Bylye Gody

6-16

Authors: Nikolay F. Bugay

The article is coincided with the 200th anniversary of the Patriotic War of 1812. On the basis of the documents, found in State Krasnodar Regional Archive and predecessors’ publications, the article both poses the problem of peripheral factor role and place in such an important event of Russia’s history of early ХIХ century as the Patriotic War of 1812 and shows the event participants. This problem has become subject of historians’ close attention. The article doesn’t highlight the already known aspects of history, concerning Russian people and representatives of other Russian peoples’ (Bashkirs, Kalmyks, etc.) participation in war, but the representatives of the smallest administrative divisions, namely kuren settlements, zaimka's (small homesteads, smallholdings) and khutors (farmsteads) of Black Sea Cossack Host. This illustration was made on the example of Akhtaniz, Titarovsky, Vyshesteblievsky kuren settlements, located within the territory of Tmutarakan Uyezd (mid-level administrative district in the Russian Empire and early Soviet Union) of Black Sea Cossack Host, the Cossacks of which had to go to war two decades after settling in Taman. The article discloses the data, attesting that Cossacks displayed true heroism, as well as patriotism, as evidenced by the age of kuren combatants – from 20 to 60 and discharged their civic duty to Motherland. They had high level of military training, skill and endurance. And they followed the example of their monarch Alexander I, who said prior to the treacherous attack by the enemy: «I won't let up until the last enemy is down». Russia’s Cossacks of Black Sea Cossack Host didn’t disgrace the glory of the Russian soldier, glory of the Russian arms. They bravely fought against the French. Russia highly appreciated their services. To conclude all the above-said, I’d like to note that peripheral factor in war events plays an important role in military successes and is an organic component of the success and glory of Russian Army in war. These «trickles» formed both Russian Army and Cossacks glory.

30-41

Authors: Elena S. Senyavskaya

The article discloses the major aspect of frontline routine – «war as danger», seamless procession of «boundary conditions». Basing on archive data and private sources of Russian participants in the First World War, it touches upon such subjects as combatants’ psychological factors, their attitude towards life and death, soldiers’ fatalism, ways to overcome fear in action, specific character of combat situation perception by enlisted and commanders of the Russian Army, representatives of different service arms, the masses moral preparation for war according to contemporaries’ estimates. The article also considers «the sounds of war» and their impact on frontline soldiers’ minds.

52-57

Authors: Elena A. Shkribitko

The article is concerned with the problem of partisan movement within Donetsk District in October, 1941 – July, 1942, describes combat activity of partisan units and warfare groups together with regular parts of the Red Army, focuses on partisans manpower and executive personnel training and arming, draws a conclusion, concerning high efficiency of partisan movement in Donbass.

68-75

Authors: Aron Shneyer

This article examines the subject of collaborationism. The author for the first time examines the materials of the trial, held in Riga in October 1965. Some documents of the criminal trials against former SS guards, held in the USSR in 1945-1965 are also introduced for the scientific use for the first time. Special attention is attached to the collaborators' personal participation in single, localized murders. The circumstances and sites of these murders are usually little-known and remain beyond the scope of scientific research. This is explained by the fact that, unlike Babi Yar or Zmievskaya Balka, the number of victims of these localized murders is incomparably small and therefore, could never acquire a symbolic meaning and be used for propaganda purposes. The author draws attention to certain behavioral features of some of the crimes participants. In the author's view, the politicized claims of some researchers regarding the prominent role of certain ethnicities in Nazi crimes are debatable. The article emphasizes that the ethnic composition of local Nazi collaborators within the occupied territories depended on the ethnic composition of the population of those territories. Crimes and criminals transcend national boundaries. As one of the proofs of his thesis, the author cites the ethnic composition of the SS guards in the Stutthof concentration camp and in the Trawniki training camp. This article may stimulate researchers' interest to the problem of localized murders, including the possibilities to determine crime sites, number of victims and their names, the crime participants and perpetuate the memory of the dead.

82-89

Authors: Alexandra Cherkasski

The World War II led to serious casualties and left deep scars / wounds of memory. As the victory over occupation regime was glorified, honored and starting from 1965 was widely celebrated at national level, there was a great gap between official and personal memory of war. Monuments are one of the forms of living examples of the past and thus are reliable sources for the study of different epochs and Zeitgeist / spirit of time and their changes. This article considers the development of Soviet memorial landscape by the World War II starting from the war termination to the Soviet Union collapse. Special attention is attached to internal political and international views / interpretations and development with respect to victims of war. In other words, the process of different groups of war victims exclusion and inclusion in Soviet collective memory under the influence of internal political and foreign political interests symbiosis. And, as a result, resultant attitude towards memorial places.

98-105

Authors: Tatyana P. Khlynina

The article deals with the detection of possibilities of personal sources, particularly unpublished diaries of the Great Patriotic War, studies personal life of the Soviet citizen. Written by different people, got into different conditions in wartime, they conveyed various spectrum of perception of the private. That particular difference and the rarity of written evidence of the Great Patriotic War period are major obstacles to solve the research tasks of one of the most prospective and interesting trends of the Great Patriotic War history.