The main problem that the author solves is to determine how the Moscow Trading Company contributed to the process of Europeanization of Russian trade. The author reveals the features of the trade policy of the Russian government, which, along with the privileges given to English merchants, expanded the scope of economic ties with other countries. The purpose of the article is to reveal the nature of the relationship between the Russian government and the trading company of English merchants, which operated in Russia from the moment of its creation in the 16th century until the decline of its activities in the first half of the 17th century. Based on the results of this study, it is concluded that the trade policy of Moscow in the 16th–17th centuries depended, first of all, on the diplomatic course pursued by the Russian government, which sought to transform the economic partnership with England into a political union in the struggle for the Baltic, and also used such a means of regulating trade relations with the Moscow Trading Company as privileges granted to English merchants; Russia directed these relations along the channel it desired, forcing the English government to fulfill its main demands regarding export-import operations and defending its national interests. The article shows how Russia managed to extract great benefit from the Northern Trade Route in its relations with the West and to strengthen its defense capability. The article is addressed to historians and specialists in the field of the history of international relations.
The relevance of the study stems from significant changes in traditional trade routes at present, which are associated with both global warming and significant transformations in the global economy. In this regard, the increasing importance of the Volga-Caspian transport corridor, not only as a regional but also as an internationally significant trade route connecting the countries of South Asia with Europe by the shortest route, seems to be likely to become a major feature of global logistics in the medium term. The transformation of this historically established trade route into a sustainable transport corridor, which became a significant factor in Russia’s industrialization, began in the mid-19th century with the formation of a large shipping company in the form of the joint-stock company “Caucasus and Mercury”, which combined in its activities the busy Volga route with the Caspian Sea. The reason for the success of this large-scale project lay in its complex structure as a public-private partnership, combining entrepreneurial initiative with the organizational and economic capabilities of the state. In addition to the logistical component of the Volga-Caspian transport corridor, these joint-stock companies appear to be an essential element of the economic mechanism for the development of vast outlying territories in the south of the Russian Empire, which made it possible to include the natural resources of these regions, in particular oil and oil products from Baku and the Ural-Emba fields, etc., in the single economic space of the country.
The city of Kazan in the early 20th century was an important center of women's education for the Volga-Ural region, where the population was mixed (Orthodox, Muslims, and others). Almost a dozen private girls' schools in Kazan were equivalent in status to gymnasiums. These aspects of regional and ethnic history require analysis through the lens of cultural interaction in a borderland context, because Kazan, as a frontier city, gave rise to new socio-cultural models. The purpose of the study is to examine the historical experience of Kazan in the field of women's education, the ethno-confessional diversity of students in private schools and alternative educational practices, as well as patterns of cultural influence. The first private educational institutions for girls opened in Kazan at the beginning of the 19th century; their founders were foreigners. A hundred years later, gymnasiums were most often opened by Orthodox women who held a teacher’s license. Muslim Tatar women were a significant part of the population of the Kazan province and the Volga region; they formally had access to imperial-type girls’ schools, but remained a minority in them. For them, the Fatiha Aitova Gymnasium, with Tatar as the language of instruction, became an alternative educational option. However, this school was influenced by other girls' educational institutions in Kazan. The article also presents an account of the cooperation of the schools of Fatiha Aitova and Lidiya Shumkova. The article is intended for historians and anyone interested in the history of the Russian Empire.
This article, situated within the framework of the cognitive turn in the social sciences, presents the findings of a study on the role of nationalities as both a social and cognitive classificatory framework in Dagestan. Conducted between July and August 2024, the study involved 100 biographical interviews across 31 locations throughout the republic. These interviews focused on so-called perceptual-communicative facts—either singular or recurring past events in which nationalities were referenced in communication or used to interpret events. A total of 1,104 perceptual-communicative facts, attributed to the period from the mid-1940s to the present, were extracted from the interviews and subsequently analyzed. The results indicate that nationalities structured perception and interactions in Dagestan and continue to do so today, although their influence has diminished in certain social environments. The study demonstrates how national categories are internalized, tested, and transmitted across generations and identifies the specific domains in which they operate. The persistence and reproduction of these categories are interpreted through a neo-functionalist lens, drawing on the sociology of mechanisms as developed by Jon Elster and Peter Hedström. By identifying the individual-level social and cognitive pragmatics of employing this classificatory framework in various interactions, the study proposes a model of ethnic dynamics at the intersection of sociology, cognitive science, and history. This work contributes to the literature on ethnicity in Dagestan, provides methodological tools for field research within the cognitive turn, and advances a broader theoretical explanation of ethnic processes.
The article is devoted to examining the frontier phenomenon in the field of education in the Arctic territories in the context of the implementation of the “Concept of Sustainable Development of the Indigenous Peoples of the North, Siberia, and the Far East of the Russian Federation for the period up to 2036”. The purpose of the article is to develop the concept of the Arctic frontier and to identify mechanisms for supporting education, preserving the ethnos and culture of the indigenous peoples, as part of the interaction between mining companies, government bodies, and indigenous peoples in the process of industrial development of these territories, taking into account the social, environmental, and cultural characteristics of the Arctic region. The impact of industrial development in the Arctic; the participation of mining companies in implementing measures to support the social development of indigenous peoples; and the preservation of the ethnic group and culture of the local population have been assessed. The approaches to the implementation of educational programs are systematized, taking into account the regional, environmental, and cultural characteristics of the local population. New forms of indigenous peoples' education have been identified, reflecting the cultural characteristics of the subjects of the educational process, the need to take into account their traditional way of life, the need to integrate traditional knowledge and modern technologies, as well as the development of innovative educational approaches aimed at overcoming digital inequality. The empirical basis of the research consists of the results of Arctic expeditions, analysis of statistical information, as well as a database of the author’s surveys of the local population on the problems of social development of the region. Using the example of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), the features of the educational environment in the context of the Arctic frontier are highlighted. The research is based on an interdisciplinary approach that includes elements of sociology, history of education, environmental economics, and ethnography. The research material is of interest to employees of state and municipal authorities of the Arctic territories, representatives of the indigenous peoples of the North and their tribal communities, mining companies in the Arctic region, students, and graduate students of universities.
A significant number of residents of these regions follow a traditional way of life, which implies constant migration. In such conditions, ensuring children’s right to education and access to compulsory general education inevitably conflicts with the traditional educational practices of preparing children for traditional ways of economic activity and everyday life, which involve the direct transfer of knowledge and learning from fathers to sons and from mothers to daughters. In different Russian regions, this problem is addressed in different ways, which defines the purpose of this study: to analyze the existing regional approaches aimed at resolving this conflict. Based on the results of the study, it was concluded that the main organizing forms of the provision of general education for children whose families follow a traditional nomadic way of life are boarding school education and the creation of nomadic schools. The existing forms of ensuring the right to general education for children in the regions under consideration represent a certain compromise, since either the quality of education suffers, or the direct transfer of cultural and economic experience from one generation to another is hampered. In addition, the existing limitations of the education system do not always allow for the study of native language and culture within the framework of formal education. The article is addressed to specialists in the ethnography of the peoples of the Far North, Siberia, and the Far East, and to representatives of education authorities.
In the 1920s–1930s, Czechoslovakia implemented an unprecedented state program aimed at assisting emigrants from the former Russian Empire. The predominant share of the funding under this program was directed toward providing higher education at Czechoslovak universities for emigrant youth who, in the view of Czechoslovak President T. G. Masaryk, were expected to play a decisive role in the future revival of a democratic, federal, and pro-Czechoslovak post-Bolshevik Russia. Activists of the Belarusian national movement employed the “Russian Aid Action” to pursue a different objective: the training of Belarusian intellectual cadres at Czechoslovak institutions of higher learning, primarily to counter the assimilation policies of the Polish authorities in Western Belarus (under the Riga Peace Treaty of 1921, the territories of Western Belarus were incorporated into Poland). The aim of the study is to trace the process by which Czechoslovakia emerged in the 1920s as the principal Belarusian academic center located outside the ethnic territory of the Belarusian people. The research examines the role of Belarusian national movement representatives in securing scholarships for Belarusians under the Czechoslovak government’s “Russian Aid Action”; describes the selection campaign among Western Belarusian youth for study in Czechoslovak universities; and identifies the principal routes by which Belarusians from Western Belarus reached Czechoslovakia. The findings demonstrate that Czechoslovak universities in the 1920s became an alternative platform for obtaining higher education for graduates of Western Belarusian gymnasiums, whose access to higher education was restricted by the Polish authorities.
The authors examine the formation of the “Russian trickster’s” sociocultural frontier in Sci-Fi series broadcast by leading producers of transnational television. Using new empirical material and an updated methodological apparatus, the study continues the discussion of the electronic frontier, frontier stereotypes of the Other’s image, and the virtualization of the sociocultural frontier. The study aims to reveal the context of social discourse deconstructed in the series and to determine within it the narrative functions of the figurative sphere of the “Russian trickster” formed by transnational television. In the cultural orders of the selected Sci-Fi series, the authors established three narrative functions of the “Russian trickster”: 1) the salvific image of the Other, a representative of a foreign cultural normative system that rehabilitates the ethical principles of collective existence; 2) the image of a defender of a bygone era that broadcasts the concept of freedom of choice; 3) the image of a swindler, without cooperation with whom social management is impossible. The image of the “Russian trickster” is a key opponent in the rhetorical situation, demonstrating an ambivalent essence and exerting a significant influence on the worldview of Sci-Fi series fans. The paradigm of representing Russian culture as a trickster, dominant in transnational television, is heterogeneous and ambivalent due to the contradictory essence of the trickster’s sociocultural frontier. The results will attract the attention of scholars studying the frontiers of contemporary culture, cinema, and television series, as well as university students.
The state of places of detention reflects the civilizational characteristics of the state, and the reform of the prison system under the influence of legal concepts that are not characteristic of society leads to the emergence of syncretic types of penitentiary institutions. The evolution of the Khiva zindans under the influence of the Russian Empire has not yet been studied, including with due regard for the alternative of the British protectorate, the voluntary establishment of which was planned by the Khan of Khiva in 1872. The purpose of this study is, using the example of the zindan-pit located on the territory of the historical and architectural complex of Ichan-Kala (Khiva, Republic of Uzbekistan), to consider the cultural and legal contradictions between the Russian Empire and Khorezm in the mid-19th and early 20th centuries, as well as to analyze the process of transformation of the places of detention of the Khanate of Khiva under the influence of the Russian prison reform of 1879, in a comparative context with the Western European legal tradition and British colonial policy. The results of the study showed the similarity of the Khiva zindan-pit to the European oubliettes; however, the medieval inquisitorial practices of Western Europe were not typical of Khorezm. Under the protectorate, the spread of the Prison Reform of 1879 to the Khanate of Khiva led to a combination of Russian and Central Asian penitentiary traditions, with the gradual abandonment of cruel punishments, which led to the transition to a continental legal system that replaced Sharia law during the Soviet period. This happened in a short time, unlike the penal reforms in the colonies of Great Britain, where numerous, sometimes contradictory, acts were created within the framework of the Anglo-Saxon legal system, and the British authorities used the local tradition of cruel punishments to strengthen their influence
The paper deals with the representation of ethnic images of Siberian space in M. F. Price's travelogue “Siberia”. The influence of the ideas of colonialism and orientalism on the author is noted, which shapes the system of assessments applied to the anthropic space in the work. In this regard, the West–East opposition is highlighted as a key organizing principle of the text. The West stands as a standard of civilization, progress, and enlightenment, whose influence diminishes as one moves eastward. Siberia, in particular, appears as a mixture of Westernness and Easternness, which are not equally expressed across its territory, where Russians are indicated as the main anthropic element. The representation of the Siberian is also influenced by Rousseau’s idea of the naive savage, which is actualized in the text through the motif of childishness, characterizing both Russian colonists and native Siberians. At the same time, the text attempts to present the Siberian as an emerging subethnos that differs from the Russians of European Russia in terms of independence, which is most characteristic of the Siberian frontiersmen. The travelogue also highlights the narratives of Siberian regionalism characteristic of the Siberian economic elite. In addition, the author’s ethnic typology of the native Siberian peoples is analyzed on the basis of Finnishness and Tartarness. Finally, the features of Russians/Siberians are described, which, according to Price, facilitate intercultural communication in Siberia. These include adaptability, the ability to assimilate foreign cultural elements, as well as fraternity towards the Other.
The article examines the writings of the inhabitants of Russian monasteries (nuns and novices) that describe their pilgrimage to the Holy Land (Palestine) in the second half of the 19th–early 20th centuries. A study of these texts makes it possible to trace changes in the scale of the Russian presence in Palestine over the half-century period under consideration, as well as the specifics of women's views on the Holy Land, its population, nature, and other pilgrims. It is noted that the Holy Land is perceived by the pilgrims as a blessed place where the soul of every true Christian strives to go; the absence of religious skepticism or indifferentism, increasingly observed in the writings of secular travelers since the end of the 19th century, is revealed. The notes are also united by the desire to correlate the villages, buildings, monuments, and natural objects they encounter with the text of Holy Scripture. The pilgrims pointed out the gradual expansion of the use of the Russian language in liturgical practice, the improvement of conditions for their stay in the Holy Land, provided by the efforts of the Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society, and the formation of certain traditions observed by Russian pilgrims. It is concluded that the texts under study contain both elements inherent in medieval Russian “walkings” and innovations resulting from the influence of the European literary tradition contemporary with the authors.
A significant number of monumental stone objects (stone crosses, anthropomorphic and cruciform steles, sculptures, etc.) have been preserved in the North Caucasus and are regarded as an integral part of the local historical and cultural landscape. The article is devoted to a generalized typological study of these objects, without explicit emphasis on religious and ethnic affiliation. Such an approach to the study of monumental objects makes it possible not only to identify the vectors of cultural influence in the local territories under study, but also, in some cases, to partially fill in the lost cultural and historical context. Based on the results of numerous field studies in the North Caucasus and a number of other regions, as well as previously published materials on the subject, the authors identify several features of the development of the forms of these monuments and propose clarifications to their typology. Conclusions are drawn about the probability of an independent genesis of the objects under consideration (anthropomorphic sculptures, stone crosses, and anthropomorphic steles) and the presence of intra-group evolution among them, with the emergence of various subgroups and types. The article also proposes a broader model for the formation of these objects of monumental stone art in the North Caucasus, and the most stable group of monuments, which can be traced for several millennia, is identified.
The article deals with the problem of comprehending the image of Motherland and its place in the world picture of a transmigrant in terms of expanding his/her living space. The translocal living space is characterized by the layering of several social fields and a combination of different axes of social interaction, which determines the change in the world perception and worldview of a transmigrant. The theoretical framework of the study is represented by the concepts of transnationalism and translocality. The relative constancy of the image of Motherland in the world-picture is determined. At the same time, this does not exclude a change in its content, which is the idea of the Motherland. Based on the analysis of various approaches to defining the image of homeland, it is concluded that there are two groups of markers of the homeland: i.e., local and social. In the translocal living space, their two-way determination takes place: namely, by the original living space and by the acquired one. The results of an empirical study conducted within the framework of a qualitative approach are presented. It is determined that, in formation of the image of Motherland, local markers prevail while social markers are secondary. The conclusion is made, about the preservation of the image of the Motherland in the new world picture of transmigrants having common territorial frame of living space; special importance of the original living space of transmigrants is noted.
The article examines the reflection of the image of China and the Chinese on the pages of the magazine “Mir Bozhiy” at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. It was during this period that the policy of the great powers in China was undergoing serious changes, and the Qing Empire itself was entering a period of serious crisis associated with coups d’etat and rebellions, which contributed to the growing interest of the reading public in the events in the Far East. As a result of the analysis of the contents of the magazine issues, containing both original articles and brief reviews of articles from other domestic and foreign publications devoted to Chinese topics, it became possible to identify the main problems that worried Russian public opinion during that period. Above all, those were issues of economic cooperation with China and the problem of Chinese migration in the Far East. Introduction to the internal life of the Qing Empire, its political system and social structure occupy the largest volume of publications up to 1900. With the aggravation of the situation within the Boxer Rebellion and the beginning of foreign intervention, the main interest in the publications was focused on those events and the reaction of the population of the border regions of the Russian Empire to the occurrence. The defeat of the rebels returns to the pages of the publication the polemics about the role of foreign powers in Chinese events and criticism of the barbaric behavior of the “civilized Europeans.” By 1902, interest in Chinese topics in the publication weakens and gradually moves to a new threat posed by the Japanese Empire.
The article considers the role of Krasnoyarsk in the industrial development of the Krasnoyarsk district of the Siberian region, which was created in May 1925. The presence of various natural resources and the possibility of exporting the produced goods via the Yenisei River and the Northern Sea Route led to the location of enterprises that defined the special place of the district in the all‑Union division of labour. After the liquidation of the districts in 1930, Krasnoyarsk, thanks to the work of central and local planning bodies, was turned into an industrial and transport centre of the Yenisei region, which allowed the USSR State Planning Committee to consider it as a basis for the creation of the Krasnoyarsk industrial district and Krasnoyarsk Krai as an independent subject of the RFSSR. The purpose of the study is to determine the role of Krasnoyarsk in the industrial development of the polar zone of the Krasnoyarsk District, turning the city into a centre of development of the Yenisei region and Eastern Siberia. In the study, the authors of the article were guided by the theory of modernization, which, in specific historical conditions, was carried out by the state in a catch-up mode in the northern and Arctic frontier territories. The study is based on the works of specialists of the USSR Gosplan and, for the first time introduced into scientific circulation, the materials of the archival fund of the Krasnoyarsk District Planning Commission, which contain extensive information on a wide range of aspects of the topic under study.
The author of the presented article analyzes the peculiarities of histories of frontier peripheral European nationalism in the second half of the 20th century. The purpose of the research is a comparative study of histories of Asturian and Moldavian nationalism as factors of creating nations as imaginate communities, and also of social and political modernizations as invention of traditions. The main provisions of the article are as follows: 1) Asturian and Moldavian nationalism arose historically on the territories of frontier regions, causing their subsequent marginality; 2) social and political practices of Asturian and Moldavian nationalism are based on strategies of social constructivism, which turned Asturians and Moldavians into imagined communities, and their identities-into invented traditions; 3) construction of language and invention of history became universal intellectual forms of political and social modernizations, which Asturian and Moldavian nationalists used in their attempts to invent nations. The article concludes with the following theses: 1) negative social dynamics led to the absence of complete social structures in the Moldovan and Asturian societies; 2) the political and social rates of development of Moldovan and Asturian nationalism lagged significantly in comparison with the rates of political modernization processes in the neighbouring communities; 3) the main participants of the frontier nation building were nationalists represented in Asturia by intellectuals, and in Moldova by intellectuals and also by political elites; 4) Asturian and Moldovan nationalism did not lead to the complete institutionalization of the new imaginate communities, which actualizes estimation of nationalism limitations as a political resource formally recognized for universal.
The article presents an attempt to systematize the modern and postmodern theoretical approaches to the geographical aspects of the Russian historical process. Immensity and complexity of the problem are emphasized. Understanding of the subject under study is provided through the analysis of “space” in the natural and social sciences, especially in the theory and philosophy of history. All the approaches to comprehending the influence of nature on the Russian territory development are grouped into six lines: namely, empirical (expansion and understanding of information about the country); historical geography; colonization theory and its variations; co-evolution theory, noosphere doctrine, environmental history; anthropogeography, cultural geography; political geography, geopolitics. Their genesis and continuity are revealed. It is concluded that Russian space was understood in three intersecting continuums: physical-geographical, (geo)political, and socio-cultural. Internal and external levels of space conceptualization are distinguished. The first group includes approaches reflecting the settlement and development of Eurasian North-East and territorial organization; the second one – the ideas about the international status of the country. State-forming role of space in Russian history is emphasized. Forecast for further development of the problem is given.
The article focuses on The Harsh Field, the novel by A. V. Kalinin the Don writer, in the light of the ‘‘frontier thesis’’. The initial understanding of the frontier as a clash of wilderness and civilization (F. J. Turner) is complemented by the results of recent works on the theory of the frontier, which significantly enriched the Turner’s thesis with philosophical, culturological, spiritual, mental, and existential aspects. The purpose of the study is to identify various types of the frontier (historical, geographical, cultural, anthropological, existential, and chronological) that unite the entire literary work, gaining expression in the specific ideological, thematic, imaginative, compositional, and spatial-temporal features of the novel. It is shown that the novel is organized by the ‘friend or foe’ opposition, which is realized as the antagonism between the Soviet soldiers and fascists, the native land and the alien one, the human nature and the animal one. The alien world in the novel has the signs of danger, hostility, otherworldliness, and these signs manifest themselves both in the cultural-anthropological aspect and at the level of artistic space. The existential frontier represents the intersection of the categories of life and death, fear and courage. The chronological frontier is based on the dense interweaving of the present and the past, and on the idea of the connection of times and generations. The authors conclude that all these types of the frontier are interwoven in the novel and, bringing the theme of war to the fore, actualize the ideas of unification, brotherhood, and generational continuity.
This article makes use of Frederick Turner’s Frontier Theory to examine how the video games Red Dead Redemption 2 and Valheim portray digital nature and shape identity within virtual spaces. The study places this analysis within a historiographical framework, exploring how developers reimagine the frontier concept, originally linked to American expansion, in digital environment. These virtual spaces address global issues of territorial expansion, resource management, and social bonding through gameplay, reflecting universal concerns about humanity’s interaction with nature. Red Dead Redemption 2 engages players with ethical dilemmas about resource use and human encroachment, while Valheim fosters collective identity and adaptability within procedurally generated landscapes. By highlighting the cultural and ecological awareness that video games encourage, this research underscores their value as platforms for cultural reflection and environmental education, demonstrating the impact of digital nature on players’ perception of the natural world.
