On Emergence of Institute of Commissioners of Council for Religious Cults under the Council of People’s Commissars of the RSFSR in 1944–1945

The article deals with Muslim religious fi gures (imams, seyids, abyzs, muezzins, mullahs) of the Tatar Sloboda of Moscow, located in the Zamoskvorechye district, of the 17th-18th centuries. Many names and details of the life of religious fi gures are for the fi rst time described by means of use of documents of the Russian State Archive of Ancient Acts and the Central Historical Archive of Moscow. The Council for Religious Aff airs under the Council of People’s Commissars of the USSR, created in May and June 1944, faced a number of problems from the very beginning of its work. One of them was the creation of new posts in the regions those authorized by this Council. Some of the leaders of the regions of the USSR believed that such positions were not necessary. In many respects, this attitude resulted in diffi culties in the work of the authorized representatives of this Council: delays in the allocation of specially equipped offi ces, sending on long business trips not related to the performance of duties, failure to comply with the decisions of the state leadership on the payment of salaries to the authorized representatives, which should have corresponded to their position. Despite the measures taken from the fi rst days by the leadership of the Council, relying on the leadership of the USSR, many of the problems associated with the commissioners, primarily with the staffi ng of their staff , both in quality and quantity, in the 1940s became chronic and did not were resolved during these years. In many ways, a signifi cant part of the diffi culties in the work of the commissioners arose from ignorance and failure to comply with a set of offi cial documents, including service letters and instructions. Analysis of various aspects of the activities of the authorized representatives of the Council for Religious Aff airs is not only purely theoretical, but also of great practical importance for the authorities at all levels, which interact with religious organizations in their daily work.

Imams of the Tatar Sloboda in Moscow (17th – 18th Centuries)

The article deals with Muslim religious fi gures (imams, seyids, abyzs, muezzins, mullahs) of the Tatar Sloboda of Moscow, located in the Zamoskvorechye district, of the 17th-18th centuries. Many names and details of the life of religious fi gures are for the fi rst time described by means of use of documents of the Russian State Archive of Ancient Acts and the Central Historical Archive of Moscow.

Governance Sensitivities and the Politics of Translation: Rethinking the Colonisation of the Shuar of Ecuador's Amazonian South-East

The article analyses two delegated governance projects carried out in Ecuador's Amazonian south-east in the twentieth century. In collaboration with the military and public institutions, two Catholic missions, the Salesian and the Franciscan, were central actors in the colonising of an area inhabited by the Shuar. Considering the wider historical and ethnographic regional context and focusing on practices of cultural translation and territorial politics, I discuss the two missions’ divergent governance sensitivities vis-à-vis the Shuar. ‘Governance sensitivities’ refers in this context to the colonial actors’ capability to recognise colonised subjects as culturally distinct. I combine new empirical material from the historical archive of the Franciscans in Zamora with secondary sources in order to analyse how differences between the two missions’ sensitivity and insensitivity to Shuar otherness became especially prevalent in the 1960s and 70s. The divergent ways the Salesians and Franciscans perceived the Shuar colonial subject had consequences for how they engaged in the protection of Shuar land and for how they contributed to facilitating or holding back indigenous political organisation.

“Please Send Us a Priest of Our German Nationality…”: The Confessional/Ethnic in the Worldview of the Siberian Catholics

The study is devoted to the analysis of the correlation of the confessional element with the ethnic element within the construction of "ethnoconfession" for the Catholic Germans of Siberia. The relevance of the study of the topic is dictated by the modern processes of ethnic and confessional identification/self-identification that have replaced globalization. Notably, due to the multi-ethnic and multi-confessional nature of the Siberian population, a peculiar and unique concept of the frontier has developed, determined by historians as the “Siberian frontier”. The temporal boundaries of the study include the twentieth century: from the moment of mass migrations from the Crimea, the Volga region and Ukraine to the Trans-Urals in the context of the Stolypin agrarian reform to the beginning of the active return movement of Russian Germans to Germany. The methodological basis of the study was the work of both ethnographers and sociologists. The content analysis method revealed the peculiarities of the mentality of representatives of various confessional groups within the German ethnic group. The research is based on the materials of the Russian State Historical Archive. The conclusions about the importance of confessional self-awareness are important for the self-identification and successful socialization of Russian Germans. The article is intended for specialists in the field of history and ethnography of Russian Germans, as well as for researchers interested in the features of frontier communications in Siberia.

Edición y estudio de la Capitulación, asiento y concordia acordada por el marqués de Villena con los vecinos de san Juan de Villamalea (1516-1531)

This article tries to elucidate the historical circumstances of the text Capitulación, asiento y concordia acordada por el marqués de Villena con los vecinos de San Juan de Villamalea, which has been transmitted from an indirect tradition in two apograph manuscripts kept in the Municipal Archive of Villamalea (Albacete) and in the Historical Archive of the Nobility (Toledo).

Einaudi and Cooperative Education Association (MCE). Traces of a project for the elementary school (1966-67)

The aim of this paper is to show the editorial relationship between the Einaudi publishing house and the Cooperative Education Association (MCE) during the second half of the Sixties. The members of the Association were looking for an editor willing to spread their pedagogical instances for the renewal of the Italian school and they found it in Einaudi. Thanks to the study of the correspondence and the documentation preserved in the Giulio Einaudi Editore Historical Archive, it has been possible to analyze a project of textbooks for the elementary school, made in collaboration with relevant members of the Association such as Gianni Rodari, Mario Lodi, Giuseppe Tamagnini and Bruno Ciari. The collections were never published, in part for financial reasons, but also because of the rising debate around the textbooks. The opinion of the Association in the late Sixties was changed: the point was not to renew the textbooks but to abolish them. Understanding the reasons of the end of this project might help to clarify the pedagogical impact of the cultural and social changes of that period, the relationship between education and politics. Moreover, it is not by chance that from the ashes of this project took shape The wrong country (Il paese sbagliato), a masterpiece written by Mario Lodi destined to become a classic for the history of education.

Assessing the Fisheries and Ecosystem Structure of the Largest Greek Lake (Lake Trichonis)

An Ecopath with Ecosim (EwE) modeling approach was used to explore the ecological structure of the largest lake in Greece (Lake Trichonis). Until the mid-1990s, the lake was receiving a high level of pollution and the fishing pressure was intense, while since the early 2000s, fisheries and other human pressures gradually declined. Nowadays, the lake’s fisheries mainly target Atherina boyeri due to the absence of market demand for the other fish species in the lake, resulting in a low overall fisheries pressure on the fish stocks. The model was built with data collected through: (a) field samplings, (b) in-depth targeted interviews of professional fishermen and (c) historical archive information. The model considered 22 functional groups, while fishing activities were represented by three classes according to the used gears. The outputs of the model revealed that the ecosystem is dominated by low trophic level species (also identified as keystone species), indicating the significance of bottom-up control in the regulation of food web processes. Ecological indicators depicted that the lake’s ecosystem is mature and resilient to external disturbances. The methodological approach used in this study was shown to be helpful for studies addressing ecosystem structure, in particular with limited data availability.

Mujeres: Guerra Civil y represión en Alicante

Este artículo presenta fuentes documentales sobre mujer, guerra civil y represión franquista, custodiadas en el grupo de los archivos históricos provinciales, utilizando como referencia el Archivo Histórico Provincial de Alicante. Un campo de investigación indispensable para entender nuestra historia reciente. This article presents documentary sources on women, civil war and Francoist repression, kept in the group of provincial historical archives, using the Alicante Provincial Historical Archive as a reference. An indispensable field of research to understand our recent history.

Public Resistance in the National Liberation Movement of Poles in Right-Bank Ukraine in the First Half of the 1860s (From the Central State Historical Archive of Ukraine, Kyiv)

The article covers important manifestations and specifics of the protest culture of the Polish community within the South-Western region of the Russian Empire in the first half of the 1860s on the basis of analysis and synthesis of information from the documents of "Office of Kyiv, Podillya and Volyn Governor-General" (f.442) and "Office of the trustee of the Kiev school district" (f.707) of the Central State Historical Archive of Ukraine (Kyiv). Defending one's own cultural identity as a driver of national development is connected with the awareness of the political interests and goals of the liberation struggle of Poles. The unique influence of the Polish question on historical processes, the configuration of international relations in Europe during the "long 19th century" determines the relevance and scientific significance of the study and thinking of the history of Polish national and cultural movement. Comprehensive study of the Polish question in the European history of the 19th century is an important part of the scientific perception of interethnic contradictions and antagonisms in the Russian Empire and the reaction of European diplomacy and public opinion, a deeper understanding of the essence of Russian-Polish cultural and civilizational confrontation and its impact on Ukrainian national life. Following the three partitions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (1772, 1793, 1795) most of the territories of this formerly powerful European state were incorporated into the Russian Empire, there was a fierce struggle for cultural and ideological dominance in the region. The Polish national liberation movement of the 1860s, which culminated in the January Uprising of 1863-1864, developed against a background of broad social and cultural resistance to Russian autocracy, manifested in such protest actions as mourning and serving panikhads for dead Poles, singing patriotic Polish songs and hymns, public wearing of national costumes, participation in anti-government manifestations and demonstrations, refusal to read prayers for the emperor in churches, and so on. Clergy and educators, as well as students and pupils, were the driving force behind this protest movement, which had an international resonance

Possibilities to Obtain Higher Education in Germany for Latvian Baltic German Students

With the formation of the Parliamentary Republic of Latvia in the early 1920s, higher education in Latvia underwent the changes that affected the Baltic Germans. The necessity to obtain higher education in the Latvian language was perceived with mixed feelings, and the interest in the establishment and development of the University of Latvia (UL) and involvement in the reorganisation of the Riga Polytechnic Institute (RPI) went hand in hand with the reluctance to accept the full Latvianization of higher education. In the circumstances, the students used contacts established by their student corporations and sought for higher education in Germany, where it could be obtained in German but later equated to the higher education obtained in Latvia. Thus, the aim of the article is to evaluate the possibilities for the Baltic German students from the parliamentary state of Latvia (1920–1934) to study in German universities. The research is based on the documents of UL and Baltic German student corporations from the Latvian State Historical Archive (LVVA), Baltic German student corporation press (journals and anniversary books) kept in the UL Library, UL activity reports (1924–1931) stored in UL Museum history collection and available research on the Baltic German minority in the Parliamentary Republic of Latvia. The study showed that during the parliamentary period, the Latvian Baltic Germans used the state granted minority rights to find alternative ways to obtain higher education in German. The parliamentary system did not discriminate against the Baltic Germans for their use of the German language and allowed them to study in Germany but demanded that their diplomas be equated with the diploma obtained at the UL. The contacts established by student corporations helped Baltic German students to better integrate into the German study environment offering accommodation on the premises of student corporations in Germany. At the same time, additional knowledge through lectures on the political situation of Baltic Germans in the parliamentary state of Latvia did not allow them losing their historical connection with the Baltic region.