Vol 23, No 1 (2023)

Complex families are one of the variants of a household that combines several married couples. For a number of reasons, such families enjoyed the support of the state, landlords and the peasant community for a long time. However, after the Great Reforms, complex families began to transform under the influence of socio-economic processes. The article assesses the prevalence of a complex family among the peasant population of the Russian Empire and its changes in the second half of the 19th century.

The article discusses some aspects of the participation of the Roman nobility of the Principate period in providing the military command of the empire. This issue is being investigated in connection with the problem of the inertia of the aristocratic consciousness, which manifested itself in the desire of representatives of the Roman nobility for military glory. It is concluded that the military command in the early Roman Empire, having become an imperial prerogative, continued to be an expression of aristocratic identity. The reciprocal attitude to these searches on the part of the princeps was also largely due not only to the vitality of social practices inherited from the previous period, but also to a similar inertia of consciousness.

The article is devoted to the battle on the river Boyne (July 1, 1690) – one of the largest battles of the War of the League of Augsburg and the largest battle in the history of Ireland. The conflict was caused by a clash between two crowned rivals – James II Stuart, who was overthrown during the “Glorious Revolution” of 1688–1689 in England, and Prince of Orange – statholder of the Netherlands, who seized the British throne and proclaimed himself King William III of Britain. The author of the article sought to draw on materials from both opposing sides, as well as those contemporaries who took a neutral position. On the basis of these sources the ratio of forces of the Jacobites and the Orangists, their preliminary preparation for the general battle and its planning, and finally, the course of the battle itself and its results are studied. 

The author suggests that since Jerusalem has become one of the model cities for European consciousness (along with Rome and partly Athens), its legacy manifests itself in the invariable correlation of the systems created by politicians and their cultural protégés with those described in the Old and New Testaments. The model archetypal state was compared not only with Caesar’s Rome and the power of Alexander the Great, but primarily with the Israel of David and Solomon, despite its fragility. This comparison provided a very reliable and longterm perspective for the future. The rulers themselves were forced to focus on these two exemplary monarchs. At the same time, there were no attempts to correlate their state with post-Hasmonean Israel, since Dostoevsky’s question about the relationship of spiritual and secular power was already too acute for many medieval states.

This article is devoted to the analysis of the representation of the image of Cu Сhulainn in the Irish historical memory in the Gaelic revival. The author reveals the image of a mythical character from the Ulster cycle. The researcher revealed the meaning of the hero in the works of W. B. Yeats. Cu Сhulainn became a national hero and became a symbol of Irish identity. And the legends served as an ideological basis for the development of nationalism and the struggle of the Irish for the independence of the country.

The article for the first time presents a detailed biography of the governor of Saratov, Vasily Vasilyevich Neledinsky. This serviceman from the fatherland in his youth became a tenant at the court of Mikhail Romanov, and after 20 years he was transferred to the Moscow nobles. He received his first voivodship appointment in the Ket prison in Siberia, then participated in the suppression ofthe uprising in Novgorod and Pskov, and served as governor in Rylsk. Atthe beginning of the Russian-Polish war in 1654, Vasily Neledinsky fought in the north-western direction in the regiment of the boyar V. P. Sheremetev, and in 1655 was sent as governor to Saratov. Particular attention in the article is paid to the Saratov service of V. V. Neledinsky. 

The article presents an overview of the activities of the co–religionist clergy in the context of the struggle of the Russian Orthodox Church with the Old Believer schism in the Samara province of the second half of the XIX – early XX century. The co-faith is considered as a missionary platform, on the basis of which it became possible for Old Believers to reunite with Orthodoxy on the conditions of preserving the pre-Canonical liturgical practice. During the pre-revolutionary period, the diocesan authorities developed a certain strategy in relation to the coreligionism, which contributed to its spread in the province, and actively involved the co-religionist clergy in anti-schismatic activities. The article analyzes the forms and methods of missionary service of co-religionists, provides statistical information reflecting the successes of the “Orthodox Old Believers” in countering the schism in the Samara province. The main source base of the study was archival documents and materials of official missionary reports.

In the article the author addresses one of the little-studied issues of the history of the Great Patriotic War in regional historiography. The construction of defensive lines on the territory of the Saratov region, which was located for a long time in the near rear of the Soviet-German front, was carried out for a year and a half, took on a large spatial scale and required large-scale expenditures of human and material resources. From the autumn of 1941 until March 1943, six field-type defense lines with a total length of over 600 kilometers were built in the region. It is shown that the Saratov defensive lines were part of a general deep-echeloned system of fortifications designed to cover the main strategic areas, economic and administrative centers of the country. The organization and progress of the construction of defensive fortifications on the outskirts of Saratov, the nature and extent of the participation of special units of the Red Army and the local population in it are considered. The question is raised about the expediency of erecting protective lines on the territory of the region, the validity of the construction period. 

The book by M. A. Vasilchenko reveals the degree of participation of soldiers and officers of the Czechoslovak Corps at the initial stage of the Civil War in the Volga region. The monograph traces the process of transformation of Czech units from an integral part of the Russian army into a national military formation pursuing narrow national interests in the conditions of Civil War. The author introduces the concept of “autonomization” into scientific circulation, which is successful enough to describe this process. Vasilchenko attracts a wide range of sources that have not been introduced into scientific circulation, explores the interaction of the corps command with anti-Bolshevik forces. The monograph significantly complements not only the history of the Czechoslovak Corps, but also reveals little-known aspects of the Civil War in the Volga region. The review comments on the need to more clearly outline the author’s attitude to the object and subject of research, as well as the need for a more extended generalization, as well as wishes for further development of the scientific direction.