The article examines the activities of the justice of peace of the English county of Norfolk Nathaniel Bacon on the formation of the county militia in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. Analysis of his “notes”, correspondence with representatives of the central government and other documents shows that the justice of peace was involved in many issues of the formation and armament of the county militias. He reported regularly on these matters to the Privy Coun cil. In the center of his attention was the collection of monies from the population for the acquisition of weapons, the preparation and conduct of military reviews of the militia, the preparation of certificates of military commands, the procedure for conducting military inspections of militias, etc. Bacon had constant contact with both the lordlieutenant of the county and with the captains of military commands, sheriffs and constables of hundreds. One of the difficult tasks that he had to solve was the collection of funds from representatives of various classes for the needs of the military teams of the county militia. In general, the magistrate managed to achieve a good level of provision of firearms for the county militias. The material of the article clearly illustrates, using the example of a separate county, some of the complexities and nuances of the “military revolution” of the early modern times in England and the role of justices of the peace in this.

The article analyses an important event in the Franco-American relations of the post-WWI period, namely, the visit to the USA paid by Marshal F. Foch in October – December 1921. This is the first research on this topic in Russian historiography. The author explores the American voyage of Foch through several interconnected problems: 1) what was the French elites’ image of the USA; 2) how did this image influence the Paris diplomacy; 3) what efforts did the French make to ameliorate the image of the Third Republic in the USA? The parallel preparation and the beginning of the Washington conference of 1921–1922 amplified the importance of the visit. The centenary of the conference stimulates interest in its under-researched aspects. Author concludes that Foch’s American voyage throws the light on the different areas of the relations between France and the USA. On the one hand, the cordial atmosphere of the visit and its resonance testified the vivacity of the memory about the Franco-US allied cooperation during the WWI and its positive impact on the French image. On the other hand, the warm reception of Foch in the USA did not serve to benefit the French diplomacy during the Washington conference.

The article analyzes the problem of the formation of a historical scheme created by the Old Believers, to include the socio-religious movement in global Christian history. It shows that the monks of the Solovetsky Monastery reproduced the stratagem proposed by the scholars of Ancient Russia for incorporating of Russian history into the world history, accompanying it with the perception of events from an eschatological perspective. At the same time, they put an accent on the events that, in their opinion, led to the crisis of the Russian society. The next generations of opponents of the ecclesiastical reforms tried to improve this scheme, adapted it due to the changing conditions. By the end of the 17th century, internal church opposition began to turn into a broad religious and social movement, which divided into two groups – accepting priests and not accepting (“bespopovcy”), and each of them – into independent communities. The process of improving the historical scheme proposed by the Solovetsky monks manifested itself especially clearly in the works written in the center of the Pomor association of the Vyg community. Based on the results of the analysis of the Vyg historical narrative the article concludes that the Old Believers considered Russia failed as a stronghold of the true faith due to the actions of the reformers. They assumed the defeat of the monks from Solovetsky monastery, who advocated the preservation of the traditions of the Russian Church, as sign of the coming of the kingdom of the Antichrist. In this situation, the proclamation of Vyg as the successor of the Solovetsky Monastery meant that the Vyg Old Believers community inherited the function of preserving the true faith. The eschatological perception of reality, typical for the Old Believers, determined their view, that only the existence of the community was a guarantee of the continuation of the history of mankind. Such interpretation of history gave the members of Vyg community confidence in their own significance and a sense of responsibility for the fate to the world.

Linguistics is, perhaps, the only field of scientific studies of two colleagues, who were companions on the Siberian journey – D. G. Messerschmidt and Ph. J. Strahlenberg – in which historians of science cannot reach the consensus on whom give the palm and title of the pioneer in the study of the languages of the Siberian peoples and whose contribution in the formation of comparative linguistics was more significant. The article presents the materials from the personal collection of the first researcher of Siberia, German scholar D. G. Messerschmidt, stored in the St. Petersburg Branch of the Archive of the Russian Academy of Sciences. It analyzes information about linguistic research conducted in the expedition of D. G. Messerschmidt (1719–1722) at the time when his Swedish companion Ph. J. Strahlenberg was on this voyage (till 1722). The research goal is to establish the degree of participation of both scholars in collecting and analyzing language materials. Comparison of the data from archival sources information contained in the book, published by Ph. J. Strahlenberg in Stockholm in 1730, shows that both German and Swedish researchers collected and processed language materials independently; they had different linguistic interests and research goals. For Ph. J. Strahlenberg, comparative language study and etymology issues were areas of his special interest; the priority of D. G. Messerschmidt lied in the purposeful and systematic compilation of natural science nomenclatures, comparative studies became the focus of his attention much later. At the same time, the research trajectories of the two traveling scholars inevitably intersected due to joint travel and long-time joint work – even if the travelers did not share their notes, they could not help but share ideas and conclusions.

During the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars, military forces of Western European countries transformed into the armies of the modern type, and their officers acquired a professional character. It can be assumed that the of ficers of Russian army of the Decembrist era, formed in a modern way, also represented a class of professional military men. In fact, the General Staff expected responsible actions from the officers in managing the daily life of the lower ranks. But some officers abused discretion and were punished for this. The article analyzes five cases of military trials of officers. In the 1st case, 2 officers left some soldiers to die in the cold weather sometime in March. In the 2nd case, a company commander killed a soldier in self-defense. In the 3rd case, a lieutenant appeared in plain clothes in front of the regiment commander and tried to beat him with a stick. In the 4th case, a company commander lynched a deserter and buried the dead body secretly. In the 5th case, a major frequently was violent to his orderlies. All of these officers were punished and some of them were reduced to the ranks, what is more, some were deprived of the nobility. These cases show that, although the Russian army has already transformed into an element of the state bureaucracy, part of the officers still treated the lower ranks as serfs. The process of professional formation of officers in this period was not yet completed.

This article aims to identify the representations of “foreign” people (inorodtsev) of Siberia in the reports of the local governors-general, to define the context of their actualization, to find the mutual relations between the official position of the regional authorities towards the socio-cultural characteristics of the indigenous population, its economic situation and legal status, its relations with Russians and the narratives of the “foreigners’ issue” in Russian periodicals. The study is based on the reports of governors-general of Western and Eastern Siberia from the early 1850s until the abolition of the offices of the West Siberian (1882) and East Siberian governors-general (1887), as well as the Irkutsk governor-general in 1887–1899. Analyzing the above-mentioned sources, the authors take into account that such materials were usually complied with some involvement of predecessors, lower-level officials, invited experts. Comparison of the representations of the “foreign” people in the reports of the governors-general with those reflected in the periodicals shows their similarities and differences. The authors of the reports and many publicists share paternalistic discourse concerning the indigenous population of Siberia and consider the “foreign” people as an object of care and protection. Both of them claim the necessity to reduce the yasak payments, highlight the detrimental influence of merchants, as well as exiles, convicted of criminal and administrative offenses. Remarkably, the reports contain no criticism of the authorities for the decline of the aboriginal population and financial difficulties of the “foreigners”; discuss the problem of the “extinction” of aborigines in quite a soft tone. According to these documents, there was a general tendency in government policy to equalize the legal, social and economic status of “foreigners” with the Russian peasantry. However, at the same time, the governors-general who better knew the Siberian realities – at least some of them – more often defended the interests of the region, and hence the Siberian people, including the indigenous population.

The article analyzes the instruments of political communication used by Russian authorities and other groups of interests in the fight for the abolition of the most severe punishments in the Emirate of Bukhara as an element of its political-legal and social-economic modernization. On a base of legal acts, notes of contemporaries and periodicals of the end of the 19th – beginning of the 20th centuries the author analyzes using of different communication tools, groups of interests which used them, effectiveness of communicative means. In particular, diplomatic demarches of imperial diplomats and “own example” of the Russian settlements on the territory of the Emirate of Bukhara are examined as well as direct political consultations of frontier Russian administration (of the Turkestan Governor-Generalship) with Bukharan emirs and high officials and campaign in periodical at the beginning of the 20th century launched by Russian business circles and political parties. The study clarifies the reasons why the goal was not reached despite the active position of Russian actors: some instruments could be effective in relations with Western states but were not relevant in case of the Central Asian country, besides that, the conflicts between Russian authorities (Military Ministry form one side and Ministry of Foreign Affairs from another) on the “Bukharan question” graded effect of political communication executed by regional authorities and Russian actors immediately in the Emirate.

The article describes the natural development of population in the territories controlled by the Siberian Cossack Host. It is primarily based on the official demographic statistics included in the annual “Reports on the State of the Siberian Cossack Troops for…”, which presents dynamics of absolute and relative indicators depicting the fertility, mortality, and natural growth of the population. The sources reveal the scale, pace, and trends of natural population development over 20 years with chronological changes presented by year and by stage. The authors comprehensively examine all data related to the population of the Siberian Cossack Host, including the Cossacks and “non-residents” registered by the Host. The article concludes by arguing that over time the annual natural population growth increased due to a consistent drop in mortality, while the birth rate declined at a slower pace. Compared to the Steppe Region, the Transbaikal Cossack Host, and in general Siberia and the Russian Empire as the whole, the Siberian Cossack Host demonstrated the largest natural increase in the number of residents. The lands of the Host were dominated by the traditional, “cost-intensive” reproduction of the population established in the past. However, the shifts brought by modernization to the natural development of the population, especially the “explosive” natural population growth, indicate that, at the turn of the 20th century, the Siberian Host entered the first phase of a demographic transition – the formation of a modern type of generational renewal.

The article analyzes one of the key aspects of the representation of authorities, i. e. channeling their official image to the population. Based on the achievements of Russian historiography and information from published and newly found archival sources, it identifies ways and tools used by the Soviet Authorities to deliberately and purposefully construct the idea about itself in the minds of Soviet citizens in Siberia and effectively channel it during 1921–1929. Among the main translators of the official image of the Soviet authorities were such institutions as the Communist Party, Soviets, trade unions, the All-Union Leninist Young Communist League (Komsomol), various public organizations, media press, cultural and political educational institutions. The article shows that these translators used tools that generally can be divided into three groups. The first one is traditional or universal tools, including congresses, conferences, meetings, elections, theaters, museums, clubs, libraries, books, newspapers, and magazines. The second group – tools established by the Soviet regime, including illiteracy elimination organizations, Izba Chitalnya (“village reading rooms”), Soviet party schools, Peasant Club, and “red” corners. The third group – unique or innovative tools: “nomination”, patronage of the city over the village. The article concludes by arguing that in the early years of the New economic policy (NEP) the efficiency of the majority translators and tools of the representation of the Soviet authorities were limited. However, as the Central committee of the RCP(b) abandoned the emergency policy in Siberia and the economic situation in the country and in the region had been improved, their work and influence were gradually restored. Because of this, the authorities got back their abilities of self-presentation in different forms, in different languages, among urban and rural residents, men and women, Russians and national minorities, and literate and illiterate citizens.

The article studies the barely researched area of moral education in pre-war Soviet school, i. e. the correction of defects in the behavior and discipline of students that became highly relevant due to the school reform of the 1930s and the impending war. The main thesis of the article is that the normalizing practice of the school did not result in repressive and punitive pressure on students shown deviant behavior or unwanted character accentuations. Restrictions established by higher authorities to regulate teacher’s use of negative sanctions against recalcitrant teenagers and the noticeable influence of the student collective on school policy determined generally favorable for students direction of the correctional work. The universal strategy of the Soviet school was the integration of adolescents into the system of additional education and social work, taking into account their personal inclinations. Even if it did not result in noticeable change in school discipline, it contributed to the assimilation of social norms and gaining achievements in the chosen extracurricular activities for each individual student. And most importantly, it worked on the overall balance of positive impressions about the school and the authorities that stood behind it, which determined the position and mood of the younger generation during the war.

In modern Russia, the issue of the relationship between the state and religious organizations is among the most urgent. One of the most controversial is the policy toward Protestant communities carried out by the government at different times. It is important to note that a significant part of the works of Russian historiography is devoted to particular as pects of the activities of Protestant communities in Siberia. At the same time, the history of the relations between the latter and the Soviet authorities often remained without due attention, which determined the topic of this article. The authors came to the following conclusions. The state-confessional policy implemented by the government since 1958 has placed religious communities of various faiths in an unequal position. For example, while the communities of the Russian Orthodox Church were trying to cope with administrative pressure from the Soviet authorities, majority of the Protestant denominations in the region switched to illegal existence. This was due not only to the state policy that had developed against them, which prohibited certain areas of Protestantism, but also to the position of the believers themselves, who were accustomed to conspiracy in previous years. As a result, during the period under review, it was not Protestant communities that were subjected to administrative persecution in Siberia, as a rule, but specific individuals who actively and publicly professed one of the directions of Protestantism. In some cases, the leadership of rural areas preferred not to spoil the statistics and not to notice the believers living in the territories under their jurisdiction. As a result, reports to higher management often kept silent about the facts of the manifestation of religiosity among the population. Similar motives were among the management of enterprises and institutions that did not want to lose valuable employees because of the latter's religious beliefs. It should be noted that the situation in Siberia was not unique and in the period under review was typical for many regions of the country.