THE PROBLEM OF PROPERTY IN THE CONTEXT OF THE LEGAL STATUS OF THE OWNER PEASANTS OF RUSSIA XVIII - FIRST HALF OF XIX CENTURIES

The problem of the correlation of the concept of «property» (or «private property») with the situation in Russia in the pre-reform period is insufficiently studied in historiography. There is no definite opinion about the time of the appearance of this concept in the socio-political life of the Russian Empire, about what was considered movable and immovable property (especially in the countryside) then, especially since about the middle of the XVIII century, how the owner (landowner) peasantry was perceived in legislation and in practice in this context – as movable or immovable property of landowners-nobles, whether the owner peasants themselves at that time had rights to movable or immovable property. To study the problem, the author draws on numerous materials of noble projects for solving the peasant question, published by him in a number of collections of documents, as well as data on legislation, memoirs, etc. At the same time, only a part of them is directly used in the study itself. The materials of pre-revolutionary, Soviet and modern Russian historiography, as well as some studies of foreign historians related to this issue, are drawn. As a result of the analysis of sources, literature and materials of his own research, the author first raises questions, offering in some cases certain intermediate solutions, drawing attention to the need for historians to develop a certain consensus on the use of certain concepts in this context, since the materials of legislation and its implementation in the practical life of the prereform time allow for different interpretations. The work is in a certain sense a continuation of the author's research on the main components of serfdom in Russia in the last 1.5 centuries before the peasant reform of 1861.

The problem of defining the women’s status in sugar-refining industry: “woman” – “half-worker” – “worker” (on an example of sugar factories of Kyiv province, 1880s–1900s)

This article regards the problem of defining the women’s status in the sugar-refining industry of the Russia Empire post-reform period. Based on the cases of sugar factories of Kyiv province during the 1880s–1905s, the author illustrates a complicated process of determining the role and the place of female laborers in the professional structure of industrial institutions which relate to this type of industry. Due to the fact that women had been recruited to unqualified parts of the working class (in the majority of cases), they remained at the bottom of the hierarchy of industrial labor. In contrast to men-laborers, who were distributed by the qualification parameter and professional skill (qualified/unqualified labor force), women-laborers were distributed by the gender parameter. Based on the archival materials of the factory inspection funds and in-factory documentation, it was found that working women were most often identified into the category “women” (“zhenschina”), less often as “part-time workers” (“polurabochaya”), and even less often as “workers” (“rabochaya”). It is possible to say that such division differed significantly from the distribution among the male part of the working class (“rabochiy/polurabo- chiy”). After all, a woman working in an industrial space was generally perceived not as a full-fledged unit of labor but as a supplement to qualified male labor. However, the model proposed by the author of this study: “woman” – “semi-worker” – “worker”, opened a different angle, according to which a woman’s professional position was not clearly fixed and could de facto change, regardless of the type of the performed work (qualified or unqualified). As a result, all these sources and evidence allow us to state that the period of industrialization and modernization provided for women (though not significant) a space for opportunities to realize their own work.

Agricultural land use in the post-reform period (2000-2020) in a market economy

The formation of agricultural land use adequate to the tasks of the market economy is the most important task of the post-reform period. Agrarian transformations were of a social and political nature and solved the problems of transition from a planned to a market economy. To implement them, we used not the experience of Russia in previous years, but examples from the practice of advanced economies of the European Union. Therefore, the appearance of such a phenomenon as unused land (in general, characteristic of the crisis periods of the market economy) caused a negative perception. The paper considers this problem as an important social and economic phenomenon and suggests ways to solve it. For this purpose, the technology of identifying and detailed study of the state of the land is proposed. The identification of the natural suitability for the cultivation of the main agricultural crops is confirmed by ensuring sufficient efficiency of crop production. Based on the analysis of the conditions of land use (labor, capital and energy supply) and their legal status, the economic feasibility of involving unused plots in economic turnover is established. This will make it possible to make the necessary and reasonable decisions to restore the land and resource potential of agricultural production. To ensure the controlled and systematic implementation of the program to solve the problem, a state-commercial center is being created in the subject of the Federation, which organizes, controls and finances the activities carried out.

The effect of the Mongol invasion on the townscape of Iranian cities

PurposeThe Mongol invasion caused widespread destruction in many cities; this research studies the destruction course of cities after the Mongol invasion and their reconstruction during the reform period, the change that it brought to the cityscapes of Iranian cities and the difference between the urbanscape of the cities that flourished or were re-established after these destructions with the cities prior to them.Design/methodology/approachThe method of research used is historical interpretation/analysis. The historical texts of pre-Mongolian Persia and texts from the Ilkhanid era are studied, references to the shapes and appearances of Iranian cityscapes are classified, and with the help of contemporary interpretations and existing physical evidence, the urbanscape of these two periods are redrawn and compared to each other.FindingsThe selection of scenic meadows to build the city, the presence of many gardens in the urban patterns and the construction of satellite towns around large cities have been the effects of the Mongol tradition of (Yurt) tent-dwelling on Iranian cities during the reforms. The declining population and the massive migration of artists together with the rethinking of the rulers made the existence of dense cities with multi-storey houses less likely. The tradition of pre-designing the city and buildings and designing open and right-angled pathways continued after the Mongol invasion.Originality/valueThe prevailing belief is that during the Mongol era, only the destruction of cities took place and the Mongols did not create any cities and had no influence on urban development. This research aims to challenge that.

Should China’s Economic Policy Be Resisted?

China's economic policies were transformed during the reform period that started in 1979, when the most populated country in the world adopted market-based reforms. Currently, China not only has grown to become the second largest and mid income economy in the world from one of the world's poorest countries, but also actively advances the free trade policy and fills the developing niches, although the latter has caused some concerns. The Chines active economic policy along with its economic and political strengthening in addition to the tensions with the United States rise the question whether the Chinese economic policy should be resisted? This paper analyses the different aspects of China’s economic policy and intents to answer the question based on the importance of the Chinese role in the world economy and development while the public opinion toward China’s economic strengthening has been considered as well.

Evolution of Institution of Elementary Church School in Ossetia (1860—1917)

The process of development of an elementary church school in Ossetia in the second half of the 19th — early 20th centuries is considered. It is shown that, being under the auspices of the spiritual department, the church school in Ossetia evolved in accordance with the guidelines set by the government policy in the field of education, but the transformation process had its own specifics. It is reported that the establishment and support of church schools was exclusively concerned with the Society for the Restoration of Orthodox Christianity in the Caucasus. It was found that church schools were in demand among the mountain peasantry, who sought to get at least an elementary education that performed important adaptive functions in the context of the collapse of traditional life and the formation of a new social reality in the post-reform period. It is emphasized that the lack of state support over time deprived the parish school of incentives and prospects for development. It is argued that the church school in Ossetia, unable to withstand competition with secular educational institutions, by 1917 was already practically incapable of fulfilling its educational tasks and therefore ceased to satisfy the local population, which began to show interest in secular educational institutions of the elementary level, which more fully met the increased educational demands.

Memory and nostalgia: pre-reform Russia in the minds of the Russian nobility of the second half of the 19th century

This article is devoted to the study of the perception of the pre-reform era by the upper class in the second half of the 19th century, after several years thereof, then decades after the abolition of serfdom. Initial assessments of the peasant reform carried out among the nobility were quite contradictory. They ranged from total rejection and denial to approval of government policies. But all in all, the abolition of serfdom was a turning point in history. The post-reform period of "impoverishment" of the Russian nobility is associated with a rethinking of the place and role of the upper class in society and the state. Not all landowners managed to adapt to the conditions of the post-reform village, they left for the capital, abroad. The diminution of privileges and the loss of the exclusive status of the upper class fueled the mood of nostalgia. The article uses the concept of nostalgia, developed by Svetlana Boym, which provides for the identification of two types of nostalgia: restorative and reflective. Restorative nostalgia manifested itself not only in the collective consciousness of the upper class but became one of the motivations of the conservative policy of Alexander III. Reflective nostalgia was expressed in the growing interest in the study of the culture of noble manors, determined the identity of the upper estate. Overall, it can be argued that nostalgia has become not only an important feature of the collective consciousness of the nobility, but influenced state policy, shaped the image of the future based on the lost past.