The subject of the article is the ideas of the Russian foreign agents J. Balaszewicz and A. Stempkowski about the revolutionary democratic organization of the Polish emigration Republican Polish Center (RPC), which existed in 1867–1870. In historiography, this organization has been studied mainly from the point of view of its ideological features on the basis of sources created in the emigrant environment. The authors emphasize the expediency of a comprehensive treatment of alternative materials, Russian agent reports, that have been used only sporadically in the study of this topic. They allow us to shed light on the subjects that were previously on the periphery of the research optics, i.e. the problems of the involvement of the RPC in the counterfeiting of Russian banknotes and in plans to assassinate European monarchs. In the context of the problems under study, the question of the role of this organization in the international revolutionary movement is also raised in a new way. The authors examine two previously unused fragments of Stempkowski’s reports. The first of them contains data on the attitude of General J. Hauke-Bosak to counterfeiting, and the second one informs of the interception of the well-known letter of the Italian revolutionary G. Mazzini to the RPC, in which he expresses his opinion on the Slavic question in the Balkans and the role of the Polish national liberation movement in it. The article examines Balaszewicz’s reports, already published in Polish translation, from the perspective of the problems under study. It emphasizes that, according to agents’ reports, the RPC was actively involved in the plans of Italian and French republicans led by G. Mazzini to eliminate Napoleon III, but did not have the necessary resources and allies among other Polish emigrants to organize assassination attempts against Alexander II, who was a higher priority target for the Poles. The authors conclude that the RPC appears to be a minor link in the revolutionary projects of international radicals in the optics of Balaszewicz and Stempkowski’s reports.

The article is a publication of and extended commentary on Mikhail Kirillovich Gribovsky’s text. He was in charge of the Guards Corps’ secret military police service organized in the early 1820s, after the “Semenovsky history”. In 1822, he compiled a note which is kept in the Russian State Military History Archive. The commentary describes the prehistory of the creation of the secret police: Gribovsky’s activities, his brochure On the State of Landlords’ Peasants in Russia and its perception by contemporaries. The article provides general information about the service created by Gribovsky and peculiarities of its financing. It refers to Gribovsky’s note on the Decembrist Union of Prosperity (thanks to it Alexander I had information about this society) and his three more notes, published in the last decades. The author concludes that Gribovsky writes in his note about the attempts to fi nd the Brief Instructions to Russian Knights by M.A. Dmitriev-Mamonov, which were published in 1816 in limited edition and have not been preserved. He gives a brief history of the organization, the Order of Russian Knights, for which this brochure was compiled, and implies that this Order did not exist. Celebrities involved in the project of the Order of Russian Knights are listed. Despite the fact that the note is not signed, the author attributes it to Gribovsky on the basis of handwriting analysis and identifi es the likely person behind the abbreviation. The note shows how political police worked in Russia at the end of Alexander I’s reign. For example, the Gribovsky’s interest in the Order of Russian Knights was caused by the assumption that M.A. Dmitriev-Mamonov’s Brief Instructions to Russian Knights were, in fact, a charter of the Union of Prosperity.

The article examines the political will of the Norwegian king Sverrir (1177–1202), given by him, on his deathbed, to his son and successor Hakon Sverresson in the “charter on state governance”. Although this document has not survived and its content is unknown from any source, it is traditionally believed in the literature that the main instruction to the heir consisted in the immediate and unconditional reconciliation of the royal power and the church, which had been in acute confrontation since 1130. According to most scholars, Hakon fulfilled his father’s will, which is reflected in his capitulation letter to the Norwegian prelates. However, the analysis of this letter in close connection with other documents, which contain information about the events of that time, showed that neither Sverrir nor his son were going to surrender their positions before the episcopate. On the contrary, they insisted that all social and political forces should recognize them as the legitimate rulers of Norway, and accept the full internal and external sovereignty of the royal power. The author proves a close connection between Hakon’s letter to the prelates and the “Speech against the Bishops” (En tale mot biskopene), composed in the last years of Sverrir’s reign. The latter became the only authoritative text for both the royal epistle itself and the faction of the “royal party” behind his successor. The “charter on state governance” actually established Hakon Sverresson’s rights to Norway as an inalienable inheritance (odal), and the general wishes for domestic peace concealed essentially confrontational proposals. The author concludes that the actions taken by both the “ecclesiastical” and “royal” parties in 1202–1204 did not lay the foundations for the subsequent merger of these groups, as the previous research tradition argued, but, on the contrary, aggravated the struggle between them and between the factions within them

Jean-Baptiste Greuze (1725–1805) was famous for portraits and moralizing family scenes. At the same time, he achieved exceptional success in popularizing his art by engraving genre compositions. This article examines preparatory modellos for his family scenes and the organization of their engraving process. This aspect of his activity has not been yet studied, and his drawings are little covered in Russian-language literature. The study reconstructs step by step the activity of Greuze as a popularizer of family scenes in prints on the basis of the documents available to the author, analysis of original drawings and prints from Russian and foreign collections. It highlights such aspects of the creative process as preparation of compositions for engraving, achievement of specific qualities in the drawings in connection with the technologies of further reproduction, interaction with engravers and organization of creative and technical works within the special association. The author concludes that the master chose a limited number of engraving techniques by the criterion of the most accurate reflection of the artistic properties of the originals. By engaging a special circle of engravers, he created a monopoly association to control the process of creating, producing and selling prints. As a result, Greuze achieved outstanding and specific artistic qualities in his drawings intended for further duplication. Even contemporaries paid attention to the excellent quality of Greuze’s engravings, which amazingly accurately conveyed the individuality of his technique, and singled them out among the mass production of general circulation in eighteenth-century France. This system of creation and popularization of drawings was innovative in the field of engraving. It reveals practical and business abilities of the outstanding artist, as well as a new insight into Greuze’s artistry.

When setting the goal and objectives of this article, the author proceeded from the fact that the well-studied early history of the palace settlements (dvortsovoe settlements) of Moscow uyezd and other central uyezds of the Russian State is very rarely integrated into the study of their current state, largely formed under the influence of their past as palace settlements. The sources for the article comprise numerous reference books on the history of the former palace estates, as well as online resources based on official primary sources on the current state of particular settlements. The author has identified the main socio-demographic characteristics of 162 out of the 178 settlements included in the List of palace volosts and villages for 1705. The settlements whose historical fate has not been identified are either those whose names have changed beyond recognition or the ones that have completely melted into other settlements. A quantitative analysis of various administrative and socio-demographic parameters of the former palace villages, first of all, made it possible to trace changes in the settlement status of the former palace villages of Central Russia in the 18th — early 21st centuries and to reveal isolated cases of the complete disappearance of the former palace settlements. The analysis of the changes in the administrative status of the former palace villages has shown that the potential given to them when they were founded, was eventually instrumental in the transformation of the two-thirds of them into local administrative centers. The article interprets population growth in 70% of studied palace settlements, which continued up to the end of the 20th century, as an indicator of their successful demographic development. A study of the socio-economic development of the palace villages led to the conclusion that many of them in the 18th–19th centuries became and now remain local commercial, industrial and socio-cultural centers. In conclusion, the article states that a number of long-term historical, historical-geographical, historical-cultural factors contributed to successful, and unparalleled at present, socio-demographic development of almost one and a half hundred former palace settlements. This relative success manifested itself against the backdrop of the withering of thousands of Russian rural settlements.

The article deals with the main directions of cooperation in the sphere of education within the framework of the Union State. The novelty of the study lies in the fact that for the first time it formulates and introduces the authors’ research position, clearly outlines the boundaries separating the processes which take place within the Union State, and traces the development of the Russian-Belarusian interaction. In the context of this concept the authors identify and formulate the main stages of development of these processes and systematize the main trends of formation of the normative-legal base of the common educational space and measures for its practical implementation. They examine the interaction between the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus within the Union State framework in the general context of the Union State building. The following stages are outlined: the preliminary stage from 1995 through 1999 included the maintenance of equal rights of citizens at the level of interstate relations and in the beginning of the Union State building; the second stage from 1999 through 2012 provided the normative-legal base of the educational space of the Union State and implementation of the existing norms; the third stage from 2012 through 2018 was characterized by gradual growth of attention of the governing bodies of the Union State to the problems of humanitarian cooperation, adaptation of the normative-legal acts to the actual changes in the sphere of education of the two countries; the fourth stage from 2018 until now is regarded as a high time for formation of a single space of education of the Union State for further development of integration. The article categorizes and characterizes the actions taken by the bodies of the Union State, educational institutions and professional circles in order to develop cooperation in the field of education. The study identifies the role of diaspora public organizations in the processes under consideration. The authors conclude about the special role of educational and scientific organizations, professional associations and civil society institutions of the two countries in the development of a unified educational space.

Recent years have seen the possibility of introducing into scientific circulation declassified documents of the highest state and political bodies, public organizations, and the spiritual directorates of Muslims, which until now were unknown in wide circles. They allow us to examine the forms and methods of activity of the Soviet state in building relationships with Muslims and to identify the directions, principles, and features of the work of state and public organizations in this sphere. A characteristic feature of religious policy in the late 1960s, one of the main conductors of which was the Council for Religious Affairs under the USSR Council of Ministers, established in December 1965, was the creation of a picture of the harmony of religious life and prosperity of religious organizations in the country. The Soviet Union demonstrated to the world that Soviet Muslims, like their co-religionists from other states, could go on Hajj to Saudi Arabia. The quantity of Hajj travelers from the USSR was extremely small and there was a huge disproportion not only between them and the number of Muslims who wanted to perform Hajj but also between the number of applications received by the organizers of the Hajj and the authorities, including the Council for Religious Affairs. At the same time, the heads of Muslim spiritual administrations could travel to Hajj several times. Analysis of archival documents discovered in 2022 showed the attitude to Muslims who made the Hajj from several angles: from the Soviet state, ordinary Muslims of the USSR, the authorities and Muslims of the countries visited by Soviet pilgrims during their journey, such as Sudan and Egypt. Very revealing is the attitude towards the Soviet pilgrims from the inhabitants of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, ranging from ordinary people to the authorities, including the king.

The article examines the 1952 “Book of Tasty and Healthy Food” in the context of the development of mass agitation and propaganda in the USSR. This colorful and richly illustrated publication was not only a guide to cooking, but also set the task of planting the idea of the achievements of socialist construction in people’s mind. The book proclaimed the triumph of the Soviet food industry and housing construction development. It was the first to describe such a social space as the kitchen, a place for cooking, and it dealt with a personal kitchen, and the appearance of gas stoves and refrigerators. The author shows that the guide, not least of all set the goal of stimulating the buying activity of citizens in order to replenish the state budget. The recipes presented in the book were aimed at different income strata of the society and people of various occupations. The book advertised delicatessen products: black caviar, artichokes, champagne, sturgeon, etc. At the same time, some of the recipes were targeted at working women, and the book featured a wide selection of convenience foods produced by the food industry. However, turning to the actual living conditions of citizens in this period allows us to conclude that for many readers the book was just a myth of a blissful life. The analysis of appeals made by citizens to the executive bodies shows that many of them did not even entertain the hope for the change for the better, and the process of modernization of the housing stock continued in violation of the norms of social justice. The abundance of food that was demonstrated in the book existed solely on paper. Even in large cities the distribution of food supplies to regular grocery stores was uneven. The situation in the provinces was even more patchy. In a planned economy, some foodstuffs were shipped over long distances. All this created the prerequisites for food shortage, and the “Book of Tasty and Healthy Food” was intended to fulfill, above all, an ideological mission.

The personnel matter in the physical culture movement from 1918 through 1930 has not yet practically become the object of special study, despite the fact that the success of this movement which was given an important role in education of “new man” and mobilization of labor resources in Soviet state depended to a large extent on solving the staffing problem. The article presents a comprehensive analysis of this problem in the above-mentioned period. The author examines patterns in the qualitative and quantitative changes in the cadre of instructors, as well as identifies the factors that influenced this process. An acute shortage of instructors (coaches) was a characteristic phenomenon in these years. Since physical education was to become one of the most important tools of education in the spirit of communist ideals and at the same time a method of restoring the health of the population, it was necessary to make the physical culture movement a mass movement, and therefore it required a large instructor staff. According to the materials reviewed, there were a number of problems on the way to achieve large-scale participation. The principal one was financial, so the number of educational institutions and courses grew extremely slowly, and the instructors were often not interested in high quality work. Another problem was the social composition of the instructor cadres, since physical education, according to Soviet ideologists, could not be apolitical and exist for the sake of sports achievements. The situation was aggravated by the inconsistency of the work of various departments and organizations. All these facts taken together led the Soviet leadership to the conviction that the problem could not be solved without strict regulation and control of personnel training, as well as large-scale financial support. The system of management of the physical culture movement was radically rebuilt, and the shortage of personnel was comprehensively solved due to the decisions of the Party and the Soviet government, Komsomol and trade unions in 1929 and 1930.

Trends in modern historiography are largely determined by the influence of the linguistic turn in the methodology of study of Russian history, including the development of discursive analysis of textual sources which reflect the worldview of contemporaries. The historical community has realized the methodological inadequacy of both the use of the Western scientific language and the search for universal historical concepts suitable for the study of the history of any country, regardless of its socio-cultural uniqueness. Currently, the principle of contextuality is brought to the forefront, that is, the study of historical phenomena within the socio-cultural environment that gave rise to this phenomenon, which actualizes the treatment of the political history of the Russian Empire with the use of new optics, i.e., the methodology of discursive analysis of the texts of contemporaries. Cognitive possibilities of the named approach can be demonstrated on the example of the analysis of the language of the texts representing the content of public and memorial discourses about the elections to the State Duma of the Russian Empire, voters and people’s deputies. The author focuses on the concepts used by contemporaries, which reflected the historical and cultural national specificity of the perception of “Russian voter” and “people’s representatives” as actors in the historical process, who were called to “participate in the destiny of their country”. Thus, the disclosure of the meaning of the most frequently used concept “Russian” in the discourse of contemporaries includes its understanding as a representation of the guardian of the tradition of national political culture, and as a centripetal force, uniting Russians in their awareness of their ethno-cultural identity. This specificity is recorded in contemporaries’ explanation of the significance of the project of the representation of people, “granted by the tsar’s will”, which represents a form of “inherently Russian autocracy”. The Russian voter’s awareness of civic identity in the public and memorial discourses of his contemporaries is represented by the perception of “elected ones from the population” as “their own” in contrast to the government officials who act as “aliens”. Revealing an authentic meaning of the notions, used by the contemporaries, it is possible to understand the world of values, rules of social communication during the decisive historical period of reforms and revolutions in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century.