THE PROBLEM OF REFORMING THE ARMENIAN VILAYETS OF TURKEY IN THE POLITICS OF THE LEADING POWERS IN 1908-1914

The current problem of the South Caucasus and Russian-Turkish interaction requires constantly to look back to the historical past, where the roots of all Caucasian ethno-territorial conflicts lie. In this regard, the problem of reforming the Armenian vilayets of the Ottoman Empire is urgent for modern international relations. Neither the genocide, nor the current difficulties of the Armenian-Turkish relations can be adequately considered without studying the situation around Armenia at the beginning of the 20th century.Above all, the author examines the problem of reforming the Armenian regions of the Ottoman Empire, taking into account the interests of the leading powers and is placed in the context of the pre-war peace and bloc confrontation. The main research approach of the study is neorealism, which makes the basis of international relations not only states with their interests, but also alliances of states. In addition to the published musical correspondence of Russian diplomats, the work uses sources of personal origin: the memoirs of S. D. Sazonov - the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Empire, the memoirs of the American Ambassador G. Morgenthau, the diary of the Dutch inspector Louis Konstan Westenenk, archival documents with A. Mandelstam's report on reform projects were introduced into scientific circulation. The study released that the most persistent and consistent position on the reforms of the Armenian vilayets was taken by Russia, which sought to secure the Caucasus, adjacent to Turkey. Refugees were striving from the vilayets to the Russian part of Armenia, therefore, calming down the Armenian population in the Turkish part would contribute to stability in the Caucasian outskirts. However, there was no unanimity in the Entente on the Armenian issue, the outbreak of the First World War prevented the implementation of the project prepared on the eve of the war, as a result, everything turned into genocide for the Armenian people.

"PROHIBITATIVE DECREES" OF PETER I IN THE CONTEXT OF THE RUSSIAN ECONOMY OF EARLY MODERN TIME

In 1713-1721 Peter the Great issues a series of interrelated and complementary decrees aimed at the curbing of corruption. In the office documentation of those years, they were called “prohibitive”. At the same time, the tsar is taking energetic organizational measures designed to ensure the practical implementation of this legislation. The author wonders why it is during these years that the monarch is launching an unprecedented fight against corruption. The answer is seen in the fact that this legislation was caused by serious changes in the Russian economy, which gave rise to large-scale and systemic economic crime. First of all, these changes have occurred in the field of finance and taxes. They were associated with the saturation of the national economy with money, the transfer of most of the taxes and fees into monetary form, and the widespread practice of public procurement. The intensification of cash flows with weak control by the state, the access to state funds opened by both officials and private individuals led to a sharp increase in the criminalization of the economy. Thus, Peter's “prohibitive” decrees became not only a reaction, but also an important indicator of economic changes; they designated corruption as a systemic threat to the interests of the state for the first time.

ACTIVITIES OF THE SPIES OF ATAMAN NECRASOV ON THE TERRITORY OF THE RUSSIAN STATE (1708-1720s) PART 2

The author investigated the reasons, forms and methods for sending spies from the territory of the Kuban, part of the Crimean Khanate to Russia. The Spies "subversive" activities were most often directed by the ataman Ignat Nekrasov. For the first time in academia, the author systematically analyzed the tasks assigned to these Nekrasov spies, as well as the conditions that both facilitated and hindered their implementation. Achieving the goal and objectives of this article, general scientific and special historical methods were used. The article is based on written historical sources XVIII c. from several Russian federal and state archives. The paper focuses on the geography of the "subversive" activities of such people. The analysis of their composition and the peculiarities of training to perform tasks that are not always associated with the collection of intelligence information on the territory of Russia. In addition, the reactions of various categories of Russian subjects who communicated with the spies of Ignat Nekrasov were identified and studied. Numerous search engines have been systematically analyzed, preventive measures of the Russian authorities aimed at suppressing / preventing the activities of the Nekrasov spies, as well as at their capture and organization of interrogations.

SOCIAL COMPOSITION OF FORTRESSES OF THE BELGOROD LINE AS OF 1678

The article is devoted to the analysis of the social composition of the population of the fortresses of the Belgorod line in 1678. The main source of the work was the inventory of cities in 1678, which recorded various categories of the service and townspeople of Russia. The author analyzed the information on all the fortresses of the Belgorod line and made general conclusions. The heterogeneity of the various counties of the vast southern region is recorded: in some there is a wide variety of service categories of the population, developed crafts and trade, and a large number of landowners. In other regions, the social composition was very poor. There were a lot of these regions. Such fortresses were only military outposts on the border. They were of strategic importance, but their economic potential was low. Obviously, the emergence of many small fortresses was dictated by military necessity and their full development was impossible. These small fortresses did not have the opportunity to develop. Subsequently, already in the 18th century, most of them would become rural settlements. However, the significance of these fortresses was very great for their time. These small fortresses helped to ensure the stable development of major military and economic centers. Fortified cities such as Kursk, Voronezh, Yelets, Kozlov were able to take the path of urbanization precisely because they were protected by many small military settlements. This was their historical role.

INFORMATION CAPABILITIES OF THE STATISTICAL DOCUMENTS OF THE FIRST HALF OF THE XIX CENTURY FOR THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC HISTORY OF THE FORMER TERRITORIES BELGOROD DEFENSE LINE

The study of the frontier zone spaces is an urgent issue in modern Russian and foreign historiography. In the historical realities of the XVI-XVII centuries, the zone of the Russian frontier was located to the south of Moscow and stretched over a huge area of the forest-steppe zone, starting from the headwaters of the Don and going deep into the Steppe. Since the second half of the XVII century, thanks to the creation of the Belgorod defense line, rapid development of the territory of the line itself and adjacent territories began. But the real socio-economic ef fect of the construction of this line of defensive fortifications arose much later, by the turn of the XVIII-XIX centuries. In our article, the main emphasis is placed on the information capabilities of statistical sources of the first half of the XIX century on the socio-economic history of the Belgorod region. The territory of the Yelets county of the Oryol province, which was a historical part of the defense line, was taken as the object of the study. The study of socio-economic processes at the local level in a broad chronological framework is a promising direction in modern historical science. Shifting research emphasis from fixing the actual state of processes at a certain time in favor of studying their historical evolution over a long chronological period can help a scientist to take a fresh look at both little-studied and well-known facts. The research methodology consists of the use of both traditional methods and modern source-based methods. Our article describes the main markers with the help of which a comprehensive assessment of socio-economic changes in the studied territory will be carried out over a long chronological period. Based on the results of the work, it was concluded that statistical sources of the first half of the XIX century have a wide range of information opportunities for the history of socioeconomic processes that took place on the territory of the county. The obtained information is well combined with the information from mass sources of the XVII-XVIII centuries, without violating the basic methodological principles, but only expanding the possibilities of applying this approach to other territories located near or bordering the Belgorod line.

TAMBOV GOVERNING ELITE IN THE CONDITIONS OF POST-REFORM TRANSFORMATION

The article examines the period (1861-1898) after the abolition of serfdom in the region of Central Russia. This period is characterized by a difficult situation for the further development of the country in the new realities. Despite the modernization message from the upper echelons of power, in the depths of the regional elite, serf attitudes and customs were preserved, which were supported by peasant’s patriarchal psychology. In this article the information on the adjustment of the nobility and landowners to the post-reform realities, on actions to realize their interests is supplemented. In carrying out the research, general scientific and special historical methods were used. The work is based on the archival sources of the State Archive of the Tambov Region. According to the results of the study, it can be noted that the local administrative elites were inclined to expand the boundaries of their own power. The modernization impulses directed from the capital, although caught by the Tambov leadership and the nobility, were implemented in a refined manner, drawing from the local interests. With the economic crisis, the "crisis of the management elite" also grew. Local authorities were increasingly distanced from the process of agricultural modernization in the Tambov province, not realizing that the agrotechnical backwardness of the region, which was aggravating over the years, was actually turning into a hotbed of great tension and threatened with serious conflict situations.

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.

ACTIONS OF THE US AND SOUTH VIETNAM SPECIAL DIVISIONS ON THE "HO CHI MINA TRAIL" IN 1961-1967. BASED ON THE MEMOIRS OF AMERICAN WAR PARTICIPANTS

The article devoted to the analysis of the actions of special forces of US and South Vietnam during 1961–1967. One of the main tasks of these units during Vietnam war – destruction main objects of «Ho Chi Minh Trail» in South Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. The work is built with the assistance of a memoir – translations memories combatants in South Vietnam and Laos, soldiers and commanders of Army of US, South Vietnam and Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV). The materials housed in the monographs of American and Vietnam researchers of the Indochina conflict, 1960–1970-s.In the early 1960s, in the setting of active infiltration teams of PAVN from DRV administration of USA adopted decision to send to Indochina units of special forces (Green Berets). Many of the military personnel who served in Vietnam belonged to 5th and 7th Special Forces Groups. Some Green Berets were assigned to the U.S. Military Assistance Command’s Studies and Observation Group (SOG) for making top secret intelligence operations and helped train the South Vietnamese special forces (LLDB). The most Green Berets defended South Vietnam’s border from infiltration from DRV. Apart from Green Berets, special units of the US NAVY were also active in South Vietnam. The main task of the special forces of the NAVY was the blockade of all waterways supplying partisans from North Vietnam and Cambodia by means of ambushes, sabotage, laying of mines and raids on bases of PAVN. In 1965-1967s mixed teams of Green Berets and LLDB conducted long-range reconnaissance missions into Laos and directed air strikes against the «Ho Chi Minh Trail». The U.S. aircraft bombed the «Ho Chi Minh Trail» daily, targeting areas based on electronic detection devices and intelligence gained by covert teams that infiltrated the area. However, these efforts could not slow down the movement of troops of PAVN, supplies southward along the «Ho Chi Minh Trail». The author paid attention to the creation units of special forces as part of army units of US Army situated in South Vietnam during 1965–1967. Special attention is paid by the author to the analysis secret operations of Green Berets against «Ho Chi Minh Trail». The author concluded that the special forces of USA and South Vietnam failed to achieve the set goals.

EXECUTION OF PEASANT REBELS AND RURAL HOSTAGES IN TAMBOV PROVINCE 1918-1921

The article examines the practice of using the supreme punishment - execution, used by the repressive bodies of the Soviet government in the fight against peasant protests in the Tambov province during the civil war. The research was carried out on the basis of archival sources introduced into scientific circulation for the first time. The work uses historical-comparative and systemic methods. An analysis of the facts of the execution of peasants carried out by punitive agencies during the suppression of rural "riots" of 1918-1919 and the period of the struggle against the uprising of 1920-1921 in the Tambov province is given. The facts of extrajudicial killings in the form of public executions of peasant rebels and hostages from among the civilian population, which were resorted to by the military-party administration in the occupied regions, were established. The role of the institution of hostages as a repressive measure in the actions of government troops to suppress the peasant uprising has been clarified. It is concluded that if during the period of rural "riots" in 1918-1919 execution was applied only to their organizers, then during the peasant uprising of 1920-1921 this form of the death penalty for "active" insurgents was given a systemic character, and the shooting of hostages from among local residents became widespread.

NOBLES AND LANDOWNERS OF THE AZOV PROVINCE UNDER PETER I: ON THE ISSUE OF SOCIAL IDENTITY ACCORDING TO MASS SOURCES OF 1710-1723

The article actualizes the problem of determining the social identity of the Azov nobility. The authors propose a solution using the analysis of mass sources and the method of biographical comparison of data. The social identity of the nobility is understood by the authors of the article as a set of retrospective identification practices - this is the perception of service people of themselves and each other. The authors believe that various practices of social identification in the past are expressed in the context of research and analysis in modern language, and the description of social identity is semantically a historical reconstruction. For the first time in historiography, the number and official structure of the service people of the Azov province is studied. This topic was studied according to the data of the "General Inspection" held in Moscow in 1721-1723, which was organized by the Senate and Heraldry. Data on the official structure of the nobility of the Azov province were studied according to the "knigi priezdov" and compared with the Landrat census of Shatsky and Yelets counties. The authors studied the social identification of the Azov nobility on the basis of name registration at the "General Inspection" during 1721-1722. The totality of representations by service people of their name and age are analyzed using the typology of self-identification formulas. In the conclusion of the article, the main parameters of the social identification of the "nobility" are highlighted.