Home – Home – Jornals – Humanitarian sciences in Siberia 2018 number

The article is devoted to the reform of rural health care in Eastern Siberia carried out in the Irkutsk, Yeniseisk provinces and Yakutsk region in 1897, as well as Transbaikalia in 1901. This work continues research of Russian historians who studied reforms of health care system in these regions of the Russian Empire that did not have zemstvos. The authors characterize a condition of medical care for rural population of Eastern Siberia in the second half of the XIX century as extremely backward, close to its total absence. The population asked for zemstvos, which had considerably improved the health care system in the central provinces. However, introduction of zemstvos in Siberia was interfered by a number of reasons: existence of penal servitude and exile, numerous aboriginal population, lack of noble land tenure, close arrangement of borders, etc. Due to these reasons it was decided to undertake a reform, which considered the experience of medical personnel activity in zemstvos. The great role in the reform implementation was played by the Irkutsk Governor-General A. D. Goremykin and the medical inspector N. E. Makovetsky. Each East Siberian district had from one to seven medical sites headed by doctors. The medical personnel number increased by 60 % after the reform. At places of doctors’ residences hospitals with 10 beds were created. Hospitals construction dragged on and by the beginning of World War I only 86 % of the planned number of beds was available. The reform assumed to create the staff of special workers to fight against smallpox. Financing grew considerably at the expense of the additional tax. The austerity budget was adopted, so the population in some cases was forced to raise money for purchase of medicines, equipment of hospitals and qualified specialists’ invitation. Despite a number of shortcomings, reform improved medicine positions in the rural zone of Eastern Siberia, it also delayed the prospects for zemstvos introduction in the Siberian territories indefinitely.

The article reveals the state of small and handicraft industry in Siberia after the Civil War, the degree of its nationalization, the state control and management forms and methods, short- and medium-term effects of «military communism». An interagency body - the Main Directorate for artisanal and small-scale industry and trade cooperation - was formed based on the apparatus of the Supreme Economic Council and the Commissariat of Agriculture in the early 1920s to manage handicraft industry. Its regional bodies were entrusted with the state orders distribution, raw materials provision, supplying artisans, products sale, enterprises’ registration, financial and production-technological control implementation. To solve urgent economic problems, the new authorities used mechanism of labor mobilization combining self-employed craftsmen and artisans in small producers’ artels, which were guaranteed raw materials provision, products sale, payment in kind. Such forced partnership of the «survival economy» allowed ensuring demand for a certain range of manufactured goods and the necessary subsistence minimum for the workers. The forced cooperation of artisans, nationalization of cooperative enterprises and other measures could not solve the key issues of the revival of population entrepreneurial activity. A significant number of industrial enterprises in Siberia, which became the state property, continued to be inactive. The possibility of reviving the handicraft sector of the economy was limited not only by the complete breakdown of economic ties, but also by the authorities’ ideological implacability and private property, as well as the incompetence of the military administration to use market methods. The attempt to give a positive impulse to the state industry on planned basis was not successful. The idea of the State Central Committee (Glavk) on the principles of self-financing was the last illusion ruined by the economic life realities.

The author introduces into scientific circulation unique documents related to the visit of A.A. Andreev, the Secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (of Bolsheviks), as the commissioner for state grain procurement in the Trans-Urals and West Siberia in September-October 1938. He was sent to the region in connection with the failure to fulfill the calendar assignments for grain delivery. Andreev visited Chelyabinsk, Omsk, Novosibirsk regions and Altai Territory. The main reason for the low rates of grain procurement was the delay of crops mowing and threshing, significant losses of grain. Andreev instructed to take the necessary measures to accelerate the harvesting, threshing and export of crops. His initiatives expanded the scale of repression against “saboteurs” of state grain procurement. After Andreev’s visit to the region, the volumes of grain delivery increased. However, it was not possible to fulfill the annual procurement task of 1938/39 in West Siberia.

The article analyzes the experience of the illiteracy elimination in the postwar years (1946-1958). Its evaluation in the historical literature is ambiguous, different opinions exist about the time for ending the illiteracy elimination in the country. Authors study painstaking work carried out to overcome illiteracy in an industrialized area of the country - Sverdlovsk Region, based on archival documents. This regional approach has made it possible to identify the specific features of training the adult working population in difficult postwar years. The process of teaching adult illiterates in the postwar years was spasmodic, as its completion was planned for a short period: for the years of the Fourth Five-Year Plan, then by 1953, by 1955, and by 1959. The authors single out several stages in the process of the illiteracy liquidation: 1946-1953, 1953-1957, and 1958. They were distinguished by searching optimal forms to teach literacy. The task of eliminating adult illiteracy was “sluggish” during the first two phases, as the contradiction between high planned targets and insufficient funding for this program was not resolved. The main burden of financing the elimination of illiteracy was borne by the state; public organizations, primarily trade unions, did not have the opportunity to allocate sufficient funds for this work. Since 1953, the public education authorities expanded the education of adult illiterates by opening primary schools and grades in working and rural youth schools. However, these schools could not encompass the training of all working illiterates. In 1958, an attempt was made, with combined efforts of educational bodies, Communist party, Komsomol and trade union organizations, to teach the same number of illiterates in a year as they had trained for the whole post-war period. The results of the All-Union population census of 1959 showed that the illiteracy of persons aged 16 to 49 in the region was eliminated, and the male part of this population group achieved general literacy. The article analyzes the extensive statistical material, which made it possible to draw a conclusion on the successful work to eliminate the adult population illiteracy in the region.

The paper is devoted to studying the main aspects of the young workers’ everyday life in the Tyumen plant “Mekhanik” in the late 1940s - early 1950s. The article objective is to study the daily activities of young workers, to describe the production and housing conditions, types and forms of work activity of young men and women at the enterprise. Investigating the state of various social groups in different periods of national history makes it possible to rethink the Soviet history. During the period under study young people accounted for more than a half of the labour staff, the burden of restoring the industry after the Great Patriotic War fell on their shoulders. Research methodology is based on the theory of everyday life, an anthropological approach is used, that is, the consideration of events and phenomena through the prism of a person’s relationship to them, as well as techniques and methods of oral history. Due to the difficult economic situation in the country after the war, young people were forced to start working early and acquire a profession in the workplace. The main desire of young boys and girls was to work as quickly as possible in order to feed themselves, help the family, few thought about getting a speciality. Workers who did not have secondary education, went to study in the evening schools - schools of working young people. Recent graduates of factory training schools and vocational schools, coming to the plant, did not have sufficient knowledge for independent work, so they were often attached to the skilled staff for the full professional mastery. During the period under study the working conditions gradually improved, but continued to be heavy. Most of the plant workshops were littered, in a shabby condition and required repairs. Low earnings, unfavorable housing conditions led to the staff constant turnover, an average work experience of young people at the plant did not exceed two years.

The article is devoted to studying some findings of artistic metallic goods, among which are a belt buckle and two hasps discovered in the previous years on the surface of Medieval ancient Shelji or Sadyr-Korgon settlement situated in the valley of the Talas River in northern Kyrgyzstan. Nowadays these findings are kept in the school museum named after M. Orozbekov in Kyzyl-Adyr village in the Talas Region of the Kyrgyz Republic. The authors studied them during the expeditionary trip to Kyrgyzstan. The article considers main results of the previous research of toreutics objects in the territory of Tian Shan and Jetysu. The artistic metallic goods are analyzed. These findings are classified and assigned to definite types on formal grounds. The authors made propositions on chronology of their use and the territory of spreading within the Central Asian cultural and historical region. The article argues in favour of cultural identity of toreutics objects from this collection; according to the theory they could be made by handicraftsmen, who lived in Shelji town during the Middle Ages, which was an important industrial and trade centre of Tian Shan and Jetysu at that time. The study of ornamental toreutics objects discovered by a teacher and students of Kyzyl-Adyr secondary school in outskirts of Medieval ancient Shelji or Sadyr-Korgon is important for understanding handicrafts’ development in northern Kyrgyzstan. Analyzed archaeological findings show that the town was a significant trade centre of artistic metallic goods in the Talas River valley, northern Kyrgyzstan, in the early and high Middle Ages.

Kofun is a special type of burial mounds built on the Japanese archipelago during the Kofun period (III-VII centuries AD), which are known from ancient times. They are mentioned in the first historical chronicles and attracted attention not only due to their size, but also due to their external appearance with clay figures - haniwa. However, results of mound archaeological research carried out in the second half of the XX - early XXI centuries managed to confirm the theory of applying wooden ritual objects on kofuns. The article objective is to identify the currently available data on finding wooden objects at kofuns, possibly, of ritual destination, which were used in construction of the kofun external mound; reveal the basic types of wooden objects, their quantitative characteristics, methods for installing them on mound; define the territory of spreading the tradition and time of its existence. The complexity of studying wooden products is associated with the material’s poor preservation. It was not clear for a long time what way they were used. Research of Imadza-tokurumadzuka kofun made it possible for the first time to reconstruct the way of using these wooden objects. Wooden objects in the shape of a lid were found during the excavations of the kofun moat; nearby there were posts for their installation, and stratigraphy research revealed the steps of the mound with holes to fix the pillars in the haniwa row. There are 39 monuments with wooden ritual objects found in the territory of the Japanese archipelago, and one mound - in the Korean peninsula. The main area of distribution is the central part of Honshu Island (modern prefectures of Nara and Shiga). The archaeological material analysis identifies several types of wooden objects. The research results show that wooden objects were used since the late IV century approximately until the middle VI century on kofuns (burial mounds) of the central part of Honshu Island. Unlike haniwa, which reproduced the lifetime of the deceased, wooden objects installed on kofun probably belonged to the sphere of the spiritual world.

In spite of the achievements of archaeological science in the last years in Russia and the world, the Stone Age of Kamchatka is little known to the great number of Russian and foreign researchers. The article objective is to generalize information about archaeological research of Kamchatka since the mid XIX to early XXI centuries, to estimate the degree of regional archaeological studies, to reveal the research primary concerns, to offer the way of solving them using a problem-chronologic technique. Analysis of the archaeological research of Kamchatka allowed us to separate three stages. The first acquainting stage (1850-1940s): collection and accumulation of the first materials, attempts of their comprehension. It was supposed that Kamchatka was populated in the Neolith; the most ancient population settled in Kamchatka were Itelmens. The second stage (second half of the XX century) is related to activity of scientific institutions: further materials accumulation, using natural-science methods to date archaeological objects, the first periodizations of the Stone Age in Kamchatka. The Late Pleistocene archaeological sites of Upper Paleolithic and Neolithic Tar’in culture were discovered. The third stage is characterized by the widening information base (the XXI century). Studying the Ushki sites was renewed, based on it the Stone Age general periodization was adjusted, which should be a base for subsequent chronologic charts. The paper shows the further research prospects, including the assessment of the most important scenarios of natural events and their relationship with the process of the Stone Age human development in the Kamchatka Peninsula.

Housing construction in archaeological materials of the Uril culture in the Priamurye is currently documented as 21 dwellings in the scientific literature. The article objective is to reveal the dynamics of the Uril culture housing construction. An analysis of their constructive features makes it possible to draw some conclusions about the house-building tradition of the population, and the basic trends in its development. The dominating form for all dwellings is a frame-and-pillars structure with the presence of a pit, sometimes more than one meter in depth, mostly from 50 to 90 cm. The appearance of the rectangular and square dwellings is in the form of a pyramid with various slopes of the roof slopes, or a cone in rounded dwellings. All the well-known dwellings of the Uril culture in the residential area should be divided into three groups: large, medium, and small ones. The large dwellings are more than 100 m2. In this case, the form of dwellings in plan is more often rectangular with rounded corners; in one case - rounded. The average group includes buildings ranging from 45 to 95 m2. Their shape is in most cases square or rectangular, sometimes with rounded corners. The exception is Dwelling 1 at Rybnoe Ozero site, which is round in plan. Group of small constructions is represented by buildings ranging from 20 to 30 m2. The hearths in the excavated dwellings of the Uril culture are mostly round in shape. In one case the hearth is fenced with stones. Sub-rectangular hearths are located in two buildings. The square hearth is found in one round dwelling. In some cases, near the hearth there is a ditch for air supply to improve the thrust of its combustion. An analysis of the structures of the excavated dwellings of the Uril culture shows that the main tendency of the housing construction of its carriers is the predominance of large and medium-sized structures at the early stage (XI-IX centuries BC), and its reduction to small sizes during the middle and late stages (VIII-V centuries BC).

The principal goal of the article is to present the characteristic of the most important changes and innovations in lithic technology in Northern Mongolia during the final Pleistocene - early Holocene. Since 2004 the middle Selenga River (Northern Mongolia) has been in the permanent focus of the Stone Age research. The greatest significance are materials of so-called “Tolbor Paleolithic complex” with the stratified sites Tolbor 4, Tolbor 15, Tolbor 16, Tolbor 17, Tolbor 21, Tolbor Paleolithic Cache, and Kharganyn-Gol 5. The most attention is given to the problem of the early Upper Paleolithic - its dating, issues of local or import origins of the blade industry, sub-periodization, and correlation with the synchronous lithic industries in Altai Region, Transbaikalia, and Northern China. The appearance of microblade technology in the Paleolithic of Northern Mongolia is documented, first of all, with the wedge-shaped microcores, which were explored by a pressure technique. The pilot signal of this technique (microcore) is known at Tolbor 15 in Horizon 5 with the AMS data 28460±310 (AA-84137). Later, at Tolbor 15, in Horizons 4-3 (15 - 14 000 BP) and Horizon 2 (13 - 11 000 BP) wedge-shaped microcores are represented in more sophisticated modifications - on uni- and bifacial preforms. During the survey in the Ikh-Tulberiin-Gol, Kharganyn-Gol and Altaatyn-Gol River valleys in 2011-2014 it was established that the mobility of ancient groups in the Paleolithic-early Neolithic was not limited only by “Selenga corridor”, but on the contrary, people preferred to use the saddles in the mountain ridges for comfort transition from one river valley to another. We think that from the morphological and typological points of view the microblade technique in the final Paleolithic of Northern Mongolia demonstrates more similarities not with the Transbaikalia, but with the complexes archaeologically known in the southern and eastern directions. All these facts confirm the most likely spreading of the pressure microblade technology in the Upper Paleolithic - from Central Asian regions (and Northern Mongolia in particular) to the coastal and island territories of the Far East, while the proposed alternative direction has not been sufficiently substantiated.

An anthropomorphic principle manifested in the mutual aid of nature and man through anthropomorphic images permeated the calendar-ritual cycle of the Slavic peasants of the first half of the year - from winter to summer solstice days. Anthropomorphic images were also included in the autumn rites. The article is based on field materials collected in the 1980-1990s among the East Slavic peoples of West Siberia. The study significantly expanded the scope of use of anthropomorphic images in the folk calendar, allowed evaluating in a new way their functions and symbolism. The Siberian characters originality was provided by using a natural material in winter and spring rituals, such as snow, in which one can see the motives of the Russian folk tale about the Snow Maiden. It is supposed, that the myth about the natural spirits that disappear with seasons changing is reflected in the fairy tale. Slavic traditions of using old things and rags, straw are preserved in spring-summer rites, sheaves of a new crop with the appropriate terminology - in autumn rituals. The symbolism of the initial materials to make ritual figures is important, which reflects a gradual change of cultural meanings - from snow and rag waste consisted of processed flax fiber (hemp), straw, to anthropomorphic images made from spikes of a new crop. In the first half of the calendar cycle, the topic of getting rid of unnecessary, and therefore harmful, old things, from snow as a factor hindering the revival of nature was sounded as actual: they were torn, burned, or supposed to evaporate when melting. In the second half of the year, ritual figures made of sheaves played an honorary role and were placed in the fields, in a red corner with icons, etc. Thus, the notion of anthropomorphic images was an organic part of the people’s worldview, which formed the content and cultural meanings of the calendar rituals of the East Slavs transferred to Siberia.

The article is devoted to the problems of updating and conservation strategies for symbolic-sign system which had been embodied in the Orthodox sacred artifacts and has determined the ethnic-cultural identity of the population of Russia for centuries. It shows that the sacred artifacts veneration had several reasons for updating, including the response to changing social life, meeting the need for religious practice, perpetuating the memory of outstanding people and significant events using the example of the Yeniseysk diocese. Activities on reproducing the traditional Orthodox patterns were planned not only by the clergy, church hierarchs, representatives of the royal family, but also by representatives of various segments of population. As a rule, wealthy people acted on their own behalf, and peasants petitioned for the temple construction on behalf of the community. One of the important strategies for conversation of Orthodox shrines was putting them in the temple vault, often available for parishioners - placing icons in the interior of the temples, relics in cancers, making tombs. A kind of strategy to support the traditional character-sign series was the liturgical ministry in the annual and diurnal cycle, as well as religious processions, which in time and space reproduced the scenario and religious meaning of reverence. Such reverence supports the established world order along with the heavenly protection on the earth. Instead of the lost churches, new ones or sometimes chapels were established on the same places, instead of the destroyed chapels crosses were erected, supporting the memory of the holy place. Sacred artifacts were an attribute of the ideological picture of the Orthodoxy and the memory of them presented at all levels - from the individual to the national, in any sphere of culture - material, spiritual, artistic and social ones. The safety of sacred artifacts was ensured by the strategies that resumed the artifacts’ functioning in the cultural environment and by the order established by the religious canons.

The visions and conceptions put forward by the representatives of the aboriginal minority groups have been drawing attention of the researchers since long. While in the past it was common to look down upon such conceptions, the recent trend has been to accept them the way they are without any criticism. This paper attempts to bring back the topic of the native thinkers and their visions into the realm of science proper, at the same time trying to avoid the sense of detachment that has been characteristic to this kind of research in the past. It elaborates on the views of Nikolai Shodoev, a prominent representative of the new wave of the native Altai intelligentsia. He was one of those, who took the responsibility of the revival of the aboriginal traditional culture of Altai in the 1980-1990s. Shodoev made a sound attempt to sum up and present in a structured, formalized way the unique conceptions of nature, society and human that his kinsmen had developed, as well as to deliver to his readers their ethical imperatives and principles. It is fair to say, that his works are blessed with systematic approach and provide insightful and original conclusions. Based on the series of personal interviews with Shodoev himself and careful reading of his available publications, author reviews and summarizes his views on the essence of Altai and elaborates on his hypothesis with regards to the origins and the special mission of its native people to be the custodians of sacred knowledge contained here, which Shodoev himself names “bilik”. The paper concludes that Altai’s people weltanschauung in his interpretation combines both confidence in their special mission, deification of nature in general and their native land in particular with the staunch belief in the ability of an individual to master his own faith. It is further concluded that in this way Nikolai Shodoev blends oriental and occidental philosophic traditions and ultimately creates a unique concept that deserves further study and popularization.

The article is devoted to reconstruction of the traditional maternity rituals of the autochthons in North Altai foothills and their semantics. The research source is field materials of the author and other participants of ethnographic expeditions of Altai State University in 2001-2004. Large families were highly respected in traditional communities; boys’ birth was preferable. This should have been facilitated by certain actions. A new life advent was associated with “kut” (a human double) and “umay” (the spirit-keeper), complexes of religious beliefs. Preparation for childbirth included observation of certain prohibitions and restrictions by pregnant women. For example, they were released from hard work and forbidden to visit springs. During birth action, the wise woman assisted women in birth and helped with a newborn. The wise woman was an active participant in many rituals of transition: washing a baby, telling a father of a newborn’s sex, burial of afterbirth, participation in naming, etc. The indigenous people were careful to afterbirth and an umbilical cord; they were stored in an inaccessible place or buried in ground. Rituals accompanying the emergence of a new member of the family and society should save the life of the newborn and the woman in labor. The name was chosen in honor of the deceased relatives. Naming amulets were practiced, they “protected” from evil spirits. Simultaneously a rite was carried on to place a baby in a birch bark cradle, which was made by a father right after birth. If the child grew strong and healthy, then the cradle was considered happy, and it was used in the future. Important stages of maternity rituals were forty days and a year. After a year the child was shown to relatives. In general, childbirth was a transitional period for a woman in labor and her child. The woman in labor was finally included in the new family and clan, acquiring a new status. The child moved from the “natural” state into the social through symbolic actions, including cradling, giving a name, first haircut, threading legs, etc.

The purpose of the article is to analyze main indicators of ethno-demographic processes in Khakassia in the XX-XXI centuries: Khakass population number, their birth and death rates. The article reveals the factors that led to the change in the ethnic composition of the region. In particular, great attention is paid to migrations, which have changed the ratio of the national composition and significantly reduced the share of the Khakass in the total population of Khakassia. The author examines the issue of the external, labor migration effect on the population formation as a new phenomenon of social-economic development of national regions in Siberia. The author analyzes main trends of ethno-demographic processes in 1990s and identifies 3 groups of migrants. It is proved that the Kyrgyz prevail among labor migrants in Khakassia. The author reveals the reasons for the excess of mortality over the birth rate in the late 1980s - early 1990s, studying main diseases among the Khakass population, which influenced the reduction of life expectancy. The study of ethno-demographic processes in Khakassia in the late XX - early XXI centuries led to conclusion, on the one hand, about the advanced rates of the population growth in Khakassia during the Soviet period in comparison with the rest of the country and, on the other hand, about much lower growth of the Khakass population compared with the Tuvinians and the Altaians. The characteristic feature in the Soviet period was the region’s rapid industrial development, which led to the large migration flow and population growth. The share of the indigenous ethnic group decreased from 75 % (1924) to 11 % (1989). The liberal reforms of the 1990s had a negative impact on the ethnic group’s state. The collapse of the Soviet Union and reforms in Russia changed the political and socio-economic situation. Economic problems became extremely acute. The process of depopulation, especially among the Khakass, started. In 1989 the average life expectancy of the Khakass was 64 years - 5 years less than that of the total population of Khakassia. The death rate of the Khakass men was significantly higher than that of the other men living in the region. Adaptation of the population to the changed conditions took place only in the early 2000s. There was a natural increase in the population due to the birth rate and labor migration. Some changes occurred in the structure of the migration process. Representatives of indigenous nationalities of the CIS countries started prevailing among the migrants in Khakassia.

Fear of death is the main source of anxiety. To reduce the level of anxiety, рeople create a psychological defense based on the denial of death. The problem of psychological adaptation is shown evidently for the Komi traditional beliefs on the soul destiny after death. The authors study the phenomenon of human adaptation to death in terms of various psychological approaches (existential, psychoanalytic) using ethnographic and folklore materials. Komi preserved pagan beliefs that a man has two souls - “lov” and “ort”. Folklore and ethnographic material contains conflicting information about places where souls stay after the person’s death. The authors divided Komi beliefs on a soul location after death into four groups: 1. Souls live in the “another world”. The location of the “another world” is diverse and usually not structured. “Another world,” heaven and hell can be on the “edge of the earth,” “far in the north,” “in heaven,” “on the top of the mountain”, under the earth, under water. “Another world’s” remoteness is aligned both horizontally and vertically. 2. The souls are next to the body of the deceased, in the grave, in the cemetery. Souls can be incarnated in some animals, birds, insects, trees. 3. The souls can interact with relatives. It is not a visible entity, tutelary and ancestor. 4. The souls can be embodied in new born children - new members of the genus. Souls gain maximum mobility after a person’s death. The topic of the soul relocation in different directions (to “the another world” and back) is everywhere present in Komi folklore, mythology and beliefs. Changing the form, the souls continue to live in a new shape - among people or in another world. The road to “another world” can be perceived as a path to beginning a new stage in the soul’s existence, and life continuation. Such ideas abolish the perception of death as an absolute end, and the transition to “another world” can be realized as temporary. Thus, the level of anxiety reduced, the pain of losing relatives and the fear of own death abated.

The article aims to establish the influence of the Russian and English strategic perceptions exerted in the course of the blockade of Kars over the planning, the conduct of operations, and the results of the 1855 Caucasian campaign of the Crimean War of 1853-1856. The existing historiography of the Crimean War at the Caucasian theater of operations tends to create factual accounts or review tactical and operational methods, or the armies involved. However, the existing body of research does not complement the tactical and operational criticism with the analysis of the opposing side’s strategic perceptions. The article is based on the dialectical approach to the history of the military art, introduced by Hans Delbrück, who viewed the evolution of military art as the interaction of two opposing principles - annihilation and attrition. When applied to the analysis of Kars’ blockade in 1855, this approach allows establishing that the Russian command represented by N.N. Muraviev, the general of infantry, the Commander of the Separate Corps and the Viceroy of the Caucasus, was trapped within the paradigm of annihilation going back to Napoleonic Wars. Because of this approach, the Russian general devoted all his attention to Kars’ blockade, which had harbored the greater portion of Turkish Anatolian Army. As a result, he generally ignored another important operational objective - Erzurum, the capital of the Eastern Anatolia and the city of considerable economic, political and strategic importance.On the other hand, the allied side represented by the British brigadier-general F. Williams, demonstrated more flexible strategic thinking that allowed perceiving conflict through the lens of the strategy of attrition with limited goals. This approach, combined with the understanding of the weaknesses of the Russian strategy, ensured more effective warfare on the Allied side and allowed keeping such an important asset as Erzurum until the campaign end, ultimately, until the peace negotiations.

The article determines the reliability degree of reports presented by the governors and the acting chief of the Central Inquiry Committee of the Ministry of Internal Affair (CIC MIA) based on the numbers comparison on cereals reserve stores’ refilling in Arkhangelsk Province in the second half of the XIX century. The methodology is based on the principles of historicism, systemacity and objectivity, the basic research technique is a historical comparative method. During three stages of development of the national historiography historians evaluated the reliability degree of the governors’ reports in different ways. In the pre-revolutionary period, the level of information reliability of the governor’s report and CIC MIA data were undoubted. The efficiency of the governors’ activity was evaluated based on the analysis of their reports. In the Soviet period, the attention of historians to the subject of the governor’ reports reliability increased compared to the previous period, as evidenced in growing numbers of publications. During that time the governors’ reports were questioned. In the post-Soviet period research is aimed at summarizing the existing experience and postulating the governors’ reports as reliable historical sources deserving historians’ attention. Based on the data comparison on fullness of cereal reserve stores in Arkhangelsk Province in the second half of the XIX century the author examines the level of reliability degree of these sources on the agrarian history of Russia. The data from two sources are shown in the summary table, and their comparison allows determining their degree of reliability. Based on the analysis of two sources’ data on the cereal reserve stores’ fullness the author concludes that they varied over the period of 18 years under study, and it is difficult to determine which source reflects the reality adequately. However, such materials should be used in studying the activities of cereal reserve stores, as they allow representing general trends.

The article objective is to study the personnel policy of the Russian government aiming to form the corps for regional heads in Yakutia (1805-1852). Nowadays, extensive studies are carried out in regard to the institution of governorship in the Russian Empire, but there is still no special investigation of the institution of regional heads, which operated on the outskirts of the country. The state paid special attention to the margin territories taking into account its regional peculiarities (geopolitical, economic, ethno-demographic, etc.). Undoubtedly, an important place belonged to the staff policy, because the work on the ground, especially in remote regions of the vast empire depended on the head. That is why certain criteria appeared to choose candidates for the regional heads. Functioning of this institute of the regional head in various territories of the country caused distinctive signs, which undoubtedly affected the corps formation. Thus, the research has certain relevance. The author used a comparative method, which contributed to the analysis of the staff of the regional heads in Yakutia. The article for the first time in the Russian historiography studies the personnel policy in relation to the Yakut regional heads. It identifies an important principle of the corps formation related to cargo transportation and close connection with remote points of the Russian Northeast.

A distinctive feature of the Soviet social system was its orientation toward the maximum possible involvement of the popular masses in the state management. This orientation manifested itself in the community courts, which were created immediately after the establishment of the Soviet power and survived until the Soviet system’s decline. The article shows the creation and development of the community courts network in Siberia and their use as an instrument to influence the behavior and consciousness of Soviet citizens based on archival documents and materials published during the period under investigation.