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This article continues the generalizing research on the scientific concepts of the late Neolithic of Western Amur Region. There was a relative lull in studying the Neolithic in the region from the late 1970s to early 2000s. Despite this, the 1980s- 1990s can be classified as a separate stage, when the Osinoozersk culture cartography continued to expand, and the source base for the further studies accumulated. This was largely derived from archaeological surveying and discovery of the late Neolithic data as results of stationary investigations on multilayer sites in the region. At this stage, university archaeological studies started and the municipal archaeological service was created that made a great contribution to the discovery and preservation of the late Neolithic sites. A new phase of archaeological research has begun in Western Amur Region since the early 2000s. This period has been marked with beginning a new stage of stationary work of the Institute of Archeology and Ethnograpgy of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IAET SB RAS) on the regional late Neolithic sites. The field work led to the start of international expeditions in the region. In 2003, the Center for Preservation of the Historical and Cultural Heritage of Amur Region was established. Its activity made a significant contribution to studying the late Neolithic. The research resulted in broadening the source base to analyze the Osinoozersk culture; new types of cultural sites were discovered, which made it possible to identify a number of features in the housebuilding, stone tools and pottery of the late Neolithic era. Despite this, many issues remain to be discussed and resolved at the moment. On the one hand, a problem to solve is the culture chronology and its relationship with the early Neolithic Novopetrovka culture; on the other hand, its relation with the early Iron Age population in western Amur Region has to be proved. The transition of the Osinoozerskaya culture bearers to producing economy is the issue deserved to be studied and get additional research. Solving these issues is inextricably linked with the qualitative and quantitative improvement of the source base.

The article presents a modern vision of the research history of the Poltse culture origin in the eastern Amur Basin. The main database appeared as a result of excavations in the 1960s of settlements of this culture near Kukelevo village at the Kochkovatka River, tributary of the Amur River. New excavations of the Poltse culture Zheltyy Yar, Malmyzh-1 sites aimed to obtain new material to clarify the situation with its early stage. However, they made it possible to identify artifacts of this culture’s late period and transition of population of the eastern Amur Basin to the early Middle Ages. Its formation on the basis of the Uril culture was attributed to the VII-VI centuries BC since the beginning of the study of the Poltse culture. Further studies of the pottery of the Ural and Poltse cultures proved their coexistence within the V century BC. The new radiocarbon dates for dwelling 1 of Zheltyy Yar site with Uril ceramic vessels have shown its existing in the II century BC. The author suggests that the Kolchem-type ceramics of the Lower Amur are very close to those of the Uril culture, and their carriers existed on the margins of the Poltse culture world at the turn of the era. These facts indicate that later the population of the Uril culture could live together in the same territory complementing each other with the achievements of their cultures in housing construction, everyday life and economic activity during the period of assimilation by the early carriers of the Poltse traditions. At the present stage of the study of the Poltse culture, certain changes have taken place in the perceptions of its genesis, new radiocarbon dates of some settlements have appeared, but the conclusion about the Uril component as the basis of its formation remains in the first place. The migration direction is not clearly indicated. The Chinese researchers see the similarity of the Wanyanhe and Guntulin culture materials in the Amur Basin (Heilongjiang) with the Poltse culture. However, they do not deny the participation of the Uril culture’s population in their formation in the new territory.

There are cases of finding weapons in burials and hoards of the Paleometal epoch in the territory of the Korean Peninsula and the Japanese Islands. The archaeological context of such findings and their morphological features testify to the ritual use of weapons. The study objective is a comparative analysis of some categories of findings. Bronze and iron weapons are most often found in burials expressing a special relation towards the buried person and emphasizing a high social status in the ancient Korean area. Stone models of daggers, which should be used only in ritual practice, became widespread in the Paleometal epoch. The petroglyphic images on the dolmen “lids” are known as well. Besides, the hoards containing weapons have been found. Based on the archaeological source analysis, the authors conclude that stone daggers, bronze broad bladed and narrow-bladed daggers were the most worshiped in ancient Korea. In the territory of ancient Japan weapons are found in burials and hoards. Weapons in the burials were found mainly in the sites of the northern Kyushu Island; the main flow of migrations from mainland China and the Korean Peninsula passed through this part of the Japanese Islands. For a long time bronze and iron continued to be the subject of import for the inhabitants of ancient Japan, so the findings of numerous objects made of metal are rare. In western Japan, several hoards of bronze objects consisting of dotaku bells, daggers or short swords, tanged spearheads and spears are known. Two tanged spearheads with faces on the back side take a special place, and a pictorial representation of weapons on a ceramic fragment clearly emphasizes the sacred meaning of objects. Thus, the author concludes that a special relation to weapons as objects of sacred significance was formed in the Paleometal epoch in the territory of ancient Korea and Japan.

The research objective is to study features of the Guntuling culture in northeastern China during the Iron Age, territorial and chronological boundaries, specificity in the material culture development, and identification of common and original peculiarities compared with neighboring cultures - the Wanyanhe cultural type and Poltse culture. Among the main problems of studying this culture is the question of its origins, cultural proximity to the above cultures, absence or presence of a common basis to form and develop all three cultures, and relations between them. The long-term study of the Guntuling culture has generated a large array of data on it. It became possible to outline the main distribution area, the southwestern regions of the Sanjiang plain and the chronological framework (II century BC - II century) during the course of the research. However, the available radiocarbon data for coal have shown the first half of the IV century AD. The study reveals that its sites are represented in the absolute majority by settlements including mountain fortified settlements. The most important feature of the structure of spreading sites is their large amount, exceeding several times the number of sites of all neighboring synchronous cultures. Burials investigations give a definite idea of the funeral rite - primary corpses with a very small set of burial items. The main dwelling type is represented by a semi-dugout with a frame-and-pillar structure. When examining the Guntuling culture inventory, a small number of items made of metal and stone and predominance of items made of ceramics and bone are marked as a distinctive feature. The research finds that dwellings and household implements have a certain similarity with similar elements of the Wanyanhe cultural type and Poltse culture. At the same time, among the Chinese researchers at present there is still no single point of view on the origin of the Guntuling culture, while there are elements of similarity and active contacts with neighboring cultures.

The article compares data of written sources on the history of the early Nüchens and archaeological materials. According to «Jin Shi», the official history of the Nüchen, Baohuoli moved from Korea in Yelan. In the X - early XI centuries, Yelan was located in the southern Primorie (the territory of modern Partizan and Shkotov districts). This resettlement took place at the turn of the X-XI centuries. At this time, the population of Smolnin culture lived in southern Primorie. The largest sites of Smolnin culture in Yelan was the Nikolaev fortress (Partizan district) and Steklyanukhin I fortress (Shkotov district). Both sites have a Nüchen layer. Ancestors of Baohuoli were Bohai citizens. After the Bohai Kingdom demise, the Qidan moved them to lower Yalujiang River bank. The relocated Nüchens had to have elements of Bohai culture. Nikolaev fortress is designated as Yelan on an ancient map. However, no objects of Jurchen culture of the pre-state period were found there. Bohai pottery was discovered in a dwelling of Smolnin culture at Steklyanukhin I fortress. Bohai ceramics were not found on other sites of Smolnins culture (including Nikolaev fortress). The territories of Shkotov and Partizan districts were not part of the Bohai Kingdom. Bohai pottery was revealed only on Steklyanukhin I fortress and around it. There is every reason to believe that Baohuoli and his people originally settled in the vicinity of Steklyanukhin I fortress. Later, he or his descendants moved to Nikolaev fortress and established their residence there.

The article considers the influence of an ethnic factor of the autocratic domestic policy on the incorporation of the Siberian aboriginals into the empire’s political, administrative, and socio-cultural space in the XVIII - early XX centuries. The paper notes significant difference in such policy comparing it with the measures of the USA and European countries towards their colonies based on the chronological and comparative methods of historical research. Analyzing normative and procedural sources, the authors come to the conclusion on the reliance of the empire’s policy towards its peripheries on the national elite, that was traditional for the autocracy, and the essential importance of the aboriginal factor in the Russian advance to the Far East. The article analyzes this policy as manifested in measures taken in the agrarian, administrative, and fiscal spheres. It emphasizes that the policy of imperial regionalism proclaimed by M. M. Speransky’s Siberian reforms of 1822 was replaced by the policy of forced incorporation in the second half of the XIX century. This manifested itself in such ways as organizing land survey, introducing the passport system among the aboriginals, adopting the law on heads of peasants and indigenous peoples in 1898, starting the aboriginal conscription to the rear during the World War One, removing self-government of aboriginals, creating the volost system of rural government identical to the peasant system. The new administrative structure tasks of the Siberian inhabitants were closely related to the interests of the resettlement policy in the empire’s Asian part. The administrative aspect of Asian Russia pursued clearly expressed integrative features aimed at building the unified horizontal power in the administrative structure and management of the rural population in both the internal and peripheral regions of the empire.

The study is devoted to a rather unusual regional issue of confessional history implemented exactly a century ago in the east Asian part of Russia. Parishioners of the Catholic community of Nikolsk-Ussuriysky, seaside town, realized the need to build a classic stone church building instead of a chapel. Felix Ivanovich Stetskevich, a local resident, declared himself a sponsor, promising to give the community a land plot to build the church. His intentions changed during the construction process facilitated by the external events’ background, namely the revolutionary events in the country. The conflict between Stetskevich and the community members was caused by changes in the “patron”’s worldview. The conflict resulted in the court decision that made Felix Stetskevich the sole owner of the church building. The study object is the national confessional community of Poles, Roman Catholics, who lived in Nikolsk-Ussuriysky town, near Vladivostok. The research subject is changing worldview of the religious community’s brightest member who claimed to be the group leader. The investigation’s temporal frames are defined by the event’s extreme dates (in this case, the start and end dates of the temple building’s construction), and cover five years at the turn of epochs: from the empire to the change of political regime in the east of Russia. The study objective is to reveal relationship between the motivations that guided the “patron” and their implementation in practice. The work’s methodological basis is a broad approach to social history using the historical-genetic principle, as well as methods of archeography, content analysis of sources. The author has studied and analyzed materials transferred by the Catholic religious community of Ussuriysk to store in the Russian State Historical Archive of the Far East. The paper concludes on external events influencing mental attitudes, the consciousness secularization in the situation of ideological choice.

The research topic’s relevance is due to centennial of the GOELRO plan, the need to consider the regional aspect of electrification planning, and to reconstruct the economic history of the eastern part of Russia. The scientific novelty of the study is to expand the topic and investigate individual issues. The article objective is to highlight the issues of developing the electrification plan for the Far Eastern outskirts in the mid-1920s in a historical aspect. The research tasks are to identify the prerequisites, conditions and difficulties in the activity of the regional electrification commissions, disclose the results, and determine their scientific and practical significance. The theoretical and methodological basis of the study is the concept of modernization. The author analyzes the conditions for planning the electrification of the Far East in the period under review, and identifies regional features of this process. The study reveals that the electrification plan’s development for the Far Eastern outskirts was hardly a feasible task for local authorities. They had to organize the work of the commissions without the necessary funds, special personnel, necessary materials and experience. At that time the regional authorities were engaged in restoring the local economy after the devastating Civil War, and the center could not help the region in any way. The created commissions did not have any data on the regional power resources, and information on its future economic development; they faced a huge, sparsely populated and industrially undeveloped territory. The author comes to the conclusion that Primorsky and Amur Commissions were able to develop plans for the electrification of provinces for a five-year period despite all difficulties. The materials they prepared identify the problems of developing the regional electrification relevant up to the present time.

The article is devoted to new approaches to the universal history periodization in textbooks on History and Social Science published in the USSR in the 1920s. The author considers periodization variants given in the textbooks by A.A. Bogdanov, P.I. Kushner, A.I. Gukovsky & O.V. Trachtenberg. Despite the fact that the history of teaching social subjects in the Soviet school of the 1920s was actively explored in Soviet and post-Soviet historiography, the periodization of the historical process given in the textbooks of that time has not yet become the subject of researchers’ attention. The article objective is a comparative analysis of the above-mentioned periodizations and their correlation with the intellectual context of the epoch. As a result of a comparative analysis of the periodization data, the paper reveals a significant similarity between the periodizations in the textbooks by Kushner, Gukovsky & Trakhtenberg with that ones in the works by Bogdanov. This similarity is explained by the indirect influence of Bogdanov’s ideas and the general intellectual situation of the first third of the XX century. Bolshevik leaders, who assimilated elements of his historical concepts, acted as intermediaries in broadcasting Bogdanov’s views during the years of joint participation in the revolutionary movement. After establishing the Soviet power their writings became ideological models for writing textbooks on social studies. The similarity of the aforementioned periodizations caused by the intellectual situation of the time manifested itself in forming ideas of the historical evolution’s multilinearity and reversibility, and the historical classification conventionality based on the society’s correlation with one of the economic forms. These ideas corresponded to the general trends of the foreign historiosophical thought’s development in the first third of the XX century. However, in the early 1930s, Soviet historiography abandoned these concepts due to political reasons first of all.

The article objective is to publish and analyze the materials of the 1939 All-Union population census for Khakass Autonomous Region, a national region of Siberia. The study object is the population of Khakassia as a result of scientific historical and demographic research. The subject is the features of demographic development recorded by the 1939 census. The introduction gives a brief overview of historiography of the topic. The study sources are the materials of the 1939 census stored in the Russian State Archive of Economics (RSAE). The article introduces a fairly large array of data into scientific circulation, which either add the previously published census data, or are published for the first time. These data show the composition of Khakassia population by age and gender in the context of urban and rural population, family-marital structure, ethnic composition, population distribution according to sources of livelihoods, industry employment. The paper gives the analysis of these changes recorded by the census compared with the data for 1926, as well as for the USSR and the RSFSR. It shows that there was a high proportion of large families with five or more children in Khakassia which characterized the extended or progressive type of the population reproduction in the autonomous region. The article concludes that the given indicators of demographic statistics of Khakassia population based on the results of the 1939 census allow expanding the knowledge about demographic processes in Khakassia in the 1930s, and the population in Khakassia on the eve of the Second World War and the Great Patriotic War.

The author analyzes economic and socio-political situation developed on the eve of the Great Patriotic War in the countryside of two large regions of West Siberia: Novosibirsk Region and Altai Territory. The main sources of investigation were documentary materials collected by A.A. Andreev, the secretary and head of the Agricultural Department of the Central Committee of CPSU(b), during his trip to West Siberia in summer of 1941. Documents, analytical reports, and memoranda obtained by A. A. Andreev, compiled mainly by the regional departments of NKVD and NKGB, indicated a similar nature of difficulties faced by both regions. Firstly, this was mass mortality of public livestock, secondly, an acute shortage of food and seed in collective farms. Despite the fact that A. A. Andreev considered the disastrous situation as a result of “wrecking” activity, on the one hand, and inability of regional authorities to establish effective leadership, on the other hand, it was proved that main reasons for the difficulties were the raised taxation, and the drought that hit both regions in the summer of 1940. The aforementioned factors resulted in famine, which was not widespread, apparently, but covered entire villages most affected by the drought. Judging by the fact that food-supply difficulties appeared both in rural areas and cities, it is quite possible to talk about the food crisis in Novosibirsk Region and Altai Territory in winter of 1940 - summer of 1941. The agriculture of both regions was weakened on the eve of the war. The intervention of the central authorities, and personally of A.A. Andreev, partially helped to cope with difficulties, however, some problems, for example, reducing the livestock number, were long-term in nature and were only aggravated by the further wartime extreme conditions.

The article explores the campaign to develop the movement of the tysyachniks (record-breaking workers) in the defense industry of Novosibirsk in March, 16 - June, 10, 1942. This event is studied based on the original author’s concept of social and labor communication. According to it, the information exchange between the communicator (power) and the recipient (working class) was carried out on the basis of incentive-type communication strategies in this case. Within the framework of the stated methodology the author considers the process of glorification of the production records’ initiators in the press as the main mechanism of social and labor communication between the Soviet state and the working class in the context of an unsuccessful attempt by the USSR top leadership to switch from a defensive to an offensive war. The article analyzes three stages of propaganda support of the new Stakhanov initiative in the leading military-industrial megalopolis of Siberia; shows the dynamics of its agitation support by the press organ of Novosibirsk Regional Committee of All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) included five cycles of information activity. The paper reveals discursive practices of newspaper agitprop that linked efficient labor with the idea of the most rapid defeat of Nazi Germany. The author concludes that the wave-like repeating of the new heroic cult led to the rapid rise of the innovators’ movement who fought for higher output. However, tysyachniks could not completely solve the issue to increase labor productivity, which required an integrated approach to problems of the defense production intensification. A fundamental turning point in its formation came in autumn of 1942, when the labor heroism of the workers was again identified with strategic defense.

The letters written by M.M. Gromyko, one of the founders of the Institute of History, Philology and Philosophy of the Siberian Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences, in the early 1960s addressed to the famous scientists B.B. Kafengauz and V.K. Yatsunsky are published for the first time. They reflect her contribution to establishing contacts and collaboration between the Novosibirsk Center of historical sciences at the early stage of its development, and the leading institutes and scholars in Moscow. Based on the published sources the author explains, how some facts of M.M. Gromyko’s biography, such as belonging to alumni of Moscow State University (graduate and post-graduate programs), her first steps in the research and educational carrier, which she took at the MSU, her personal acquaintance with many historians who specialized in feudalism, determined her role in the academic collaboration between Akademgorodok and the capital. The personal qualities of M.M. Gromyko -keen intelligence, erudition and communicative skills - allowed her to establish contacts with Siberian historians. The letters by M M. Gromyko demonstrate her efforts to organize expert assessments of the Siberian research by highly qualified Moscow historians and to integrate Novosibirsk scholars into the academic activities of such authoritative institutions as agrarian symposia. One of the letters reveals some aspects of the “creative laboratory” of M.M. Gromyko. It contains some information about the historiographic life of the 1960s and the everyday life of Novosibirsk Akademgorodok residents.

The study of the formation and development of the higher education system in the Russian Federation is a relevant research area. The development of experience of the domestic higher education has not lost its significance nowadays. In the modern period, when the national projects “Science” and “Education” are being implemented, the state policy should take into account the historical dynamics of this sphere’s evolution, which is most important for society. The regional aspect of the problem requires a more detailed study due to the prevailing historical features of the higher education system development and its branch specifics. The system of higher education in Siberia, that started to develop with the Tomsk University opening in 1888, went through several important stages. Historiography of the problem of the second half of the XX century can be conditionally divided into three groups: late 1950s - first half of 1980s; the second half of the 1980s - the early 1990s; early 1990s - nowadays. Despite the huge historiographic background on various problems of the higher education development, there are “gaps” in the literature on interpreting the individual chronological periods, which need to be studied. Thus, the analysis of the Siberian universities’ potential development in the post-Soviet period is mainly represented in the articles in encyclopedias and collective works on the history of individual regions of Siberia and the Far East. Period of the 1990s is reflected in a few papers by researchers devoted to individual problems of the domestic higher education development. Meanwhile, the permanent reform of the higher education system has led to significant changes in the structure of the regional university potential, and needs a comprehensive historical analysis. The article analyzes main transformations in the higher education system’s development in Siberia in the 1990s. This decade became a period of searching for new strategies to survive and develop universities in the context of the economic crisis, emerging sector of non-state higher education.

The article is devoted to School-Conference for young historians held in Novosibirsk on October 12-14, 2020. The event was intended to develop professional skills and research culture of young scholars. It discussed various issues of historiography and source study, socio-political, socio-economic and cultural history, diplomacy and international relations. The organizers and participants of the School-Conference paid special attention to the problems of scientific communication and its role to advance historical science.

The article is a book review dedicated to everyday life in West Siberian cities. The monograph contributes to studying the problems of Siberia’s position and role in the First World War, which has recently become more popular among researchers. While other historical studies consider mainly military issues, as well as the regional economic situation, E. E. Shumilova’s work touches upon the way of life and living conditions of citizens, which allows the reader to imagine the war from a simple commoner’s point of view.