Russian Tsar as Cakravartin

Based on Russian archival documents and hitherto poorly known primary sources, Nikolay Tsyrempilov’s paper is a study of the Buryat Buddhist perception and interpretation of the Russian emperors’ enthronement ceremonies. Buryat Buddhist hierarchs were among the many Central Asian elites invited to the coronation of Tsar Nicholas II in 1896. The paper argues that the Buddhists did not simply share their Orthodox counterparts’ understanding of the ceremony, but also gave new meaning to it within the frames of their own religious worldview and Buddhist conceptions of kingship. In this understanding, Moscow and St. Petersburg became Pure Lands made holy thanks to the presence of an enlightened deity, the Tsar.

Russian Archival Documents on the Revitalization of Buddhism Among the Kalmyks in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries

Baatr Kitinov’s paper uses Russian archival documents to examine the late nineteenth century revitalisation of Buddhism among the Russian Kalmyk population. He identifies three stages in this process: 1. 1860–1880, when Mongols wanted to “find” an incarnation of the Seventh Jebtsundamba Khutughtu among the Kalmyks (“Turgut”) in Russia or Olüts in Chinese Xinjiang; 2. 1880–1904, when the Dalai Lama was in Mongolia and Kalmyks traveled to Tibet; and 3. from 1904 to the first years of Soviet power, during which they maintained close contacts with the Dalai Lama. He also identifies three internal factors for the revitalization of Buddhism amongst the Kalmyks: 1. the revival of Tantrism in khurul practices; 2. the presence of Buddhists from other lands among Kalmyks; 3. and the Russian authorities permitting Kalmyks to visit the Dalai Lama in Urga.

«Asian Backstage Diplomacy» in Building Bridges Between the USSR and Great Britain in 1924

В статье исследуется роль и место «азиатской периферии» в период установления британо-российских отношений в 1924 г. Британские архивные документы позволяют сделать вывод о сохранявшейся значимости для британской стороны действий СССР в сопредельных с британской Индией странах. Одновременно британские дипломатические службы и разведывательное сообщество обращало особое внимание на складывавшуюся в советской Центральной Азии обстановку с целью выяснения возможного её влияния на британские позиции в регионе, а также советское продвижение на Восток в приграничные государства. В статье делается вывод о стремлении лейбористского правительства Макдональда избежать обострения взаимоотношений с СССР во имя достижения главной цели – подписания и ратификации договоров с Москвой несмотря на очевидные активные действия последней в индийском прикордонье. Автор приводит документальные свидетельства и оценки британскими дипломатами, а также военными действий СССР как в самой Центральной Азии, где советское руководство начинало проводить новую национально-территориальную политику, так и в приграничных с ней странах. The study examines the role of the Asian periphery in the establishment of diplomatic relations between the USSR and Great Britain in 1924. British archival documents suggest that the United Kingdom regarded Soviet activities in countries bordering British India as extremely important. At the same time, the British foreign office and intelligence were paying close attention to the situation that was unfolding in Soviet Central Asia, trying to assess its impact on the British standing in the region, as well as the possible Soviet expansion eastwards into the neighboring countries. The article concludes that MacDonald's Labour government wanted to avoid confrontation with the USSR in order to attain its main goal — signing and ratifying agreements with the Soviet state, despite it being rather active near the borders of India. The author cites documents and assessments by British diplomats and military officers. These sources cover both Soviet actions in Central Asia itself, where the USSR leadership was beginning to pursue a new national and territorial policy, as well as in the countries bordering that region.

Revisiting the Past to Understand the Present: The Linguistic Ecology of the Singapore Deaf Community and the Historical Evolution of Singapore Sign Language (SgSL)

Singapore, a young nation with a colonial past from 1819, has seen drastic changes in the sociolinguistic landscape, which has left indelible marks on the Singapore society and the Singapore deaf community. The country has experienced many political and social transitions from British colonialism to attaining independence in 1965 and thereafter. Since independence, English-based bilingualism has been vigorously promoted as part of nation-building. While the roles of the multiple languages in use in Singapore feature prominently in the discourse on language planning, historical records show no mention of how these impacts on the deaf community. The first documented deaf person in archival documents is a Chinese deaf immigrant from Shanghai who established the first deaf school in Singapore in 1954 teaching Shanghainese Sign Language (SSL) and Mandarin. Since then, the Singapore deaf community has seen many shifts and transitions in education programming for deaf children, which has also been largely influenced by exogeneous factors such as trends in deaf education in the United States A pivotal change that has far-reaching impact on the deaf community today, is the introduction of Signing Exact English (SEE) in 1976. This was in keeping with the statal English-based bilingual narrative. The subsequent decision to replace SSL with SEE has dramatic consequences for the current members of the deaf community resulting in internal divisions and fractiousness with lasting implications for the cohesion of the community. This publication traces the origins of Singapore Sign Language (SgSL) by giving readers (and future scholars) a road map on key issues and moments in this history. Bi- and multi-lingualism in Singapore as well as external forces will also be discussed from a social and historical perspective, along with the interplay of different forms of language ideologies. All the different sign languages and sign systems as well as the written/spoken languages used in Singapore, interact and compete with as well as influence each other. There will be an exploration of how both internal factors (local language ecology) and external factors (international trends and developments in deaf education), impact on how members of the deaf community negotiate their deaf identities.

Agents of Change in the Domestic Built Environment

As our cities age, a large number of spatial structures experience physical change. A better understanding of what this process may entail and the agents involved in it can extend the knowledge of practitioners, activists, and policy experts regarding the resilience of our domestic building stock and cities. Awan et al. (2013) explain that agents are not entirely free from societal and spatial constraints; instead, they are characterised by intent, shaped by their own visions and actions, and context, the spatial and social structures of which they are part and which they negotiate. This article discusses the intent and context of the agents involved in the construction and transformation of the Cité Ouvrière in Mulhouse in Eastern France from the mid-19th century to date. With 1,253 houses built for the workers of the Dollfus-Mieg et Compagnie (DMC) textile factory between 1853 and 1897, Cité Ouvrière was the largest and most successful employer-constructed housing scheme of its time, setting an example for many other European company towns. Through this exceptional case study, the article identifies the levels at which spatial agents operate, the means they use to instigate change, their dynamic relations, and the ways these are influenced by the wider historical context while influencing the making and evolution of the built form. Using historical and archival documents, it amounts to recognise an interplay of individuals and public and private groups, who have been responsible for taking decisions at different scales—the city, the neighbourhood, and the houses—and have instigated changes of different effect—from more localised to more aggregate.

Special Troika of the Krasnoyarsk NKVD: the Number of the Repressed in the Fall of 1938

The research featured the Special Troika of the Krasnoyarsk Territory, i.e. a committee of three officials who issued sentences without public trial. The authors focused on the number of the convicted on the so-called ethnic cases during the late Great Terror in the fall of 1938. The study was based on the archival documents of the Special Troika of the Krasnoyarsk Territory. According to the protocols, 1,894 local residents were found guilty in the ethnic cases in in the fall of 1938. Out of 1,690 people who were sentenced to capital punishment, less than 1% were executed. On November 26, 1938, the NKVD issued Order No. 00762, which marked the end of the Great Terror and recommended to transfer the remaining cases to the courts. Those convicted on the last day of mass repressions were released, and the NKVD authorities were forbidden to carry out sentences approved by the Special Troika after November 15, 1938. On December 22, 1938, People's Commissar of Internal Affairs L. P. Beria declared that all execution sentences issued by the Troika before November 17, 1928, became invalid.

An Episode from the History of Moscow Pushkin Studies

This article reconstructs the history of a circle which existed in Moscow in the 1920s and was devoted to the study of Pushkinʼs work, primarily the novel “Eugene Onegin”. The circleʼs members included G. Chulkov, V. Veresaev, Yu. Verkhovsky and I. Novikov, philologist L. Grossman, actors V. Luzhsky and L. Leonidov. Rare archival documents have been used to reconstruct the work of this literary group, the topics discussed at its meetings, and the general methodology of their approach to reading and commenting on texts.

«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.

Комсомольская организация Калмыкии и ее антирелигиозная деятельность (1921–1941 гг.)

The article aims to examine episodes of anti-religious activity of the Komsomol organization of Kalmykia in 1921–1941. The research is based on archival and published materials. The analysis of archival documents shows that despite the anti-religious policy actively pursued by Soviet authorities, the local party and Komsomol organizations failed to establish a system of effective anti-religious propaganda in Kalmykia. Notably, in their anti-religious activity, the Komsomol members had to deal with the multi-confessional population in Kalmykia. Granted the lack of guidelines for organizing the campaign against Buddhism, they often had to rely on practices used in the anti-religious work against Christianity: e.g., to follow the successful example of ‘Komsomol’ Christmas, the Tsagan Sar and other Kalmyk holidays were also introduced as ‘Komsomol’ events. Also, it was recommended that in their anti-religious work, the Komsomol activists were to take advantage of the split of the Buddhist clergy. After repressions against the clergy of all confessions that took place in the late 1930s, the anti-religious activity of the Komsomol organization in Kalmykia was reduced to formal work.