Department of Russian History of the Nineteenth Century and Early Twentieth Century, Faculty of History
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Solemn Days and Holidays of the Russian Empire and the Kingdom of Poland in the Mid — Second Half of the 19th CenturyMoscow University Bulletin. Series 8: History 2019. N 4. p.55-64read more1539
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The article characterizes the address calendars of the Russian Empire and the Kingdom of Poland as one of the most important annually published reference books on the history of the nineteenth – early twentiethcentury Empire and Kingdom. The authors attempt at demonstrating that this kind of historical sources has higher potential for use and contains extensive and versatile information that is little used by Russian scholars. While analyzing the address calendars, the authors identify important trends in governmental policy regarding the Kingdom of Poland and in perception of this policy in Russian and Polish societies. Having acquired a large part of the Principality of Warsaw by the decision of the Vienna Congress, initially the Russian authorities did not directly intervene in the administration of these territories since there were no administrative and financial resources available to them. However, after the uprisings of 1830–1831 and 1863–1864 almost all spheres of the Kingdom’s life were involved into the process of incorporation. Petersburg employed a variety of methods, among which certain significance was given to festive dates that celebrated simultaneously state and religious events. In addition, the holidays make it possible to trace not only the process of political and confessional integration of the Kingdom of Poland into the Russian Empire, but also its specific nature. Thus, the “Catalogue of the Lord’s Holidays and State Celebratory Days”, an integral part of the address calendars, along with the New Year, birthdays, days of accession and coronation, and name days of representatives of the imperial house, included Catholic and Jewish holidays. The official recognition of holidays by the supreme authority allows us to conclude that the tight political and social integration of the Kingdom of Poland went along with the policy of tolerance regarding various nationalities within the Empire. At the same time, the lists of the holidays show the intention of St. Petersburg to cultivate loyalty in various social strata of the Russian society. It was especially important, taking into consideration the tsarist government’s need to suppress the Polish liberation movement. In this context, the authors’ observations about the estate policy of Russia regarding the Polish nobility, as well as Catholicism and Orthodoxy in the Kingdom of Poland are very important.
Keywords: Kingdom of Poland; national and confessional politics; address calendars; reference books; state holidays; legal holidays; Orthodox and Catholic holidays; integration of the Kingdom of Poland into the Russian Empire
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A.M. Pankratova on pan-European tendencies in historical scholarship in Western Europe in the mid-20th centuryMoscow University Bulletin. Series 8: History 2025. Vol.66. N 5. p.107-123read more29
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After the Second World War, the idea of European integration gained wide currency in most Western European countries, despite the diversity of their economic, political, national, and cultural traditions. In addressing the exceptionally complex problem of its implementation, not only specialists from various disciplines but also historians were enlisted. The latter were charged with developing one of the key mechanisms for shaping a European community: a unified school history textbook for Western European states. In 1953–1954, under the auspices of the Council of Europe, meetings of historians were convened specifically to identify the criteria and conceptual framework for such a textbook. Academician Anna Mikhailovna Pankratova (1897–1957) found it necessary to forward the materials of these conferences to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. In her accompanying letter, she proposed adopting countermeasures and organizing a campaign to expose what she described as the revision of school history textbooks in a number of Western European countries, aimed at promoting the idea of a European community. Pankratova considered it necessary to inform the directors of historical institutes and the editors of historical journals in the German Democratic Republic and in the European countries of people's democracy about the outcomes of the conferences. In Moscow, she proposed convening a meeting at which representatives of the academies, higher and secondary schools of the USSR and the European countries of people's democracy, as well as progressive historians from European capitalist countries, could present papers denouncing — according to her assessment — the activities of proponents of the European idea, whom she accused of falsifying history. Following this meeting, Pankratova recommended issuing an address to historians in all European countries, emphasizing the patriotic role of historical scholarship. She also proposed including on the agenda of the Tenth World Congress of Historians (Rome, 1955) a report devoted to the national significance and patriotic tasks of historical science, acceding to the European Cultural Convention, and participating in the Third Conference of Historians organized by the European Council. However, these proposals were rejected by the Department of Science and Culture of the CPSU Central Committee.Keywords: school history textbooks, propaganda of the European idea, European community, Council of Europe, European Cultural Convention, the 1953 conference in Calw and the 1954 conference in Oslo
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