An Unknown Prayer of Akindynos in the 12th Century Russian Manuscript and an Attempt to Create the Russian “Minuscule”

The article is devoted to the unknown prayer to St. John Damascene preserved on the margins of the oldest Russian 12th century copy of the “Theology” by this Orthodox thinker. Its text is badly damaged and almost not readable. It has been visualized by the multispectral method with subsequent digital processing and published in this work. The text of the prayer was written in a unique type of ligature writing, which has only survived in one more codex. On the basis of codicological, paleographic and historical data, both texts have been dated to the last third of the 14th century and localized in Moscow. The article puts forward a hypothesis about the connection of the unusual ligature writing with the metropolitan scriptorium at the Moscow Chudov Monastery where there were Greek manuscripts at that time and new translations of liturgical texts were underway. Its appearance was probably due to the need of creating a new book letter design instead of the “ustav” (majuscule) in order to speed up the scribe’s work and save parchment. The original solution was inspired by the Greek ligature script and minuscule. However, this artificial style of writing did not spread out; the “ustav” was soon replaced by the “poluustav” letter form.

Hymnographic Texts Devoted to Saint John the Russian from 19th — Early 20th Centuries and the Evolution of the Saint’s Cult

The present article deals with the evolution of the hymnographic discourse devoted to St. John the Russian in the Greek and Russian traditions, and to the Turkish-language sources of the certain traditions. The research was carried out on the basis of the material of three editions of the Greek Service to St. John the Russian from the middle and the end of 19th century and Russian manuscripts from the archive of the Russian St. Panteleimon Monastery on Mount Athos from the 19th — early 20th centuries. Special consideration was given to the changes in the image of the saint caused by the text transfer to another language and the reception of the cult in the target culture. The evolution of the cult of the Saint which follows the expansion of the geographical and ethnic borders of his veneration, and the role of the St. Panteleimon monastery on Athos in this process are also discussed.

History of Post-Soviet Migrations in Russian Science of the 21st Century

The paper is devoted to the latest Russian historiography of migration processes in the post-Soviet space. The author considers the most important research projects of academic institutions and universities of Russia in the field of history and modern dynamics of post-Soviet migrations, covers key trends and results of the development of migration issues in the framework of various areas of Russian science. The author comes to the conclusion about the need for further in-depth development of the recent history and modern trends in the migration policy of the CIS countries, the role of migration in the dialogue of cultures and civilizations in the post-Soviet space, including within the framework of international cooperation of Eurasian scientists.

The Jewish Community of Late Byzantine Thessalonica: the Problem of Determining Its Status

In this article, the author turns to an examination of the status of the Jewish community in Thessalonica in the late Byzantine period. The author concludes that both in the Byzantine era and during the Venetian rule in Thessalonica, the Jewish community of the city was subjected to numerous restrictions and prohibitions on the part of the official authorities. The reason for this was the initial isolation of the community, as well as the fact that the Jews, in contrast to the rest of the townspeople, owned vast financial resources and rented trading floors, ousting local entrepreneurs from there. The Jewish community in Thessalonica, quite numerous by the standards of contemporaries, in the XIV and XV centuries was in a state of permanent conflict with the church authorities of the city and, probably, had some influence on the communities of Judaizing Christians.

The Taste of War: the Danish Collaborationism under the German Occupation in 1940—1945

The article deals with the phenomenon of the Danish economic collaboration during the German occupation of Denmark in 1940—1945. The occupation of Denmark is a unique case among other occupied European countries such as France, Belgium and the Netherlands during the Second World War where Germany openly pursued the policy of economic exploitation and introduced strict rationing practices. The peculiar “soft” conduct of the Danish occupation is mainly attributed to the special role Denmark’s agricultural exports played in the German war economy. Under the occupation the efficient system of production and food consumption control was devised in Denmark which met the interests and needs of both the Danish population and Germany’s economy. The article highlights the specific mechanisms of economic coordination between Denmark and the German occupation authorities within industry and agriculture, and reveals Denmark’s role in the German military and economic plans.

The French in Egypt in 1798—1801: Failed Dialogue of Civilizations

The article is devoted to the problem of cross-cultural interaction between the French and the Arabs during the Egyptian expedition of Napoleon Bonaparte 1798—1801. Using a comparative analysis of a wide range of French sources and Arab chronicles, the author comes to the conclusion that Bonaparte's attempt at an inter-civilizational dialogue with the Muslim population of Egypt ended in complete failure. Based on the stereotypical ideas about the Orient, common in the French literature of the Enlightenment, Napoleon tried to play in Egypt the same role that, according to the French philosophers, the Prophet Muhammad allegedly played in his time, namely, to take advantage of the “credulity” and “superstition” of the local population to subordinate it to his power. However, the Egyptians were very skeptical concerning Bonaparte's claims about the French army's commitment to Islam and his attempts to present himself as the Mahdi, the prophet of the last times. The daily practices of the occupiers, which openly contradicted the culture of Islam, completely alienated the Muslims from the French, which resulted not only in their mutual misunderstanding, but also in real hatred for each other.

Economic Aspects of the Finnish Occupation of Karelia (1941—1944)

The article is devoted to an insufficiently studied problem in Russian and Finnish historiography — the economic policy of the Finnish regime in the occupied territory of Soviet (Eastern) Karelia in 1941—1944. Taking into account that this territory was to become an integral part of Greater Finland, the occupation administration in the first period of occupation set the task of economic restoration and development of the occupied regions of Karelia. But during this period, first of all, industrial and economic facilities were restored, which met the needs of the Finnish army. The central place in the economic policy of the Finnish occupation regime was occupied by the plans of intensive harvesting of Karelian timber and its export to Finland. Economic policy has been changing since 1943, when Finland realized that Germany would be defeated by the USSR. A direct plunder of the natural and material wealth of Karelia begins, the destruction of industrial facilities and the export of equipment to Finland. After Finland's withdrawal from the war in September 1944, the Finnish government partially compensated for the damage caused to the economy of Karelia.

The Urban Environment and Medieval Social Strategies

The article discusses the issue of the so-called segregation norms against Muslims that emerged in the fourteenth century in Christian Law. The author analyzes source material relating to the history of the Crown of Aragon and raises the following question: is it possible to trace any connection between the urban environment and those social strategies that were applied to the infidels in the Middle Ages? Such research optics makes it possible to distinguish several types of segregation laws, some of which were a product of the urban environment and urban culture, which is substantiated by the author on the basis of the royal ordonnances, capitulae of the Valencian Cortes, Fuero of Valencia. The author discusses new legal norms that contradicted the early privileges for Muslims (12th — 13th centuries) and regulated Muslims’ appearance (a distinctive sign on clothes, a special hairstyle), their right to live together or next to Christians, their work on Sundays and Christian holidays, and also prohibited the public call to prayer. Paradoxically, these norms, being aimed at restricting the rights of the infidels (i.e. the Others), were formulated under the influence of the urban environment, in a settlement that was heterogeneous in its genesis and diverse in its nature. The Iberian-Latin civilization, which accumulated the human capital of the Muslim civilization in the course of the Reconquista, began to change its own social strategies in the management of Muslims in the fourteenth century. The experience of the cities was crucial in this process.

Legal Practice in the Southern Leon and Castile of the 12th Century: a Borderline State

The article is devoted to the legal history of the lands of the Kingdom of Toledo in the first two hundred years after the Christian reconquest. The assimilation of the conquered lands by the new political power, preserving the border position, leads to the emergence of a special legal tradition, typical for other similar territories, which received the general name “extremadura” — “borderland”. The Fueros, created in the Kingdom of Toledo, from the very beginning, firmly linked the territorial and personal nature of the legal norms included in their texts. The formation of local legal traditions took place with the active participation of the local elite, which was reflected in the editing of Fuero texts. The inhabitants of Toledo were supposed to use the Visigothic "Liber iudiciorum" as a normative basis for legal proceedings, but at the same time maintained the legitimate possibility of resorting to norms of a different origin, the so-called “Fuero of Castilians”. The lack of a strict systematization in the legal framework of the proceedings was reflected in the organization of judicial officials in Toledo. The good preservation of the local act material allows us to consider in more detail the practical implementation of the legal norm in the process of judicial proceedings, recorded in Arabic in the protocol of the end of the 8th century.