Russkaya Starina

57-77

Authors: Evgeny V. Astaf’ev

The article deals with the history of relations between the Russian population and nomadic peoples in the Middle and Lower Volga regions in the 1720–1770s. Particular attention is paid to relations with the Kalmyk people and the participation of the Russian government in their internal political life. It is studied the experience of using in these relations of the Tsaritsyn guard line, built in 1718–1720 by decree of Peter I between the Volga and Don rivers in order to stop the raids of the Crimean and Kuban Tatars on Russian territories, as a powerful political tool, as well as its role in the life and fate of the Kalmyks and other nomadic peoples who traditionally used the interfluve of the Volga and Don for their nomadic pastures. On the basis of an array of studied archival documents (official correspondence between the Russian administration and the Kalmyk khans and owners, reports of officials of the Kalmyk affairs, officers of dragoon regiments serving on the line, and a number of other documents), introduced into scientific circulation for the first time, the practice of Kalmyk nomad camps in Russian territories under the protection of the Tsaritsyn line is examined. It is provided the information on the numerous facts of thefts, robberies and murders of the civilian population, both by “thieves” Kalmyks who illegally penetrated into Russian territories, and by the dependent Kalmyks, officially allowed to roam “inside” the Tsaritsyn line. Based on the analysis of the identified documents, the author drew up a plan of the boundaries of the territories allowed for the Kalmyk nomad camps, and also determined the places of most outposts located along the borders of the nomad camps, where the city Cossacks from the Kalmyk affairs team, Don and Volga Cossacks and Cossacks of the Sloboda regiments served at different periods of time.

89-101

Authors: Oleg A. Grom

The article deals with the analysis of the reflection of national issues on the pages of newspapers published in the Province (Oblast) of the Don Cossack Host between the First Russian Revolution and the First World War. The examined publications can be, for convenience, divided into conservative-monarchist ones (“Styag”, “Rostovskiy-na-Donu listok”) and liberal-progressist ones (“Priazovskiy Kray”, “Yuzhnyi Telegraf”, “Taganrogskiy vestnik”). For the first group, the national question was the dominant theme, reflected in all published materials from editorials to advertisements. The main subjects of the right-wing newspapers of the Don were Jewish and Armenian questions. The staff of “progressist” newspapers discussed the national issues only occasionally, usually in the context of covering the activities of right-wing and nationalist parties. An analysis of the debates on to the essence and role of nationalism occurred in early 1912 in the Taganrog and Rostov newspapers shows that among the “progressists” there was no single understanding of the national question.

118-130

Authors: Evgeny F. Krinko, Victoria V. Khilkevich

The article deals with the Nazi occupation of the Otradnensky district of the Krasnodar Krai during the Great Patriotic War. The authors analyzed the documents from two local archives and museum, publications of local historians, memories of eyewitnesses, photographs and other historical sources. Residents of the Otradnensky district and evacuated citizens during the occupation were constantly subjected to mass violence, discrimination and physical annihilation. According to official documents, the total number of Soviet citizens who died is defined as 109 people. But only in one mass grave of the area of the former Otradnensky hydroelectric power station 500 people murdered by occupants in October 1942 are indicated. The extermination policy of occupants was a result of Nazi ideology and propaganda calling for the destruction of the representatives of “inferior” races. However, the names of many victims of the occupation are still unknown, as well as their burial places. At the same time, there is an evidence of the rescue of several Jews evacuated by the residents.

141-148

Authors: Alexey S. Tishchenko

The article deals with the analysis of the theme of the historical fate of Rus’ on the material of publicist works of the 16th century – “The Tale of the Princes of Vladimir” and the works of Ivan Peresvetov. The analysis shows that these monuments reflect various issues related to the theme of the historical fate of the Russian state: the origin of the ruling dynasty in Russia, the requirements for the figure of the ruler, the question of the form of government and the internal structure of the state, the Messianic significance of the Russian Orthodox Kingdom. The analysis of journalistic writings shows that Russia was interpreted as a state with a unique destiny, history, historical mission, as a civilizational space in the context of world powers. The written records create a special image of the head of state – a ruler “by birth”, who received power from God himself, responsible to his subjects and to God, a “guide” of truth.

156-162

Authors: Marina Ch. Larionova, Alla R. Lisitsa

The article deals with the reception of adventure topic in the prose of A.P. Chekhov. For the purpose to determine the place of adventurous literature in readers' consciousness in Russia at the end of 19th century, the authors aim at the autobiographical novel of I.S. Shmelev “How I met Chekhov”, in which the image of Chekhov-reader (similar to his writer's image in his early works) arises. Numerous names of classics and their works mentioned by Chekhov have been collected and analysed. The authors suggest differentiation of this material basing on the principle of functionality. On one side, the texts which imply the dialogue between the author and classic adventurous fiction (these are the stylization presented in “The Flying Islands” and the short story “Boys”) are thoroughly analyzed. On the other side, mentions of adventurous literary texts and their authors, fulfilling the function of an artistic detail and portrait or landscape characteristics (such as “Tumbleweed”, “The Last Mohican”, “At the Mill”, “A Happy Men”, “Idyll”, “Sakhalin Island”), are considered. It is shown that “The Flying Islands” contain critical conceptualization of not only the characteristics of Jules Verne's novels but the overall tradition of foreign adventurous literature. In the short story “Boys”, which is considered by scholars as a text of the late period of A.P. Chekhov's works, the peculiarities of reception of novels about indigenous people by children are identified.