is proposed to separate the two resettlement action in the territory with the Soviet-Finnish border area — the selective eviction of 1935 within the entire border zone of the Leningrad oblast, and continuous cleaning of the border zone of the Karelian Isthmus in 1936. The immediate prerequisite for this event was a massive fortification in the Karelian Isthmus state border area. The paper provides the first documented information on resettlement organization, on the evacuated zone limits, on the number of evicted (3.3 thousand households, 12–13 thousand people), some data on their areas of settlement, legal status and fate. Resettlement action that affected residents of the Karelian Isthmus of all nationalities, for several reasons most affected Ingrian Finns. The ethnic minority has lost a significant part of the traditional settling territory and about 7–9 % of Finns began diaspora scattered throughout the eastern districts of the region (now mostly included in the Vologda oblast). The paper provides information on the preparation of a further evacuation of civilians from the Karelian Isthmus. However, due to requiring further study the reasons these plans were not realized, and after the Soviet-Finnish war no longer need to implement them. However, the exclusion zone near the former border has existed unchanged until 1947, and remained significantly reduced later.
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Keywords: I. M. Zaltsman; biographical myth; Kirov plant; “Leningrad affair”; mythologization; tank industry
The article is devoted to the formation of a biographical myth of the famous Soviet tank-builder Isaac Zaltsman. Based on the memoirs, artworks, materials of the press and Internet the stages of formation of an image of Zaltsman prevalent in public consciousness are revealed. In this process it is possible to extract Stalin’s, “ottepel’s”, “zastoy’s”, “perestroika’s” and the modern periods, which are distinguished by the different folding and existence of the myth, sources and discourse. Glorification Zaltsman began during the Great Patriotic war and was conducted both by the official propaganda and by means of rumors and legends, which were widely distributed by himself. Removal of Zaltsman from a position of the director of the largest plant and an exception of the party in 1949 for real faults laid the foundation for his dual perception. For some he turned to the innocently injured hero, but for others to the bureaucrat who received deserved punishment. During the period of the “ottepel” Zaltsman restored in the party, but his name remained under unofficial ban, and he became the prototype of the negative character of the popular novel and movie. It was only during the period of “zastoy” due to anniversaries, to his colleagues and the support of the creative intelligentsia his name once again became public. But the final “return” of Zaltsman happened during the “perestroika», when with the help of his friends, acquaintances and journalists he spread the legend that suffered because of the “Leningrad affair”. This legend completely corresponded to public inquiries, was accepted as the truth and became a basis of the biographical myth, which is now widely circulated in the press and the Internet. Scientific researches about Saltzman’s activity appeared in the late 1980s. But, despite the fact that scientists came to quite critical evaluations of Zaltsman, in the mass consciousness of his glorification and mythologizing continue.
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Keywords: The Great Russian revolution; emigration; B. Engelhardt; memories; Civil war; commandant of Petrograd; return to Russia
On materials from the Department of Manuscripts of the National Library of Russia, this article examines the 1940s life of a significant person from the beginning of twentieth century, B. Engelhardt. Prior to 1917, Engelhardt was known as an experienced military commander, and as a member of State Duma of the Russian Empire and the General Command of the Defense. During the February Revolution he became one of the most important people of Petrograd for a few days as he held the position of city Commandant in the revolutionary capital. In the years of the Russian Civil War he fought for Whites and then fled the country with Wrangel in 1920. As World War II began, he refused to leave independent Latvia, where he had lived with his wife for a few years. With the Soviet invasion, Engelhardt thus returned to his homeland, where he was immediately jailed and then sent into to exile. Only in 1947 was he allowed to return to Riga. To support himself and his wife, he worked anywhere he could. The couple still did not have enough money, and they were refused in state pension. Despite this, Engelhardt did not fall into despair; he worked until he was eighty years old. In the 1940s, he began to write his memoirs. These include a detailed, second part entitled “Revolution and Counterrevolution”, which he tried to publish in one of the history journals for the anniversary of the October Revolution. The article examines two typewritten versions of his memoirs and several handwritten drafts of single chapters, which show how carefully Engelhardt edited their text over some twenty years. His memoirs in their entirety were never published during his lifetime; only fragments were published in several issues of the "Voenno-Istoricheskiy journal" (Journal of Military History) in 1964.
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Keywords: environmental history; urban history; anthropogenic and technogenic load on the natural environment; city services; protection of nature
The authors identify two main stages in the environmental history of typical regional capitals of Russia. The first is called sanitary-ecological stage. It was a continuation of the development is not yet obsolete by the beginning of 20th century features of traditional agricultural city. Its main characteristic was the depletion of traditional natural environment on (almost complete felling of the forests within the city limits, the shallowing of the rivers that flowed through the city), the pollution of urban areas waste long continuing agricultural production within the city limits, as well as household waste. A special test of strength for the city services have been the circumstances of the periods of the First World War, the Civil war and the Great Patriotic war. These circumstances revealed insufficient capacity of city services to sustain in the extreme conditions of normal sanitary conditions. The second stage is called technogenic-ecological stage. The main manifestation of the negative impact of human society on the environment was the pollution of the cities not only industrial emissions, but also waste of city services (thermal power enterprises, urban transport, sewerage, etc.). The article emphasizes that in cities like Penza, Ryazan, Tambov the first period lasted until the 1960-s. In 1960–1980-ies were dominant anthropogenic pressures of industry and city services. In the 1990-s, with the decline of industrial production the biggest environmental problems generated in the enterprises of city services. At the end of 20th century there appeared new means of control over urban environment. Such funds as would have stressed the urgency of ecological problems, historic medium-sized Russian cities, which combined the remnants of traditional pre-industrial nature exploitation and the contradictions of contemporary urbanization.
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Keywords: France; Paris; Russian travelers; memories; diaries; mentality
The article describes the history of Russian tourism in France since the end of 19th century until the First World War, the period when France was the most popular destination of Russian tourism. The research is based on travel notes, diaries and memories left by the Russian visitors to France and gives us an idea of the various aspects of a Russian trip to Europe in the early 20th century. Its most part has not been published before. The Russian travelers came from the different social strata of the Russian Empire and reported in their notes about the transport conditions, material costs, theaters, museums, shops and other popular tourist facilities, as well as about the daily life of Parisians. Russian travelers often described the French mentality, French behavior, traditions and culture and compare them to Russian mentality and lifestyle. The historical sources reflect established stereotype perception of France by Russian travelers and testify the stereotype creation process in their minds. Travelers’ notes record in different forms the trip conditions to France and leave us a cross-cultural picture of the French and Russian spiritual life at the turn of 19th and 20th centuries, and represent a significant source for the history of Franco-Russian alliance.
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Keywords: memoires; intellectuals; meetings at Berdyaev’s; Nicolai Berdyaev; Pierre Pascal; Jenny Rusakova; Lidia Berdyaeva; Russia; France
This paper analyses the way two intellectuals, Nikolai Berdyaev and Pierre Pascal met and lived a friendship relation. They first met in April 2nd 1918, the Russian thinker Berdyaev invited Pascal at his home, during one of those traditional Tuesday evenings that he used to organize. Before Berdyaev’s exile from Russia, they met each other again only once, in January 8th 1920, Pascal left a detailed account of this in his diary. This report from Pascal nevertheless is different compared to the article “Evening at the counterrevolutionaries” written by propagandist Pascal for the Western for propaganda booklet called “In Red Russia”. Later, they saw each other and were welcomed again in France, when in March 1933 Pascal returned from Russia with his wife. As Lidia Berdyaev’s memoirs and testimonials attest, the couple became accustomed to Berdyaev’s Sundays in Clamart. Nevertheless, after 1938 they relationship declined. Pascal who knew the Soviet reality from before leaving the USSR could not accept Berdyaev’s fanatical patriotism and naive pro-Soviet ideas. Despite of this, Pascal did not exclude Berdyaev’s philosophical work of his scientific interests. The paper presents how the French appreciated at its true value, the various works of the Russian thinker. Pascal’s memoirs “My Russian newspaper”, Pascal’s work on the Berdyaev and those published in French mentioning him; Pascal’s personal documents or correspondence preserved at the French archives are the basis of this article. All these materials, translated for the first time in Russian, make an addition to Berdyaev information fund at the Russian State Archive of Literature and Arts.
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Keywords: paganism; field research; non-traditional religious Rodnoverie; identity; institutionalization; Kupala day
The study is based on data derived during the of questioning the ordinary members of modern pagan communities. From 17 to June 23, 2014 members of the research laboratory «New religious movements in modern Russia and Europe,» Nizhny Novgorod State Pedagogical University Kozma Minin conducted a survey with the the ordinary members of modern pagan communities who gathered to celebrate Ivan Kupala festival. This article shows the results of the «factual» questionnaire block. The purpose of block was, first, to determine the status of the community attending the Ivan Kupala celebration, and secondly, to determine the religious views of representatives of paganism the 21th century. The article also discusses the data from the «institutional» block. The main objectives of the research question block N 2 is to identify functional as the pagan community as a whole, and individual community leaders in particular. A special place «of institutional» block is the question of the prospects and forms of interaction of modern pagans with the state institutions. Based on these data, the authors analyze the religious and organizational identity neo-pagans, perspectives and forms of interaction «Rodnovers» with state institutions, considered a functional way of the pagan leaders.
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Keywords: Russian revolution; Germany; World War I; secret service; intelligence
Publication of the historical sources
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Keywords: Volunteer Army; White Army; Red Army; Civil war; Russian revolution
Publication of the historical sources
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Keywords: Military Oaths; Civil War; White Army; Red Army; Russian revolution
Publication of the historical sources.
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Keywords: Antibolshevik Movement; Denikin; Filimonov; White Army; Civil war
Publication of the historical sources
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Keywords: migration; population; Russian demography
Book Review
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Keywords: Dimitar Kossev; scientific impact; scientific achievments;
Professor Vladimir Migev's memories about Academician Dimitar Kossev
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Keywords: Dimitar Kossev; contemporarie's memories; scientific impact;
Vasil At. Vasilev's memories about Academician Dimitar Kossev
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