A Promissory Note on a Wooden Tablet from Mangazeya

The reason that prompted the authors to write this article was an archaeological artifact (found in 2009 during excavations of the Mangazeya settlement) in the form of a pine tablet with Cyrillic letters carved on it. The analysis of the inscription demonstrates that it was neither an educational text nor a meaningless set of letters. This was a completely coherent document, called “a debt bondage” (Rus. кабала) in the seventeenth century and earlier and “a promissory note” later. The document refers to private legal acts, but due to the absence of surnames and the names of witnesses confirming its contents, it is difficult to consider this promissory note a completed legal act. The appearance and content of the tablet refer to similar private legal acts from the northwest of Russia (Veliky Novgorod and Pskov) and demonstrate certain archaic features. This proves the survivability of northern Russian culture in colonised northern Siberia (where for obvious reasons there was a deficit of paper, an already common material in the seventeenth century). The promissory note from Mangazeya is a sample of everyday writing, a rather archaic form of private legal act that existed in the Novgorodian north long before the start of the Russian colonisation of Siberia.

Urban Bridge Construction in the European Northwest of Russia as Part of the Country’s Modernization in the 19th – Early 20th Centuries

Urban bridge construction in Russia remains a largely unexplored topic. At the moment, the vast majority of studies devoted to the history of bridge building (mostly, specialized technical literature) do not consider this topic as a subject of historical research proper. Regional studies rarely focus on urban bridge building. Research into this topic as part of a large modernization process allows us to identify the characteristic features inherent in bridge building in Russia’s regional centres in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The purpose of this article is to study urban bridge construction in the European Northwest of Russia as part of the country’s modernization. The sources include records of the State Archives of the Arkhangelsk Region and published documents on the history of Vologda. The author applied the comparative historical and historical-systematic method, as well as modernization theory. The article analyses various modernization approaches to the study of Russian history, examines the development of bridge construction in the 19th century and its implementation in a number of cities in the European Northwest, highlighting the specifics of each case as well as general features typical of the country as a whole. In conclusion, the characteristic features of urban bridge building in Russia during the period under study and their connection with the country’s modernization are identified. It should be mentioned that this paper is one of the first attempts to analyse the development of bridge construction in Russia from the point of view of historical science. Its results can be used for research into the history of the modernization process in Russian regions, as well as in the preparation of specialized historical works on the development of bridge construction.

Recruitment in 1710–1711 and Distribution of Recruits to the Garrisons of Northwestern Russia

Introduction. The article considers the issues related to the distribution of recruits among garrison regiments in the fortresses of northwestern Russia in 1711–1712. In Russian historiography, the history of recruitment has been repeatedly considered, although, researchers did not pay attention to the distribution of recruits among the regiments. Methods and materials. In the archives of various departments documents have been preserved that make it possible to identify some details of the direction of recruitment in 1710–1711. Most of the documents on the issue of interest to us are stored in the fund of the Office of A.D. Menshikov; important documents were also found in the archives of the Artillery and Naval Departments. Analysis. According to the data at our disposal, it was from 1711 that the practice of sending recruits to the garrison regiments began, where they underwent initial military training, and then were sent to units of the field army (and new recruits were sent to their places). The recruitments of 1711 were officially announced in connection with the war against Turkey and the Prut campaign of the Russian army. However, at the same time, there was a need to replenish garrison regiments of fortresses in the northwest of Russia, and the recruits began to be sent there. Apparently, the recruits of 1710 and the first recruitment of 1711 were used for this. At the same time, the garrisons of the Baltic fortresses (Riga and Revel) were formed from regiments fully staffed with recruits. Results. Initially, the principle of recruiting garrison regiments was established spontaneously, but later it was used, and documents found in the archives of the Artillery and Naval Departments, as well as in the fund of the Office of A.D. Menshikov, allow us to trace this.

Translation problems. The experience of reading one interpretation of religious life: A Review of J. V. Kormina, Palomniki: etnograficheskie ocherki pravoslavnogo nomadizma [Pilgrims: Ethnographic Sketches of Orthodox Nomadism]

The study is the result of many years of work by Jeanne Kormina among contemporary Orthodox believers in Russia. It is based on the methodological approaches of the anthropology of pilgrimage; the author describes the mobile life of modern pilgrims in the northwest of Russia on the basis of rich field material. Contextualizing the approaches adopted in the English-language literature, Kormina discovers such a phenomenon as Orthodox nomadism, which is a completely special and previously not described type of religious sociality. Nevertheless, it is worth noting that the author does not clearly define the employed terms; as a consequence, she often extends her conclusions not only to the studied “weekend pilgrims”, but also to the Orthodox in general. Lastly, this work allows us to continue the discussion about the influence of the identity of the researcher on their interpretations in the field of anthropology of religion.

TOPONYMS AND TERMS GORODOK IN NOVGOROD-PSKOV-TVER LANDS

The article presents large factual material showing the specifics of the distribution of geographical names Gorodok in a number of regions in the northwest of Russia. There are especially many such names in the Novgorod and Tver regions, where they directly mark the places of ancient fortified settlements and fenced burial grounds or indicate villages near such places of interest from an archaeological point of view. A large number of microtoponyms allows us to speak of the popular topographic term gorodok with the meaning ‘an elevated place, a tract with which the stay of ancient people is associated'. This dialectal term must be distinguished from the all-Russian term gorodok, which is actively used in the urban toponymy of the XX-XXI centuries.