THE DEVELOPMENT OF TOPOGRAPHIC MAPPING OF UKRAINE

The basic principles and current state of topographic mapping of the territory of Ukraine are considered. Prior to the proclamation of Ukraine's independence, its territory was covered by topographic maps in the scale of 1:10 000 to 1: 1 000 000, created by the Main Department of Geodesy and Cartography under the USSR Council of Ministers and the Military Topographic Service of the USSR Armed Forces. The interaction of these departments in topographic mapping is highlighted. The topographic study of Ukrainian territory as of 1991 is analyzed in detail. Today the content of most topographic maps of scales from 1:10 000 to 1: 200 000 is characterized by "aging" of information and does not correspond to the current state of the area. The unsatisfactory state of topographic study of the territory led to the unclaimed topographic maps with much outdated information for consumers, and for the military it very difficult to perform combat tasks. The needs of current topographic information users require a significant improvement in topographic maps content. Since the mid-1990s, the creation of national geospatial data infrastructures has become crucial for providing spatial information to the state and society. The basic principles and general requirements for the creation and updating of state topographic maps are now defined by the "Procedure for national topographic and thematic mapping" (2013). The adoption of the Law of Ukraine "On the National Infrastructure of Geospatial Data", giving a powerful impetus to topographic mapping, poses a responsible task of organizational and regulatory and technical support of this process. The issue of obtaining topographic maps from the topographic database requires scientific and technical elaboration, development of appropriate normative and technical documents (guides, principles, instructions, symbols, etc.).

Humanitarian Cooperation of Japan and the USSR in the Second Half of the 20th Century

The article provides a periodization of humanitarian cooperation between Japan and the USSR. The first stage was activity of the Press Office of the Soviet Union Council for Japan and the Soviet Information Office in the Land of the Rising Sun in 1946–1957. The second stage was the period of active policy of the USSR Embassy, together with the State Committee for Cultural Relations under the USSR Council of Ministers in 1957–1967. The third stage was defined by the activity of Soviet Embassy and Regional Authorities of Japan and the USSR in establishing cultural relations in 1967–1985. The fourth stage was humanitarian cooperation of both countries carried out under terms of the Soviet-Japan cultural agreement signed in 1986. The fourth stage covers the period from 1986 to 1991. The article identifies the main forms of humanitarian cooperation between two countries. The author believes that connections in the sphere of art were dominant. The Japanese public was an active subject of bilateral relations. The author considers the membership of the Soviet-Japan Friendship Movement and its participants (public organizations, Piece Movement, choral and musical collectives, private companies of Japan) and reveals the reasons for the Japanese public’s interest in Soviet culture based on archival documents and materials of the Japanese and Soviet periodicals. The author points out that the regional cooperation between two countries developed significantly and emphasizes the special role of the USSR Far East as a contact region with Japan.

The Soviet Presence in the Middle East in the Context of the Unfolding Cold War: Church Institutions and Actors of Influence in Palestine in 1940–50th

The Soviet diplomacy in the second half of the 1940s included the Russian Orthodox Church and its institutions of international presence in its sphere of activity. At that time the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) began to play a significant role in the Soviet Union's foreign policy. The Middle Eastern direction becomes one of the most significant areas of “church diplomacy”. The first visit of Patriarch Alexy (Simanskiy) to the Holy Land in 1945 was part of a “package” of diplomatic steps made by Soviet diplomacy in partnership with the Moscow Patriarchate in 1945–1955 to restore the property of the ROC in Palestine. The analysis of the documents on the ROC (State Archive of the Russian Federation, F. R-6991) and the materials on the foreign policy of the USSR Council of Ministers (State Archive of the Russian Federation, F. R-5446), as well as the extensive historiography of historical relations between Russia and the Holy Land, allows the authors to consider joint efforts to consolidate the presence of the ROC in the region. The research allows tracing the “birth of tradition” of foreign policy mission of the Moscow Patriarchate and its foreign structures, which became points of influence of the USSR in the post-war world. It allows one to reconstruct the social image of Moscow's “agents of influence” in the Middle East, both the new emissaries and the traditional agents of Russian influence in the region – the pilgrims and nuns of the Russian monasteries of the Holy Land.

USE OF RADIOCOMMUNICATION AT THE BEGINNING OF THE XX CENTURY IN THE USSR FOR SECURITY OF MERCHANT SHIPPING

In the work one researches the legal basis for the functioning of services that ensure the safety of navigation in the first half of the 20th century in the USSR. An important place among such services was occupied by the pilotage service. The features of the legal regulation of its activities based on the key legal acts of the studied period are considered. Among them are the «Pilot charter of sea pilots of the RSFSR» dated June 3, 1922, the USSR Council of People’s Commissars decree «On state sea pilots» dated July 25, 1926, the USSR Council of People’s Commissars decree «On harbor pilots» issued on January 15, 1927, and the USSR’s first Merchant Shipping Code dated June 14, 1929. An equally important role in ensuring the safety of navigation in the first half of the twentieth century in the USSR, according to international conventions and legislation of the USSR, was played by the communications service, which ensures the operation of radio stations serving merchant ships. The work examines the main legal acts, regulating the functioning of radio communications in the USSR in the first half of the twentieth century. The difficulties and shortcomings that have arisen in the use of radio stations and the ways out of the solution are noted in the archival documents used in the work.

Light industry during the years of the Kosygin reform (1965–1970): analysis of the growth rates of the total volume of light industry output based on reference books on Soviet industry and Consolidated reports of the Central Statistical Administration of the USSR Council of Ministers

The article represents indices of the Soviet Union’s light industry, such as gross output, rate of growth of gross output during the eighth five-year plan. The data for statistical analysis were taken from industrial reference books and the Central Statistical Administration of the Council of Ministers of the USSR’s archive fund. Problem of the research is disparity of same indices in different sources. During a statistical analysis arithmetical mean was count for each analysed index, and it was discovered which source’s data were the closest to the means.

“In the National Economy, Processes, to which we Cannot Close Our Eyes, are Aggravated”: Problems of USSR in the First Half of the 1980s (Materials of the N. I. Ryzhkov Foundation)

The question of the crisis of the USSR economy on the eve of “perestroika” is considered. Attention is paid to archival documents, which are introduced into active scientific circulation for the first time. The question of political and ideological support for the transformation of society and economy in the late USSR is raised. The results of a comparative analysis of documents of the official authorities and the expert community are presented. The research focuses on declassified archival materials deposited in the fund of the former chairman of the USSR Council of Ministers N. I. Ryzhkov (F. 653 — Nikolai Ivanovich Ryzhkov) of the Russian State Archive of Social and Political History (RGA SPI). The novelty of the study is seen in the fact that the analyzed documents allow shedding light on unknown crisis phenomena in the economic life of the USSR. In the course of the work, a circle of institutions was identified that monitored the socio-economic situation in the USSR in the first half of the 1980s. The relevance of the study is due to the problems of building a welfare state in modern Russia, improving the relationship between the center and regions in the Russian Federation. Analytical letters of representatives of the academic community and government agencies are studied. The theoretical basis of the work is connected with the ideas of M. A. Beznin and T. M. Dimoni about protobuzhuisia and state capitalism in the USSR, G. G. Popov about the latent conflict in the USSR between the power of experts and political functionaries.

Ostarbeiters: The Dynamics of Perceptions and Images in the USSR and Modern Russia

История остарбайтеров – одна из трагических и малоизученных страниц Великой Отечественной войны. Цель статьи – исследовать трансформацию образов и представлений о «восточных рабочих» в СССР и современной России. Основными источниками стали оккупационные и советские газеты, плакаты, художественная литература, исторические исследования, интернет-архивы и другие проекты. Авторы опирались на системный подход, ситуационный и источниковедческий анализ. В годы войны оккупационные газеты и плакаты пропагандировали преимущества работы в Германии для советских граждан, в то время как советская печать, напротив, подчеркивала тяжелое положение «остовцев». После войны публикации о них практически прекратились. Интерес к теме возобновился с выходом романа Виталия Сёмина. Профессиональные исследования истории остарбайтеров начались в 1990-х гг. благодаря рассекречиванию архивов. В последнее время в связи с уходом из жизни бывших «восточных рабочих» интерес к их истории постепенно снижается. The history of “Eastern workers” (Ostarbeiters) is one of the most tragic problems of the Great Patriotic War. Ostarbeiters were citizens of the USSR forced to work in Germany during the Great Patriotic War. The aim of the article is to investigate the transformation of the scientific, popular, and artistic images of “Eastern workers” in the USSR and in modern Russia. The sources of the study were occupation and Soviet newspapers, posters, fiction, historical research, Internet archives, and other projects. The authors used a systematic approach, a situational analysis and a source study of historical sources. Occupation newspapers and German posters created ideas about the benefits of working in Germany for Soviet citizens. These propaganda images were little in line with reality. On the contrary, the Soviet press emphasized the cruelty of the German masters, the slave fate of the Ostarbeiters. These ideas were supposed to create a sense of hatred towards the enemy among Soviet soldiers. In August 1944, the Soviet government decided to return (repatriate) all Soviet citizens from abroad. The Council of People’s Commissars of the USSR created the Department of the Commissioner of the USSR Council of People’s Commissars for the Repatriation of Soviet citizens. The staff of the Department urged the “Eastern workers” to return home. Soviet authors accused the British and American military administration of disrupting the repatriation of Soviet citizens. In their homeland, however, many migrant workers experienced discrimination and concealed their work in Germany. Publications about “Eastern workers” in the USSR almost stopped in the post-war period. The history of the Ostarbeiters was forgotten for many years. It was only in 1976 when the memory-based novel by the Rostov writer Vitaly Semin The OST Chest Badgewas published. The novel was the first deep experience of comprehending the dramatic fates of “Eastern workers” in an artistic form. In the years of the Perestroika, other artistic works about the Ostarbeiters appeared. Professional historical research on the Ostarbeiters began in the 1990s after the declassification of archives. Contemporary historians study various aspects of the subject based on official documents, memories, and other sources. German compensation to the Ostarbeiters helped to increase public interest in the history of the “Eastern workers”. Former Ostarbeiters started to actively talk about their fate and publish memoirs. The first Internet archive of interviews with the Ostarbeiters appeared. However, with the demise of the “Eastern workers”, interest in their history gradually decreases.

Prehistory of Volgograd State University. 1971–1980

Introduction. The authors analyze the process of establishing a state university in Volgograd, the last university set up in the RSFSR during the existence of the USSR. Materials. This study is based on the basis of archival materials first introduced into scientific use (State Archive of the Russian Federation (SARF), Russian State Archive of Recent History (RSARH), Center of Recent History Documentation of Volgograd Region (CRHDVO)). Analysis and Results. The initial idea of the representatives of governing bodies in Volgograd region to organize a university on the basis of Volgograd Polytechnic Institute did not find support from the leadership of the country in 1971. In 1972 it was decided to start organizing a new type of higher education institution for Volgograd, that is a classic university. This idea found support in Moscow, which was manifested in the resolutions of the Secretariat of the CPSU Central Committee in 1973 and the USSR Council of Ministers and the RSFSR Council of Ministers in 1974. The necessity for creating appropriate educational and teaching resources and facilities, the manpower problem and insufficient funds led to postponing initially proposed dates for the University opening from 1974 to 1978, and then to 1980. The first admission of students in 1980 was in the building of a comprehensive school specially built for this purpose near the future University complex, the first building of which would be put into service only in 1983. The issue of the development of the young University was under the constant control of the Council of Ministers of the RSFSR for many years. Only in March 1986 it was decided to discontinue supervision over the resolution of the Council of Ministers of the RSFSR no. 561 of October 21, 1974.

Transformative Visions during the Brezhnev Era

During the 1970s in the USSR, several Soviet republics established national parks. While the Soviet Council of Ministers had to pass a law giving national parks union status before the RSFSR could establish national parks, numerous park projects were conceived throughout Russia during this era. The attention that the Soviet government gave to environmental protection fueled their hopes. At the same time, Russian environmentalists became increasingly frustrated by the slow push toward establishing a law giving national parks union status as they discussed the future form that Russia’s parks would take. Passed by the USSR Council of Ministers in 1981, the law recognizing national parks left many long-debated issues unresolved and laid the groundwork for conflicts between Russia’s national parks and local populations.