Prohibited Press in the Central State Bookshop in 1919–1940

This article analyses the issues of collecting and storing illegal publications and those confiscated by censorship authorities in the Central State Bookshop. It describes the structure of the military and other general censorship institutions, which sent the prohibited press to the Central State Bookshop. The aim of the study is to establish the approximate date of commencement of the activities of the department that stored confiscated by censorship or illegally issued publications, and several lists of publications prohibited by censorship and transmitted by the CSB are discussed. It is worth noting that until the 1940s, libraries were also called bookshops. In 1936, after the promulgation of the Law on Public Libraries, the Central State Bookshop became the Central State Library, and its departments became state public libraries. Between 1919–1922, under the management of Eduardas Volteris, the collection and storage of illegal and censored publications at the Central State Bookshop became a matter of interest. The legal deposit was the key and constant source of acquisition of the collections of the Central State Bookshop. In 1919 and 1935, the press laws stipulated how many mandatory copies had to be delivered to county governors or simply to state institutions. However, illegal and confiscated publications were not included in the legal deposit. The main aim of the library was to collect and store all publications published in Lithuania and by Lithuanian publishers abroad. Therefore, it was important for the library to compile a complete set of the current press. To obtain prohibited titles, the library cooperated with the structural units of the Ministry of National Defense and the Ministry of the Interior responsible for the supervision of the press. In various historical periods, unequal attention was paid to the compilation of censorship-restricted press in the Central State Bookshop. Until the 1930s, there was an intensive correspondence between war censors and the Press and Societies Division of the Department of Civil Protection about sending and collecting prohibited press in the Central State Bookstore. During c. 1920–1921, illegal and confiscated publications began to be collected in a separate office called the “secret division”. In the 1940s, censorship institutions sent lists of prohibited press of various volumes to the library. After reviewing the publications on these lists, no signs of censorship could be found. Records of censorship office provenances and censorship officers were found in individual publications that were not included in the lists of prohibited books. Although the publications confiscated by censorship authorities were stored in the library of the University of Lithuania, and in the library of Vytautas Magnus University since 1930, CSB was the only library in the interwar period in which special attention was paid to the issues of collecting prohibited press. Use of the prohibited press was restricted. These titles were not open to general public; only employees of ministries and members of the Seimas could read it. The prohibited press could serve scientific research and press statistics.

Financial Aspects of the Evacuation of Employees Internal Affairs Bodies in the Mordovian ASSR in 1941

Introduction. The article is devoted to the financing of NKVD employees evacuated in the first year of the Great Patriotic War from the three Union Republics of the USSR to the Mordovian ASSR. Materials and Methods. Within the framework of this study, financial documents located in the Central State Archive of the Republic of Mordovia were used. When analyzing the research materials, historical-typological and historical-genetic methods were used, as well as a micro-historical approach was applied. Results. The main task set in the study is to determine the costs of financing the maintenance of evacuated employees was based on the involvement of financial reports of the internal affairs bodies of the Mordovian ASSR. The structure of the monetary maintenance of the evacuated employees was revealed, the initial documents on the basis of which monetary payments were made were determined. By dividing the evacuees into conditional groups, it was possible to consider financial costs by employee categories. The analysis of payment orders from previous duty stations also allowed us to draw important conclusions. Discussion and Conclusions. The study confirmed the social nature of the Soviet state, which sought even in the most difficult period of the Great Patriotic War to provide the families of evacuees with means to live until they returned to service. It is important to note that the employees of the internal affairs bodies were important specialists for the state, and it did everything to save these personnel, withdrawn from the attack of Germany and its allies, as much as possible.

«The Klutkoism». Saransk Case of 1934.

The article is devoted to the events of the first part of 1930-ies in the Mordovian Autonomous Region. The politics struggle between different groups of the soviet and party ruling elite, which accompanied the process of the formation of Mordovian statehood and the korenization of the State machinery are considering as well. On the example of Mordovian oblast committee and Saransk town committee of VKP(b) some features inherent in the regional Soviet nomenclature of the 1930s are shown. The article acknowledges that in Mordovia, the struggle between various groups of the Soviet and Party elite was significantly influenced by the national factor and the process of indigenization of the administrative apparatus. At the same time, there was tension between the First secretary of the regional Party Committee sent from the outside, who tried to rely on his own proteges, and the regional nomenclature clans formed from local national cadres. Meanwhile, in the existing system of close-knit corporate groups and bureaucratic clans based on personal ties and mutual responsibility, there was a rapid degeneration of Party and Soviet executives. This led to the spread of such negative phenomena as leaderism, embezzlements, abuse of official position, etc. In preparing the article, the method of analyzing historical documents, historical and systemic, historical and comparative methods were used. Archival documents (from the Central State Archives of the Republic of Mordovia), as well as materials of the Soviet periodicals from the newspapers Volzhskaya Kommuna and Krasnaya Mordovia served as the basis for the source base of the article.

Housing Issue and Attempts to Solve it During the “Khrushchev Thaw”: a View From the Province (on the Example of the Mordovian ASSR)

Introduction. The relevance of the work is due to the demand for Soviet experience in implementing large-scale state projects, in particular in the field of housing construction, at the present stage of Russian modernization. Methods. The factual material available in the work is drawn from the funds of the Central State Archive of the Republic of Mordovia, as well as from published sources. During the research, the following methods were used: comparative-historical, problem-chronological, historical-cultural, historical reconstruction. Results. The dynamics of all types of housing construction in the republic during the study period received the maximum turnover. Discussion. One of the reasons for significant success in the field of housing construction in the republic was the reform of the country’s economic system. Sovnarkhoz turned out to be more flexible and adapted to the conditions of planned administering as management structures, which in particular manifested itself in the field of housing construction. Other reasons for success were a kind of “revolution” in the development of housing construction methods, when, along with the state, the “people’s construction” and the cooperative method began to be widely used, as well as the industrial basis of construction, albeit not always consistently implemented. At the same time, the speed of construction generated a lot of problems in hastily constructed standard small cars, which became the reverse side of Khrushchev’s housing policy. Conclusion. The housing policy pursued by the Khrushchev leadership was one of the indisputable social conquests of the time under study, when a significant part of people from barracks and communal apartments moved to separate apartments intended for settlement by one family. However, when solving this most important problem, the authorities placed special emphasis not so much on the development of new construction technologies, as on managerial reorganization, leading ultimately to a simple increase in the workforce and organizations involved in the construction of residential facilities.

From the History of Establishment and Activities of the Mordovian Working Faculty (1929–1939)

Introduction. In the 1920s and 1930s, the USSR accumulated significant experience in pre-university training for young people, some elements of which remain relevant to this day. In domestic historical science, special attention was paid to the analysis of the phenomenon of workers’ faculties, which played a huge role in our country in the formation of the Soviet intelligentsia. However, at the regional level, to date, there is not a single special study, which would comprehensively consider the issues of the emergence and activities of the Mordovian workers’ faculty. This article attempts to partially fill this kind of “white spot” in the latest historiography of the history and culture of the Mordovian region and people. Materials and Methods. The main resource base of the study was made up of materials from the funds of the Central State Archives of the Republic of Mordovia (CSA RM), most of which are introduced into scientific circulation for the first time. The methodological basis for the analysis of the collected factual material was both general scientific research methods (analysis, synthesis, induction, deduction, etc.) and special historical methods: descriptive (ideographic), historical-genetic, problem-chronological, historical-systemic. Results. The author reveales the reasons for the creation of the Mordovian workers’ faculty as the main form of pre-university training in Mordovia in the 1930s, shows the dynamics of its student body; analyzes the state of the educational process and extracurricular work at the workers’ faculty; gives the characteristic features of the financial situation, everyday life and life of Mordovian students-workers of the faculty. Conclusion. The creation of the Mordovian Workers’ Faculty at the end of the 20s of the last century was an adequate response to the urgent vital need of the young Mordovian statehood for its own highly qualified personnel. With all the minuses and shortcomings in its activities, the workers’ faculty has become the main “forge of applicants” from workers and peasants for the higher school of Mordovia, a kind of “forerunner” of the preparatory department and the faculty of pre-university training and secondary vocational education of Ogarev Mordovia State University.

Russian Orthodox Churches in Birlya and Taburnoe Villages of the Ulyanovsk Oblast

The article reflects the results of research on the topic «History and cultural heritage of the settlements of the Ulyanovsk region." The subject of the research is the history of the St. Michael the Archangel's Church and the Kazan-Mother of God church in the villages of Birlya and Taburnoe (now belonging to Melekessky district of the Ulyanovsk region). The purpose of the article is to identify the most important periods of the above-mentioned churches from the end of the 19-th century to the 1950-s, to establish the composition of the clergy, and the educational work of the clergy among the population. Analysis of unpublished documents from the Central State Archives of the Samara Region allowed to establish: the ethnic composition of the settlements, socio-economic status of inhabitants, reasons and patterns of migration of the local population; the foundation and liquidation dates of the churches, facts of life of church ministers and parish; statistical data on the economic structure of the clergy. The Mikhailo-Arkhangelsk and Kazan-Mother of God churches in the villages of Birlya and Taburnoye are lost monuments of the Orthodox cultural heritage. Mikhailo-Arkhangelsk and Kazan-Mother of God churches were built, respectively, at the end of the 19th century. and destroyed in the first half of the 1950-s. in connection with the construction of the Kuibyshev hydroelectric power station, and their location is flooded by a reservoir.

N.P. Ostroumov as a Collector of Uzbek Folk Songs (Based on the Materials of the Central State Archives)

At the end of the 19th century, a certain amount of work was done to record, collect and popularize Uzbek folklore, including scholars studying oriental studies, local history, geography, archeology and other areas in Turkestan, as well as educational work. They translated folk legends, legends, fairy tales, proverbs and sayings, the songs they heard or wrote, often translated them into Russian and published them in periodicals, including them in their studies, literary and journalistic works, and travel notes. One of the specialists who contributed to the collection of folk art, in particular fairy tales, proverbs and songs, is the famous orientalist, ethnographer Nikolai Petrovich Ostroumov. The article analyzes the folkloristic activities of the orientalist N.P. Ostroumov based on the recordings of Uzbek folk ritual songs stored in the Central State Archives of the Republic of Uzbekistan.

RUSSIAN FORTRESSES AS NAVAL BASES IN THE 1740-s ZAPOROZHIAN HOST: DNIEPER FLOTILLA SHIPS STORAGE

Studies of Russian military presence in the lands of Zaporozhia during the New Sich era (1734–1775) pay relatively little attention to the uses of Russian fortresses between the RussoTurkish wars of 1735–1739 and 1768–1774. From 1739 to 1768 the military importance and defense capability of the Russian fortresses diminished, thus their main purpose shifted to information gathering on the Russian-Ottoman borderlands and the Zaporozhian Host of the Lower Dniper itself. Furthermore, another quite understudied function of these fortresses was to serve as military depots, both acting and reserve. This article concentrates on the understudied aspect of the history of Russian fortresses and the Zaporozhia lands during the New Sich era – the storage of vessels of the liquidated Dnieper flotilla after the Russo-Turkish war of 1735-1739. The primary source base for this article consists of the documents from “Kyiv Provincial Chancellery” (Central State Historical Archive of Ukraine, fund 59). The Ust’-Samara retrenchment was a main naval base of the Dnieper flotilla located at the mouth of the Samara River (present-day Dnipro). The reorganization of the Dnieper flotilla material base and fleet supplies took several years after the end of the 1735-1739 war. Subsequently, various fleet supplies (military vessels; ship equipment like ropes, blocks, oars, flags, anchors; naval artillery and related supplies; tools for ships repairs and maintenance like "konopatky"; building materials, ship nails, resin; food stocks for ship crews, etc) were stored in the special fortress warehouses. However, storage conditions were inadequate, naval depots could be destroyed, while equipment and watercraft could be stolen by the Russian officers to be resold later. Relying on documentary sources, an attempt was made to clarify the number of Dnieper flotilla vessels, that were stored in the Ust’-Samara retrenchment. To that end, the article introduces into scientific circulation a document that most fully reflects the number of military vessels, stored at the Russian fortresses in Zaporozhia as of November 1, 1742 - a report compiled by Captain I. Stepanov at the request of the Ust’-Samara retrenchment commander A. Chichagov, commander of all Russian fortresses in Zaporozhia. At that time, the total number of vessels (both suitable and unsuitable for use) amounted to 350. These vessels were stored in the Kamianskyi, Khortyts’kyi, Malyshevs’kyi and Nenasytets’kyi retrenchments. Comparison of data from several documents reveals that for unknown reasons this number (350) did not include boats stored in the Ust’-Samara retrenchment. This article further indicates that the study of exact number of the vessels is complicated by the specifics of the source base. Further elaboration of the issues outlined in the present article would allow not only to explore the functions of Russian fortresses in Zaporozhia during the New Sich era and their role as centers of the Russian military presence, but would also reveal the everyday relations of Russian soldiers with the Cossacks and the peasants (“pospolyti”). The crucial need to study original documentary sources on the history of Russian fortresses in Zaporozhia is emphasized once more.

Language, Ethnicity, and Separatism: Survey Results from Two Post-Soviet Regions

Scholars often use language to proxy ethnic identity in studies of conflict and separatism. This conflation of language and ethnicity is misleading: language can cut across ethnic divides and itself has a strong link to identity and social mobility. Language can therefore influence political preferences independently of ethnicity. Results from an original survey of two post-Soviet regions support these claims. Statistical analyses demonstrate that individuals fluent in a peripheral lingua franca are more likely to support separatism than those who are not, while individuals fluent in the language of the central state are less likely to support separatist outcomes. Moreover, linguistic fluency shows a stronger relationship with support for separatism than ethnic identification. These results provide strong evidence that scholars should disaggregate language and ethnic identity in their analyses: language can be more salient for political preferences than ethnicity, and the most salient languages may not even be ethnic.