On the basis of parliamentary documents of the Tudor era the author attempts to find out the degree of participation of both direct and indirect representatives of the nobility, clergy and peasantry in the adoption of laws by parliament regarding enclosures. Analysis of the debates in the parliaments makes it possible to trace the position of the English nobility and the bourgeoisie regarding the process of enclosing the arable land of peasants. The estate of the nobility, with the support of deputies from the bourgeoisie, in fact, was able to significantly influence the content of agrarian bills. The agrarian bills prepared in government circles were significantly adjusted by the commoners, taking into account the specific interests of the gentry of individual counties. The position of the Anglican clergy boiled down to supporting the government’s point of view regarding the conversion of plowing to pasture. The peasantry declared their attitude to the process of enclosures both by sending complaints to the Privy Council, lawsuits in courts, as well as open social protests. As a result, it is noted that Elizabeth I Tudor, when adopting agrarian laws by parliament, showed political flexibility and repeatedly made concessions to the interests of the nobility. In the last parliament, her cabinet managed to reach a consensus of interests of the estates in the agrarian sphere. The results of the study allow us to better understand the mechanism of functioning of the absolute monarchy while maintaining the estate-representative body of power.

The article studies a little-known episode of an important stage in the history of the Republic of Venice - the formation of national church identity and the codification of the experience of state-confessional relations accumulated here over centuries. Two protagonists of this period - the Orthodox Metropolitan Gavriil Seviros and the Catholic monk Paolo Sarpi united in opposition to the Holy See and in an attempt to create an independent Venetian Church. Events had been developing against the background of a long confrontation between Venice and the Holy See, the so-called “War of the Interdict”, which began with the fact that Pope Paul V excommunicated the republic for its independent position in church matters. An unrealized project, which had as its model the Orthodox state and the Church, is a unique example of the assimilation of the Eastern tradition by one of the famous Western theologians - Paolo Sarpi. His cooperation with Metropolitan Gavriil in protecting the Greeks from the influence of Rome was clearly manifested during a trial of 1610, two documents of which are first published in Russian in the appendix to the article. Thanks to Gavriil’s authority, the See of the Metropolitan of Philadelphia became prestigious, his title as Patriarchal Exarch in Venice gave him access to the Doge’s palace, and his status as the head of the Orthodox of Dalmatia and the Ionian Islands was subsequently twice confirmed by the patriarchs of Constantinople.

The article analyses the French journal “La Revue des Vivants” (1927-1935) as a source of studying the history of the Inter-war period. This journal, created by the veterans of the First World War, who at the same time represented the French intellectual elites, presents a unique combination of their war experience and current political agenda. The author examines three main subjects that characterized the political and social orientation of this journal. Firstly, its publishers and authors were deeply influenced by the First World War and its consequences. Its experience forced them to seek a better international system, where the repeat of such conflict would be impossible. This leads to the second subject, the European integration and the frame it was supposed to set. The idea of the united Europe was connected with the third subject, the relations with Germany, which could be successful only as a part of an international organization. The analysis of all these subjects brings a contradictory conclusion: despite all progressive and forward-thinking ideas of this journal, its publishers and authors failed to understand some important tendencies of their time (for example, the nature and the origins of the national socialism). However, this conclusion only confirms the nature of the Inter-war period as a time of many different ideologies and ideas and opens new perspectives of its studying.

Under President Rodrigo Duterte, in office since 2016, the Philippines’ traditional hedging strategy towards China gradually softens. Due to Chinese investments as part of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) the relations have become closer, while security relations with the United States remain strained. The ongoing territorial dispute in the South China Sea and the negative perceptions of the Philippine citizens on China, however, serve as a corrective for strong bandwagoning with China.

The article analyses the problem of implementing legislation on medical care in the army during the reign of Peter the Great and Anna Ioannovna. The Admiralty Regulations of 1722 and the General Regulations on Hospitals of 1735 announced meticulously prescribed standards for taking care of patients in military hospitals, as well as the number, qualifications and duties of medical personnel in those centers. According to scholars, both documents represent bright examples of the authorities’ faith in the possibility of resolving of crisis in the work of any institution by detailed regulation of all aspects of its activities. However, a research on conditions of service of army employees and state of military health care implies a study based on local material and functioning of certain hospitals. The author focuses on the history of medical institutions in fortresses located on the Russian-Swedish border. The study was carried out on the basis of reports received in St. Petersburg from the border fortresses and devoted to the number of sick employees in the Vyborg and Kexholm garrisons, their diseases and providing them medical care. It is revealed that the military infirmaries have been opened in Vyborg and Kexholm in the early 1720s. And the number and qualifications of the medical personnel met the requirements of the state legislation. Nevertheless, the employees of the local garrisons suffered the same hardships as military men in other north-western fortresses (St. Petersburg, Kronstadt, Riga). This is indicated by the spread of diseases typical for the northern regions and poorly victualled communities, limited in access to proper food and clean sources of water (scurvy, typhus, digestive disorders). Along with that, the region had its own specifics: despite the harsh climate, work on fortifications was carried out from early Spring. Therefore, the soldiers were often hospitalised due to frostbite and colds. From the number of employees sent to the hospital for treatment 66 % died within six months. The most vulnerable group were employees of the first and second years of service under the age of 30. However, the situation in the fortresses did not become critical and epidemics were avoided.

The article analyses the attitude to the Petrine era shared by the members of the secret political societies in the first quarter of the 19th century. The study focuses on the assessments of the personality of Peter I, his reform activities and its aftermath for Russian history that were stated by the participants of the Decembrist revolt. Although only some of the Decembrists had a professional background as historians, the comprehension of grandiose state transformations in the first quarter of the 18th century was significantly important for the majority of the plotters. The author shows that various assessments of the Decembrists Petrine era were determined by the combination in their historical consciousness of westernism and ideas of Russian identity. Decembrists, as people of their epoch, had different views on Peter I: from idealization to censure. Their ambiguous attitude to the reforms of Peter I was based on the Petrine compromise concept of state-building according to Western models with their adaptation to Russian conditions, which led to the “catching-up model” of Russia’s development, its secondary nature in relation to Western civilization. Realizing the interconnection between the establishment of an autocratic state system and the creation of a new social structure, the Decembrists, especially the authors of historical and political books and treatises, reacted negatively to the formation in Peter’s time of a new type of statehood - a “regular state” - with its comprehensive control, suppression of individual liberty and legal consolidation of serfdom.

The article analyzes the information shedding light on the attitude of representatives of the young generation of liberal-minded nobles to the personality of Alexander I, his internal and foreign policies, rumors and reports about his intentions and views. These data are drawn from sources of personal origin recently discovered and published with comments for general public access - previously unknown memoirs and letters of the Decembrist S. P. Trubetskoy, addressed to his comrade, later Senator I. N. Tolstoy. The noble liberal opposition that arose after the end of the Napoleonic wars, as new sources confirm, had a contradictory attitude towards Alexander I. On the one hand, the “liberalists” defended the need for major changes, including the abolition of serfdom and the constitution building, on the other hand, they were dissatisfied with the fact that, in their opinion, interests of nobility (first and foremost economic ones) were ignored by the authorities when designing reforms. Authentic materials of the epoch, such as the newly found letters of S. P. Trubetskoy, allow us to come to the conclusion about the ambivalent attitude of the Decembrists to the reform projects of Alexander I and the great expectations placed on the Tsar by the “liberalists”. However, at the same time the sources demostrate the growing skepticism about internal politics, fear of illconceived and inconsistent with the needs of the nobility transformations, such as the forced abolition of serfdom without taking into account the economic interests of nobility.

The Siberian gendarme district existed longer than all other gendarme districts in the Russian Empire - almost 70 years, and was liquidated at the beginning of the 20th century. Since there are no research projects aimed at the study of the social portrait of the leaders of this district until now, this problem was chosen as the focus of this article. The study is based on an analysis of the personnel and service records of gendarme officers kept in archives, many of them are newly discovered and published for the first time, and orders to the servicemen of the Gendarmerie Corps and legislative acts of the central government. The article concludes by arguing that in the entire history of the district only ten people held the position of the Chief, and the average term of their office was 5 years and 8 months. They were all middle-aged people, professional military, who for various reasons transferred to the gendarmerie service, for whom it was the main source of income. For all ten persons who held the post of district gendarmerie chief in Siberia, it was both the peak and the last stage of their gendarmerie career, the work associated with this post they carried out diligently and fulfilled all required duties.

Up until now Russian and foreign researchers have been studying various aspects of servicemen for more than a century and a half. However, the problem of pre-reform police bureaucracy in the Ural has stayed out of the focus of academic discussion. Therefore, the author chose this subject for the research project. The study is based on the database compiled by the author from service records of 164 police officers of the Perm province for 1845 preserved in the State Archives of the Perm region. For a more objective approach to the social and service characteristics of police officers, the author sequentially built three collective portraits using the information from database: the chief of police, an executive officer, and a clerical officer. Although representatives of the nobility predominated among the police officers of local governments (zemstvo), mayors and police chiefsusually did not possess estates or serfs. Officials of a lower rank came, predominantly, from clerks, chief officers, and clergy children. Service practices also differed: police officers, mayors and police chiefs of local governments usually belonged to army officers incapable of further military service. Executive officials often began their career, albeit not in the police, but still in the civil service. An analysis of the demographic characteristics of the bureaucratic staff showes that the average age of police chiefs was 47 years, the rest of the executive ranks - about 39 years old, clerical officials - 27 years. According to the “Table of Ranks”, the executive ranks more rapid and successful career growth. At the same time, every third bailiff and quarterly overseer had a criminal record. And every fifth clerical official had negative attestation. This allows the conclusion about the low level of professionalism of the class police officers during the reign of Nicholas I. Against the background of an ever-growing range of law enforcement and administrative tasks of the police, the situation on the ground was problematic. Ultimately, this was one of the reasons for the reorganization of the police in 1862.

The article discusses the development of the institution of wardship and guardianship over children-orphans of Bashkirs in the 1840s - the beginning of 20th century. The aim of the study is to show the legal basis and the process of establishing guardianship of a minor orphan in Bashkir-Meshcheryak army, their implementation in the canton and post-reform periods. The article thoroughly analyzed the legislative framework for the introductionof wardship and guardianship: the decree of 1843, a circular of the Governor-General dates 1858, the articles about Bashkirs of 1863 with changes in 1865, a number of articles of the 1858 circular since it was contrary to the Sharia law. It is noteworthy that these documents do not specify the role of a Muslim judge in the appointment of a guardian, since the procedure usually was a part of the duties of the Yurt foreman. Using various examples, the study shows guardians and trustees were under the strict control of the authorities. The audits of guardianship reports provides statistical data demonstrating the growth of the number of Bashkirs under wardship during the cantonal period of management. Based on the archival cases on the sale of property of orphans by guardians the article considers the development of wardship and guardianship. The archival findings demonstrate that in the case of wardship and guardianship of Bashkirs in the post-reform period, the all-Russian legislation had been applying primarily. The analysis of the above-mentioned sources leads to the following conclusion: initially the development of wardship and guardianship among Bashkirs was dominated by all-Russian laws, taking into account only some rules of the Sharia and customary law.

The article aims to reveal characteristics of the images of the past in the ego-documents of Russian women journalists in the 2nd half of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Historical epochs that were described by women-journalists in their text most often are the primary focus of our attention. These texts served as a means of commemoration, women tried to reinterpret historical background and recreate, by some means even construct the image of their professional community. The article indicates that women-journalists made a historical excursus rather rare, and also that the ego-documents contained reflection on the Great French revolution which was typical for the general historical culture of the Russian empire. Their perceptions of the degree of freedom, the role of the periodical press and literary figures in society served as one of the ways to construct the images of the past. Opinions on 1860s and contribution of journalist’s community in events of this time supported a claim of the socio-professional group on high status, that was one of the major reasons for sacralizing and stereotyping image of the epoch led to the memory wars. The authors of the ego-documents considered the 1860s as the starting point to characterize other epochs. Their descriptions of the past were full of stamps typical for the historical culture of that period. Women-journalists strove to show the position of women in the family and their capability for professional self-realization in different historical periods described in the ego-documents.

The resolution by the bureau of the Novosibirsk regional committee of the CPSU “On the work of the Institute of History, Philology and Philosophy of the Siberian Branch of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR” dated May 26, 1970 reflects a system intended to control over the activities of academic society, primarily humanitarians. The party considered the scholars, and the historians in particular, as a “fighter” in the ideological battle who had to adhere to the principle of “Marxism-Leninism”, and, in fact, to all official guidelines consistently developed by the CPSU. The focus of this document is scholars who were involved in research projects of political nature. The resolution contains harsh assessments towards a number of “mistake” in the scientific activities of this institution. Among these mistakes the authors of the document mention the lack of adherence to ideological principles, widely spread in the collective of scholars of the Institute of history. Historians from the Institute get a lot of criticism from the CPSU functionaries for the absence of political and organizational public work in the city, and also for week methodological and ideological influence on the other scientific organizations in Academgorodok, as well as on the departments and sections of social sciences in the Novosibirsk universities. On the whole, this reflected a general conservative trend in accordance with the requirements of the CPSU of the 1960-1970s.