Home – Home – Jornals – Humanitarian sciences in Siberia 2017 number

December 2017 marks the 60th anniversary of the creation of the journal “Gumanitarnye nauki v Sibiri”, a periodical of the Institute of History of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, which publishes papers on archaeography, source studies and history of Russia, first of all its Siberian region. The journal “Gumanitarnye nauki v Sibiri” traces its origins back to the Journal of the Siberian Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences called “Izvestiya SO AN SSSR” which, in turn, had a predecessor “Izvestia Vostochnykh filialov AN SSSR”. The last one was found by the decree of the Presidium of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, November 12, 1956. The journal was issued monthly in 1957, and published works of researchers from six branches of the Academy of Sciences. On December 13, 1957, Scientific Council of the SO AN SSSR appointed Academician S.L. Sobolev as the editor of the journal. In 1983, the journal was renamed “Izvestiya SO AN SSSR. Seria istorii, filologii i filosofii”, in 1992 the journal was named “Izvestiya Sibirskogo otdelenia Rossiyskoy Academii Nauk. Seria: istoriya, filologiya i filosofiya”. The journal got its modern title “Gumanitarnye nauki v Sibiri” in 1994. N.D. Zolnikova writes that in publications on the pages of the journal N.N. Pokrovsky and his students used “approaches characteristic for the historical anthropology: attention to everyday life, peculiarities of behavior of both individuals and their groups, identification of participants’ attitudes towards the events, etc.” The journal chief editors were S.L. Sobolev (1957-1967), G.A. Prudensky (1967), A.P. Okladnikov (1967-1981), A.P. Derevyanko (1982-1991), R. S Vasilievsky (1991-1998), V.E. Larichev (1998-2003), V.A. Ilinykh since 2003. The journal is published by publishing house of the Siberian Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences. S.P. Mkrtchan headed the journal editorial department for many years. At present its head is V.I. Smirnova.

The article objective is the structure analysis of Don Cossacks’ historical memory, where events and personalities of the XVI century occupy a system-forming place. Among the most important historical figures are Ataman Ermak and Tzar Ivan the Terrible, whose images became the key points of Don Cossacks’ historical memory. These persons are linked with the Cossacks’ mentality, in which the idea of the right to the “Don river” and the Don land plays the decisive role. In the Cossacks’ consciousness this right stemmed from awarding the Don to the Cossacks’ ancestors for “the Kazan service” to Ivan the Terrible, when they allegedly participated in the capture of Kazan under Ermak leadership. The Cossacks believed in the existence of a special charter of Ivan the Terrible according to which their ancestors were granted the Don. This corresponded to the idea of the land rewarding for service, which applies to the most important principle of vassalage and is remuneration for the service to overlord. The Cossacks referred to the image of Ermak on many occasions. By referring to Ermak they justified their refusal to take oath to Tzar Mikhail Romanov, as well as to resettle to the Caucasian line on demand of the authorities in the XVIII century. In the XIX - early XX centuries the references to Ermak and awarding the Don by Ivan the Terrible to the Cossacks for the Kazan service became the argument in the struggle for the preservation of the Cossacks’ special rights to the land as well as other class laws. Central and local authorities maintained a cult of Ermak among the Cossacks. This was revealed in the founding a new village Ermakovskaya Stanitsa, in naming one of the Don regiments in honor of Ermak, in installing the monument to Ermak in Novocherkassk, and in distribution of his images. Worshiping Ivan the Terrible in the Cossacks’ historical memory had no official support as a whole. However it was reflected in the historical science and science-popular literature devoted to the Don. After the Revolution and Civil War, with the Cossacks’ abolition, the traditional historical memory about Ermak started to fade and to acquire the features of book memory.

The article is devoted to studying the mutual relations between regular army servicemen, civil authorities and population in Siberia in the second half of the XVIII century. Everyday life of people, who were at service in the Russian empire’s army in the XVIII century, is not studied properly, although the contacts between military men and civilians took place constantly concerning a really wide range of issues: collection of taxes and fees, military troops’ accommodation, maintenance of police order, etc. Based upon Siberian materials particularly, this problem is even more worthy of consideration. The research source base includes data of collections of the Russian State Archive of Ancient Acts (RGADA), Russian State Military Historical Archive (RGVIA) and State Historical Archive of Omsk Region (GIAOO). The archive research led the author to the following conclusions. First, the military powers have been obliged inevitably to take some measures related to controlling the financial inflows’ sphere. This could be explained with Siberia’s extreme remoteness from the imperial centre and weakness of local civil authorities. The commandants of border fortresses and Siberian cities were responsible for collecting fees and preserving of money. Second, the military troops’ accommodation inside the cities could turn into conflicts between the servicemen and local inhabitants, as well as local government officials. The state treasury was unable to provide permanent housing even for regular army’s officers. This led to arbitrary actions and abuses by the military men, who preferred sometimes to solve their everyday problems by the use of excessive force. On the other hand, it should be noticed that the servicemen actions were strictly governed by the imperial laws and military regulations. The military command, in turn, tended to monitor enforcement of these laws and regulations.

Problems of modern urbanization stimulate an increased interest of researchers to the urban history. Studying local municipal practices represents the Russian Empire’s history in its regional aspect. Siberia was the Russian Empire periphery in the late XVIII - early XIX centuries. The implementation of administrative and municipal reforms of Catherine II coincided with the time of its administrative-territorial development. The article objective is to carry out comparative analysis of the municipal dumas’ composition in Irkutsk, Krasnoyarsk and Yeniseisk in the late XVIII - early XIX centuries, which appeared due to « Charter to the Towns» of 1785. The author has studied the legislation of this period, the practice of municipal self-government of Irkutsk, Krasnoyarsk and Yeniseisk based on three Siberian archives. Most of archival materials have been introduced into scientific discourse for the first time. The comparative analysis is applied to study East and West Siberian cities. In the Russian Empire Dumas were opened at different times after publishing the «Charter to the Towns». Irkutsk Duma was created in 1787, Yeniseisk Duma - in 1789, and Krasnoyarsk Duma - in 1804. The Duma reflected the cities’ social structure (which were different in each city), the effect of various social groups on the local communities, and showed the level of urban development. In Yeniseisk the service people along with merchants played an important role in the city, so they entered the general municipal Duma. In Krasnoyarsk the petty bourgeois became one of the leading social groups in the city, so they were candidates in the city mayors because merchants were few. In Irkutsk merchant class occupied a key position, and it was the mayor who selected six members of the Duma six-membered structure without contradicting legislation. The small number of «urban population» did not allow forming two fully functional Dumas in the Siberian cities. So only one Duma was formed, but it had more than six deputies. The article emphasizes that in 1822 this practice was changed by M. M. Speransky’s Siberian reform.

The article aims to provide an overview of the English- and German-language studies on the history of Russo-aboriginal relations in the XIX - early XX centuries. In the West the most significant contribution to this research field was made by M. Raeff, Yu. Slezkine, A. Znamenski (USA), T. Armstrong, J. Forsyth, D. Collins (UK), A. Kappeler, E.-M. Stolberg (Germany) et al. Many foreign authors believe that the Siberian reform of M. M. Speransky (1822) opened a new phase in the history of relations between the indigenous and non-indigenous populations in Siberia. Western researchers focused on investigating reasons and effects of “The Statute of Alien Administration” (1822); processes of adaptation, acculturation and assimilation of indigenous and non-indigenous populations in Siberia and Far East; problems of identity and self-identity, national and regional consciousness of aboriginal population, its participation in the social and political life of the region. Based on the wide range of sources and field research findings the Western historians, anthropologists, ethnographers analyzed factors that determined various strategies for aboriginal people’s survival; tried to define general patterns of Russo-aboriginal relations in Siberia. Contemporary researchers come to conclusion that Russian colonization had mostly negative impacts on the life of Siberian aborigines. Whereas in the past scholars used to attribute the disastrous situation in which the aboriginal population found itself to contradictory policies of central and local authorities (M. Raeff, T. Armstrong), modern researchers argue that the Government bore the primary responsibility for the inefficient policy towards the “inorodtsy”. Some researchers (A. Znamenski, J. Forsyth, E.-M. Stolberg) emphasize the aborigines’ active role in interactions with Russians.

The analysis of the social-economic transformation system of rural local communities allows identifying main trends of institutional change. Economic reforms in the mid-1990s marked the beginning of the institutional change procedure. The study objective is to establish the characteristics of rural local community transformation in the context of institutional change. The research methodology is based on applying a modernization paradigm based on the concept of “catch-up modernization”. Main aspects of development of rural local communities include the state agrarian policy, mixed economy, human capital. Studying the dynamics of integrative structures of the modern rural society showed that changes in the state agrarian policy (including measures to improve the efficiency of agricultural production and restructuring the agricultural sector), stabilizing the institutional and socio-economic spheres of the Russian society led to evolutionary changes in adaptation practices of rural local communities. Mixed economy development in the socio-economic structure of the agrarian-industrial complex contributes to the emergence of a new innovative economic system - agricultural holdings. Their share in product production increases, and the role of small producers declines. These processes contribute to changing the social-economic behavior of rural local communities. The villagers’ activity of private farms is reduced. These transformations have resulted in rising labor productivity and gross domestic product, developing a wide market of agricultural products. The author has identified two main models of adaptation that play a decisive role in the modern countryside life, symbiosis of large-scale farms and small-scale production economics. This phenomenon prevailed in the 1990s - early 2000s. Innovation economy is presented by large farming and agricultural holdings integrated with financial capital.

The book culture of the Russian emigrants in France in the early XX century remains a low-studied subject. The domestic historiography attempts to consider separate components of book culture. The main attention was paid to publishing activity of political parties or individuals, but these data don’t allow creating the whole picture of the Russian book lore in France in 1900-1914. The main research objective is to complete the specified information lacunas. Various methods are used in the study. To describe the cultural environment, in which the Russian diaspora lived, and all stages of the Russian book lore development in France, both historical-cultural and historical-analytical methods are used. The system approach allows to study comprehensively the Russian book business development in France in the early XX century. In 1900-1914 there was a considerable Russian diaspora in France consisting of various social groups, each of which needed literature published in its native language. Political, artistic and public organizations of the Russian Paris had editions and publishing houses. The universal firms producing and distributing books were created in large cities, combining functions of a printing house, a bookstore and a library. In the early XX century the Russian book business abroad was focused on two types of Russian-speaking readers: these two lived in France and in the Russian Empire. The revolutionary organizations of anarchists, revolutionary socialists and social democrats most often addressed from pages of the magazines and newspapers to the second type of readers. They didn’t publish the life chronicle of the Russian diaspora in Paris in their editions, unlike the news editions that focused on the Russian colony in Paris. Forming a harmonious system of the Russian book publishing and book trading in France in 1900-1914 led to further successful development of book business of «the first wave» Russian emigration.

The article substantiates that the basic components of the book industry include: publishing, export, printing production and library system. The author considers dynamics of development of the book industry of Siberia and the Far East at the turn of XX-XXI centuries. Special attention is paid to the publishing sector in the region. In the period under review two distinct subperiods are revealed. The first, covering the last decade of the twentieth century, includes the processes of formation of the foundations of the book industry based on market mechanisms of economic management, privatization, corporatization, establishment of independent enterprises, the growth of private enterprise, the development of the book business. Vector of the 1990s was directed towards the reduction of circulation and number of titles of books with a parallel increase in the number of publishers in the region, redistribution of roles and positions, transformation of state forms of publication, printing, distribution, replaced with private forms. A characteristic feature of the period was the ever increasing monocentrism of the book market of Russia, when the book enterprises and investment capital concentrating in the center of the country. The second period coincided with the first years of the XXI century, when the stabilization phase of book publishing, polygraphy and book trade began. The period was characterised by the following dynamics: the increase in the number of book titles, decrease in the number of publishing enterprises, as well as reducing number of books produced in the region per capita. All this allows to speak about decrease in influence and share of Siberia and the Far East in book culture in the country, about the protracted crisis in the book industry, the need for change, making long-term measures to support regional publishing, printing, book trade, in order to preserve the values and benefits of book culture of Siberia for future generations.

In the early 1990s traditional literary-art journals in Russia, after the phenomenal surge of popularity in late perestroika years, were in deep crisis. The publication of the “returned literature”, which brought fame to so-called “thick magazines”, began to decline, and their place was taken by dissimilar materials not of the highest artistic level. The economic situation of journals, which were previously subsidized by the state, was also critical. It was particularly noticeable in the provinces, especially in Siberia and the Far East. Traditional Siberian magazines (“Sibirskie ogni”, “Ogni Kuzbassa”, “Altay”, “Yenisei”, “Sibir’”) were on the verge of extinction. The existence of Russian literature that had relied on the journal tradition for many years was under threat. New literary-art magazines - the journals of a “new wave” - saved the situation. They relied on the prevailing Soviet underground and samizdat culture, and were an alternative to the official publications. The journals of the «new wave» managed to unite on their pages all the best being accumulated in informal and semi-formal literature, and brought the modern generation of talented writers in the literary field. These journals had an independent source of funding and existed primarily due to the energy of their creators. Therefore, when by the late 1990s, the position of the “classical” literary journals had stabilized, many journals of the “new wave” ceased to exist, and their authors and editors entered the staff of renowned journals with a rich tradition such as “Sibirskie ogni”. Some of the most vivid (“Den’ i noch’”, “Posle 12”) took place on a par with traditional journals, the other (“Mangazeya”, “Proza Sibiri”) remained in the past as notable manifestations of book culture of their time. Literary landscape leveled off and became more homogeneous, but the journals of the «new wave» had played a key role in shaping the modern map of Russian literature.

The historians and demographers studying the population reproduction in the Russian Empire pay not enough attention to the peculiarities of this process in some remote eastern regions of the country. The paper objective is to consider changes in the late XIX - early XX centuries that took place in Asian Russia - West and East Siberia, the Steppe Region and the Far East. The changes in quantitative indicators imply qualitative alterations in the mode and type of the population reproduction. The author examines the dynamics of the natural movement of the population both diachronically, taking each region separately in its timeline, and synchronically, comparing the Asian region to the European Russia as the demographic center of the country. Quantitative calculations are based on the statistical data provided by the reports of the Medical Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Empire. For the first time in historiography the author calculates annual natality and mortality indices and the population natural increase for 1897-1914. The attained dynamic picture is presented in the summary table and three graphs. The linear trends reflected in graphs demonstrate the variable directivity of the population mortality, natality and natural increase dynamics in the studied regions. The main conclusions drawn based on the dynamic table analysis are the following: 1) The traditional type of the population reproduction dominated in all eastern regions of the country, as well as in its European center, though some signals of the initial phase of demographic modernization appeared; 2) Concerning the population natural movement dynamics, Siberia and the Steppe Region had similar indices, while the situation in the Far East differed significantly from both; 3) Trans-Ural regions as compared to the European Russia showed essential specificity in demographic tendencies. The author presents some further ideas and considerations of pioneering in historical demography and regional studies.

Estimating population size in Russia and its regions during World War II is among the most difficult problems of the Russian historical demography. Insufficient study of the subject is due to the ideological taboo over a long period, as well incredibly complex source-study aspect. Statistical data used by historians studying demographic effects of the war are inaccurate, contradictory and sometimes incomparable. Before World War II the most inaccurate source of information about the population in Russia was the All-Union Census of the Soviet Union of 1939. In order to determine the population size between the censuses one needs data on parameters of population migrations (arrivals and departures number), as well as natural movement of population (births and deaths numbers). However, there was no accurate data on birth, death or migration during the Great Patriotic War. This fact made it difficult to calculate the population abundance. Besides, during the Great Patriotic War, there was a failure in the data collection system. It was caused by movements of multimillion population (evacuation, military and mobilization) ; changing boundaries of territories with registered population due to occupation of Russia’s western regions; evacuation of statistical bodies responsible for registration of population to the eastern parts of the country. It required immense efforts from statisticians to streamline the work of bodies conducting registration of population. New sources specifying the population size also played an important role. During the war the village Soviets were used to control calculations in the countryside, while in the cities registration was conducted on the basis of ration cards. The article attempts to characterize the Soviet statistics activity during the war and critically examines statistical sources upon which it relied.

The article examines mortality evolution in West Siberia, the largest region of the Russian Federation. The region is considered within the boundaries of the same economic region at the time of the 1959 census. Statistical information for 1950-1970 was inaccessible to researchers for a long time by censorship restrictions and does not represent an integral array. In this regard, the author made a request directly to the statistical agencies of the regions of Western Siberia. Information was provided by all regions, except for the Altai Republic. The research sources are the official data of the State Statistics Territorial Authorities in the regions of West Siberia, as well as archival sources. The materials provided by statistical agencies are compiled according to the same set of indicators: population abundance (urban and rural), the absolute number of births and deaths, including children under the age of one year (urban and rural), population movement, including infant mortality, population mortality (urban and rural). The data are represented by continuous dynamic series for 1950-1970. The author summarized the data and calculated the indicators of natural population movement in the region as a whole according to the methodology of the State Statistics Committee of the Russian Federation. In this form, information was not published and introduced into scientific circulation for the first time. The article objective is the population mortality reconstruction. The study resulted in recovering mortality time series and tracing evolutionary changes during the historical period under consideration. Population mortality in West Siberia constantly decreased until 1967. After that, its increase was noted. In general, the population dynamics in the region went the same way as in the whole country, but with 10-15 year lag.

The paper demonstrates the study results of the urban population mortality dynamics in the period between the Annual Censuses of 1959 and 1970. The article objective is to show peculiarities of demographic (epidemiological) transition in West Siberia in 1960s. Actuality of studying the population mortality in the considered period was determined by the average life decrease since the second half of 1960s after a long time increase. Such dynamics required detailed and circumstantial analysis of the conditions and factors affecting it. To a great extent it will facilitate explanation of both current and future reproduction dynamics. The demographic transition theory and its composite part - epidemiological transition - provided the methodological basis for the research. This essence of the demographic transition is that once society achieved a certain level of development, its structure of diseases and mortality causes undergoes a rapid (from a historical point of view) transformation. In the structure of “old” pathology infectious and parasitical diseases played an important role, while the structure of “new” pathology was formed by diseases and reasons of mortality caused primarily by endogenous factors related with human natural ageing, decreasing resistance to unfavorable external influence. The set of mathematical methods as well as special methods of historical perception are used in the research: historical-genetic and historical-comparative ones. The study led to conclusion that epidemiological transition in West Siberia had its own peculiarities determined by different factors. Mortality by cause of death had yet more incomplete structure if compared with the whole of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. The average life expectancy of urban residents in West Siberia was lower than in the republic, and inter-sex differentiation in its level was higher. At the same time over the period of 11 years, the economic region was logging behind even more, the differences in life expectancy between men and women increased, interregional differentiation in the population mortality rate grew.

The weights allowing calculation of life expectancy for a whole population as a weighted average of group-specific life expectancies are proposed. They are characterized by a minimum distance from the actual population shares that are different from those assumed in life tables. It is demonstrated how they may be obtained by means of constrained regression, using popular statistical/econometric software. The problem of negative solutions is also addressed. The empirical examples include longevity inequality calculations under various weighting systems. The data come from the Human Mortality Database and from Russia’s regional statistics.

This paper presents the circumstances of the second trial against St. Maximus the Greek in 1531. The author focuses on the accusation of supposed heretical mistakes in his translation of the text “the Hagiography of the Mother of God” from Menologion of Symeon Metaphrastos. On the basis of the manuscript it is proposed that Maximus used a rare method of translation for the time, but an examination of the text also raises questions about the earlier hagiographic sources from the Eastern and Western early Christian traditions, such as the patristic and liturgical interpretations of the hagiographic material. Of particular interest here is the tradition of the Byzantine hymnography reflected in the works of St. Maximus the Greek, mainly in those that are defined as prayers, confessions and theological polemics that showed his attachment to the protection of the Mother of God. Obviously, an Athonite monk understood the Mother of Good as a part of the orthodox Holy Trinity, which he explained in his texts. He often supported his arguments for the holiness of the Mother of God with exegetic examples from the Holy Scripture. Indeed, the verses from the Byzantine hymnographical odes, dedicated to the Virgin Mary, which flourished in the Holy Vatopedi monastery, as well as in the Athonite period of the monk Maximus, present the essence of the works and personal theology of Maximus the Greek. Therefore, this unique monastic worldview, which combined very different sources of Christian knowledge (the Holy Scripture, hymnography, liturgy, patristic, iconography, and hagiography), was also marked by the special consideration of the Mother of God in Orthodox theology, which together make the theological system of Saint Maximus the Greek so original.

The Siberian numismatics as a scholar discipline is in its developmental phase. Its late start as compared with the numismatic studies in Russia was caused by the specific features of Siberian coin material, specifically its small quantity. That new discipline still doesn’t have its own special scientific instruments, namely the certain research aims, correct concepts and adequate methods. For example, there is no correct definition of Siberian mint in the special literary. The purpose of this publication is to analyze historical sources of the XVIII-XIX centuries in order to reveal the most historically correct localization of the Siberian mint. The study led to some interesting findings. Firstly, in the historiography of the Siberian economy there is no generally acknowledged localization of minting in Siberia although this place is well known from the sources; scholars and other authors use three different definitions, quite often simultaneously: Kolyvan’ mint, Suzun (or Nizhne-Suzun) mint, and Barnaul one. Secondly, in the bureaucratic office records there was no brief and accurate definition of the site of Siberian mintage up to 1828, when the definition “Suzun mint” appeared in an Emperor’s decree, the term “mint” was not officially used with reference to the Siberian mintage during the reign of Catherine the Second. Thus, it’s evident that the supreme authority in Russia and all imperial administration avoided any definiteness in this problem. Therefore, modern researchers found themselves out of the clarity as well. From the historical sources we know that the most precise and complete definition for the site of the Siberian minting in 1763-1828 was the following: “manufacture of the copper Siberian coin at the Nizhne-Suzunsk factory (of Our Kolyvano-Voskresensk factories)”. It seems to be the most correct in the scholar use too.

Currently we observe the growth of interest to the family of Romanovs due to 100th anniversary of the revolutionary events in Russia. The paper considers main components of the information-bibliographic resources devoted to the Romanov dynasty and generated by the State Public Scientific Technological Library of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (SPSTL SB RAS). The article represents regional materials on Siberia and its role in the Romanovs’ fate, which are included in retrospective database (DB) “Union catalog of Siberian and Far Eastern books (XVIII century - 1930)” and currently replenished DB “Scientific Sibirika”. DBs were created based on materials selection from an obligatory copy of Russian literature, as well as foreign publications obtained by SPSTL SB RAS, information from secondary information sources, stocks of large libraries of Siberia and the Far East. DB “United catalog of the Siberian and Far Eastern books (XVIII century - 1930)” presents publications on the Romanov dynasty, published in the territory of Siberia and the Far East in the period from 1837 to 1922 (more than 170 titles). It comprises documents about the stay of the tsar’s family (trips, travel, exile) in the Siberian regions; activity of institutions named in honor of representatives of the House of Romanovs and/or under their protection; papers published for the anniversary of the Romanov dynasty; publications on the history of settlements named in honor of the most august persons in the Siberian region, impostors who appeared in a given territory. The table gives the list of the Romanov dynasty royal figures, the information about who is reflected in DB, indicating the number of publications devoted to individuals, years and topics of their publication. Modern publications about the Romanov dynasty (from 1990 to the present) are presented in DB “Scientific Sibirika”, where the section “History of Siberia and the Far East” is highlighted. It comprises a considerable number of documents devoted to the life tragic pages of the last Russian emperor from the Romanov dynasty connected with Siberia, which is known as “Tobolsk period of the Romanovs exile”. The documentary flow contains about 200 publications over a 25-year period. Its analysis is carried out, which shows the species structure of publications (monographs, articles in journals and collections) is shown, authors with high publication activity. Information resources of SPSTL SB RAS’ own generation are freely available in the web and could serve a useful source base for future research of scientists and specialists.

The article is devoted to the low-investigated problem of the judiciary formation in the first postwar years. Various aspects of the personnel work in Leningrad municipal court (Lengorsud) as well as its educational component have been studied based on archival data and normative sources. The research is based on comparative, structural, logical and quantitative methods, principles of historicism, consistency and scientific objectivity. In the early 1950s the judicial staff in Leningrad was incomplete, so the authorities sought to provide courts with competent and loyal employees as soon as possible. During the period under study, the issues of staffing and recruitment were assigned to the Ministry of Justice of the USSR. In the regions these issues were solved by the Ministry of Justice Directorates (MJD). In particular, MJD in Leningrad considered not only the number of people’s courts corresponding to the number of incoming cases, but also premises where the courts would be opened. Later, at the stages of the candidate’s approval, party bodies were involved (and in some cases Lengorsud, especially if it concerned its own staff), but these powers were formally assigned to the justice bodies. The article examines ways of filling judicial vacancies and problems that hampered the complete staffing of judicial institutions that were urgently needed under conditions of postwar growth of incoming cases (both civil and criminal). Having revealed the specific solutions to a problem of judicial staff in Leningrad, the author asserts that the main obstacle to the judiciary formation was the absence of a proper number of party citizens with a legal education and loyal to authorities. Other factors, such as repression and rotation in the judiciary community during the period under consideration were not of decisive importance for Leningrad.