scholarly journals From History of Serbian-Russian Historical and Cultural Relations: Dušan I. Semiz (1884–1955) and His Family. Commentaries to Archival Materials from St. Petersburg and Moscow

Slovene ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 505-524
Author(s):  
Milena V. Rozhdestvenskaia

The fate of a Serbian political emigrant in Russia, the journalist, politician, and historian Dušan Ivanović Semiz (1884–1955) and his family, is studied for the first time on the basis of archival materials from St. Petersburg: the Institute of Russian Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Pushkin House) and the Russian State Historical Archive. Dušan Semiz was a journalist and press correspondent at the frontlines of WWI and the author of historical and political pamphlets and books, and translations of Serbian epics into Russian. He was first arrested in Leningrad in 1929 for being a former active participant in the Serbian nationalist revolutionary organisation Crna ruka (The Black Hand) and sentenced to five years in the GULAG. His first spell in the labor camps was followed by several others. Semiz did hard labor as a lumberjack in the Archangel region and at the construction of the White Sea–Baltic Canal; he was exiled to Kazakhstan in Berlik, where Alexander Solzhenitsyn was also later exiled. Semiz was not released from the GULAG until 1953, not long before his death. Here I present some fragments of the works by Semiz on historical and current relationships between Serbia and Russia, the causes of WWII, and also a short story he wrote in 1933, as well as his letters from the GULAG and exile to his family and letters from his family to him. These documents show hist strong personality, which was maintained even through his period in the GULAG. The archive materials presented in the paper are another historical document of Stalinist terror and are of interest for the study of Serbo-Russian historical and cultural links in the mid 20th century.

Author(s):  
Semen M. Iakerson

Hebrew incunabula amount to a rather modest, in terms of number, group of around 150 editions that were printed within the period from the late 60s of the 15th century to January 1, 1501 in Italy, Spain, Portugal and Turkey. Despite such a small number of Hebrew incunabula, the role they played in the history of the formation of European printing cannot be overlooked. Even less possible is to overestimate the importance of Hebrew incunabula for understanding Jewish spiritual life as it evolved in Europe during the Renaissance.Russian depositories house 43 editions of Hebrew incunabula, in 113 copies and fragments. The latter are distributed as following: the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts of the Russian Academy of Sciences — 67 items stored; the Russian State Library — 38 items; the National Library of Russia — 7 items; the Jewish Religious Community of Saint Petersburg — 1 item. The majority of these books came in public depositories at the late 19th — first half of the 20th century from private collections of St. Petersburg collectors: Moses Friedland (1826—1899), Daniel Chwolson (1819—1911) and David Günzburg (1857—1910). This article looks into the circumstances of how exactly these incunabula were acquired by the depositories. For the first time there are analysed publications of Russian scholars that either include descriptions of Hebrew incunabula (inventories, catalogues, lists) or related to various aspects of Hebrew incunabula studies. The article presents the first annotated bibliography of all domestic publications that are in any way connected with Hebrew incunabula, covering the period from 1893 (the first publication) to the present. In private collections, there was paid special attention to the formation of incunabula collections. It was expressed in the allocation of incunabula as a separate group of books in printed catalogues and the publication of research works on incunabula studies, which belonged to the pen of collectors themselves and haven’t lost their scientific relevance today.


2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 63-93
Author(s):  
Amiran Urushadze

The article analyzes governmental debates on the functions, rights and privileges of the Armenian Catholicoi in the context of inter-institutional controversies. The author attempts to identify and analyze the most influential programmes for solving the “Echmiadzin issue” and their origins presenting at the same time certain aspects of political interaction between the Russian Empire and the Armenian Church as overlapping processes and related events. The history of relationships between Russian state and Armenian Church in XIX–XX centuries shows that different actors of the imperial politics had different ideas about the optimal model of cooperation with Echmiadzin. The divisions took place not only between the various departments (the Ministry of Internal Affairs versus the Ministry of Foreign Affairs), but also within them, where individual officials could hold “anti-departmental” views in each particular case. All this hindered administrative consolidation, slowed down the empire's response to important political challenges and dragged the imperial structures into protracted service-hierarchical confrontations. The “Etchmiadzin Question” and the governmental discussions around it show in part the administrative paralysis of the autocracy and the decompensation of the system of power in the Russian Empire in the early 20th century. The article employs a rich documentary base of archival materials from the collections of the Russian State Historical Archive. These materials are introduced into the scholarly discourse for the first time ever.


Author(s):  
Tatiana Feklova

The history of the Russian Magneto-Meteorological Observatory (RMMO) in Beijing has not been extensively researched. Sources for this information are Russian (the Russian State Historical Archive, Saint Petersburg Branch of the Archive of the Academy of Sciences, Russian National Library) and Chinese (the First Historical Archive of Beijing, the Library of the Shanghai Zikavey Observatory) archives. These archival materials can be scientifically and methodologically analyzed. At the beginning of the 18th century, the Russian Orthodox Mission (ROM) was founded in the territory of Beijing. Existing until 1955, the ROM performed an important role in the development of Russian–Chinese relations. Russian scientists could only work in Beijing through the ROM due to China’s policy of fierce self-isolation. The ROM became the center of Chinese academic studies and the first training school for Russian sinologists. From its very beginning, it was considered not only a church or diplomatic mission but a research center in close cooperation with the Russian Academy of Sciences. In this context, the RMMO made important weather investigations in China and the Far East in the 19th century. The RMMO, as well as its branch stations in China and Mongolia, part of a scientific network, represented an important link between Europe and Asia and was probably the largest geographical scientific network in the world at that time.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 (12-2) ◽  
pp. 215-222
Author(s):  
Bakhtiyor Alimdjanov ◽  
Shokhrukh Choriev ◽  
Timur Ivanov

In the article, on the basis of documents of the Russian State Historical Archive (RGIA) that have not been previously introduced into scientific circulation, the activities of N. I. Ivanov, a famous merchant of the second half of the 19th century in the Turkestan General Government, which became rich on military supplies to the Russian army during the period of conquests in Central Asia is given. For the first time in Russian historiography, the functioning of the Central Asian Commercial Bank (1881-1911) - the first commercial bank in Russian Turkestan, founded by N. I. Ivanov. The activity of private financial institutions in Central Asia is analyzed.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
А.А. Логунова

Статья продолжает тему, начатую документальной публикацией автора в журнале Opera musicologica № 4 (42) / 2019, и освещает малоизвестные факты из истории взаимоотношений Россини с подданными Российской империи в период с 1817 по 1865 год. Источниками информации послужили материалы из следующих хранилищ: Российский государственный исторический архив, Российская национальная библиотека, Государственный архив Российской Федерации, Российский национальный музей музыки, Санкт-Петербургский государственный музей театрального и музыкального искусства, Российский государственный архив литературы и искусства. В статье подробно комментируются два письма Россини к И. М. Толстому, придворному из окружения Александра II, свидетельствующие о продолжительных дружеских отношениях композитора с влиятельным российским чиновником. Среди рекомендательных писем Россини особенно интересны послания 1860 года — к Т. Рикорди и Дж. Боноле, в которых идет речь о молодом русском певце, будущем режиссере А. Д. Гарфильд-Дмитриеве. Представленные в настоящей статье документы — шесть писем и музыкальный автограф для альбома М. Я. Раппапорта — не только открывают новую страницу в истории русских контактов Россини, но содержат малоизученные факты, касающиеся биографии композитора и его итальянских связей. Большинство автографов публикуются впервые. The article continues the documentary publication in the Opera musicologica, no. 4 (2019) and deals with unknown facts from the history of relations between Rossini and subjects of the Russian Empire on the basis of the materials from the Russian State Historical Archive, the State Archive of the Russian Federation, the Russian National Museum of Music, the National Library of Russia, the St. Petersburg State Museum of Theatre and Music, the Russian State Literature and Arts Archive. The main attention is paid to letters by Rossini to Ivan M. Tolstoy, testifying to the composer’s long-term friendly relations with the influential Russian official from the entourage of Alexander II. Among Rossini’s letters of recommendation, messages to Tito Ricordi and Giovanni Bonola about a Russian singer Aleksandr Dmitriev are of particular interest. Six letters and a musical autograph presented in this article not only open a new page in the history of Rossini’s Russian contacts, but also contain little-studied facts concerning the composer’s biography and his Italian connections. Most autographs are published for the first time.


Author(s):  
Semen M. Iakerson

Hebrew incunabula amount to a rather modest, in terms of number, group of around 150 editions that were printed within the period from the late 60s of the 15th century to January 1, 1501 in Italy, Spain, Portugal and Turkey. Despite such a small number of Hebrew incunabula, the role they played in the history of the formation of European printing cannot be overlooked. Even less possible is to overestimate the importance of Hebrew incunabula for understanding Jewish spiritual life as it evolved in Europe during the Renaissance.Russian depositories house 43 editions of Hebrew incunabula, in 113 copies and fragments. The latter are distributed as following: the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts of the Russian Academy of Sciences — 67 items stored; the Russian State Library — 38 items; the National Library of Russia — 7 items; the Jewish Religious Community of Saint Petersburg — 1 item. The majority of these books came in public depositories at the late 19th — first half of the 20th century from private collections of St. Petersburg collectors: Moses Friedland (1826—1899), Daniel Chwolson (1819—1911) and David Günzburg (1857—1910). This article looks into the circumstances of how exactly these incunabula were acquired by the depositories. For the first time there are analysed publications of Russian scholars that either include descriptions of Hebrew incunabula (inventories, catalogues, lists) or related to various aspects of Hebrew incunabula studies. The article presents the first annotated bibliography of all domestic publications that are in any way connected with Hebrew incunabula, covering the period from 1893 (the first publication) to the present. In private collections, there was paid special attention to the formation of incunabula collections. It was expressed in the allocation of incunabula as a separate group of books in printed catalogues and the publication of research works on incunabula studies, which belonged to the pen of collectors themselves and haven’t lost their scientific relevance today.


Author(s):  
Vladimir Lobanov ◽  
Yasyn Abdullaev

The purpose of this study is the analysis of the economic activities of the Petrograd District War Industry Committee in 1915-1918. Despite the fact that the history of the war industry committees is widely described in Russian and Western historiography, this topic still retains a serious research potential. In particular, until now no special work dedicated to the Petrograd District War Industry Committee has been published. At the same time, the study of one of the largest regional committees in the Russian Empire, which was located in the capital of the country, certainly is of great value. The article considers the history of the establishment and liquidation of the Petrograd District Committee, its structure and composition, peculiarities of relations with the Central War Industry Committee and the Imperial authorities, and shows the results achieved by the committee in the economic field. The author comes to the conclusion that the Petrograd District War Industry Committee made a great contribution to the mobilization of Russian industry and the supply of the belligerent army, far outstripping the other district and local committees in terms of the volumes of orders and manufactured products. At the same time, for a number of special reasons, the Petrograd District Committee lost hopelessly before two other capitals war industry committees: Central and Moscow District. The research is based on a wide range of historical sources, the basis of which is the documentary materials from the Russian State Historical Archive that were put into scientific circulation for the first time.


2019 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 125-130
Author(s):  
Tatiana Yurievna Feklova

Abstract This article is devoted to the history of Russian hypsometric and geographic investigations of the northern part of China, Mongolia, Manchuria, the Amur and the Ussuri region in the 19th century. The article is based on the analysis of numerous sources from the Russian State Historical Archive, St. Petersburg Branch of the Archive of the Academy of Sciences, Russian National Library, the Library of the Shanghai Zikawei Observatory. The article’s methodological framework is objectivity concept, systematically of scientific analysis of archival materials. The considerable attention is paid to H. Fritsche’s, Palladius’s, N.M. Przhevalsky’s and other expeditions. The detailed analysis of a new systematic mapping of the northern part of China, made by the Russian scientists is given. The role of the Beijing Magneto-meteorological observatory in Beijing, as the part of the Russian Academy of sciences, is specially noted. The author considers in details the political and socio-economic conditions of expeditions.


2020 ◽  
pp. 165-181
Author(s):  
Petr V. Moshechkov ◽  

The article is concerned with the history of organization and transportation of the first two Czechoslovak echelons from Russia to France. It is aimed at tracing the idea of sending of a part of Czech and Slovak prisoners of war to the Western front. This intention was for the first time expressed by leaders of the Czechoslovak National Council founded in Paris in February 1916. This decision appeared in connection with the shortage of soldiers in the French army and of workers in the war industry of the Third Republic. In this respect, the research touches upon the basic aspects of the negotiations conducted by J. Dürich, M. R. Štefánik and T. G. Masaryk with the Russian governmental and military institutions. The article also dwells on the preparation of departure of these Czechoslovak units by the northern route - via Arkhangelsk and Murmansk and the cooperation between the Branch of the Czechoslovak National Council and the French military missions in Russia in supplying for the volunteers. The article is based on the documents from the collections of the Archive of Foreign Policy of the Russian Empire, Russian State Historical Archive, Military Central Archive of Czech Republic and published materials.


Author(s):  
Felix S. Kireev

Boris Alexandrovich Galaev is known as an outstanding composer, folklorist, conductor, educator, musical and public figure. He has a great merit in the development of musical culture in South Ossetia. All the musical activity of B.A. Galaev is studied and analyzed in detail. In most of the biographies of B.A. Galaev about his participation in the First World War, there is only one proposal that he served in the army and was a bandmaster. For the first time in historiography the participation of B.A. Galaev is analyzed, and it is found out what positions he held, what awards he received, in which battles he participated. Based on the identified documentary sources, for the first time in historiography, it occured that B.A. Galaev was an active participant in the First World War on the Caucasian Front. He went on attacks, both on foot and horse formation, was in reconnaissance, maintained communication between units, received military awards. During this period, he did not have time to study his favorite music, since, according to the documents, he was constantly at the front, in the battle formations of the advanced units. He had to forget all this heroic past and tried not to mention it ever after. Therefore, this period of his life was not studied by the researchers of his biography. For writing this work, the author uses the Highest Orders on the Ranks of the Military and the materials of the Russian State Military Historical Archive (RSMHA).


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