Russian History

The Encyclopedia of the Barents Region contains 415 articles covering the history, culture and economy, as well as the background to the establishment of the Barents Region. The articles also review the cultural, socio-economic, and political prerequisites for a continued and intensified transborder interaction among the citizens inhabiting these sparsely populated areas in the European North. All thirteen member regions participating in the Barents collaboration are presented in articles describing their history and The History of the Barents Regiondevelopment illustrated with photographs and specially drawn maps.

One major objective of the Encyclopedia of the Barents Region is to connect the past with the present development of the region, thereby filling a gap in the recording of European history and, hopefully promoting the world’s interest in an area of the globe with such spectacular nature and such a rich variety of ethnic groups and cultures.

About 300 authors, mainly academics living and working in the Barents Region, have contributed articles to the Encyclopedia. Together with its companion publication, The Barents Region. A Transnational History of Subarctic Northern Europe, a textbook intended for university students of history previously published by Pax (2015), the Encyclopedia presents information on a broad range of topics that should appeal not only to experts in academia and government but also to students and the general public. It will, hopefully, facilitate and stimulate interaction among citizens in the region in their various capacities as businessmen, administrators, professionals, and tourists.

The opening passage of Boris Ivanovich Kurakin's autobiographical Vita, which he wrote between 1705 and 1711, begins by stating that he was born at the beginning of the sixth hour of July 20th 1676. 1 Kurakin then proceeds to add that "it is my duty to announce this according to the science of astronomy in a figure [an astrological chart -RC] with quad rants about the planets". 2 Moreover, in the second redaction of the Vita, published by F.A Ternovskii in 1884, the commentator notes that Kurakin provides a "circular drawing" after disclosing the time of his birth, which he "must suppose is a horoscope, signifying the position of the planets at the birth of Prince Boris". 3 The nineteenth-century editor chose not to publish the horoscope; however its publication by ERNEST ZITSER in the present volume allows one to fully appreciate the emphasis Kurakin places on his horo scope at the start of his autobiography. 4 It strongly suggests, after all, that he held great stock in its importance and its relevance to his life.

43-62 in Michael S. Flier and Andrea Graziosi (Eds.), The Battle for Ukrainian: A Comparative Perspective. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2017.

The article is mainly, but not fully, based on my book Brothers or Enemies. There is statistics on books in Ukrainian which were published in the Russian Empire, and comparison of the empire and Austria as centres of Ukrainian publishing.

With expert scholars and great sensitivity, Out of Line, Out of Place illuminates and analyzes how the proliferation of internment camps emerged as a biopolitical tool of governance. Although the internment camp developed as a technology of containment, control, and punishment in the latter part of the nineteenth century mainly in colonial settings, it became universal and global during the Great War.
Mass internment has long been recognized as a defining experience of World War II, but it was a fundamental experience of World War I as well.
More than eight million soldiers became prisoners of war, more than a million civilians became internees, and several millions more were displaced from their homes, with many placed in securitized refugee camps. For the first time, Out of Line, Out of Place brings these different camps together in conversation. Rotem Kowner and Iris Rachamimov emphasize that although there were differences among camps and varied logic of internment in individual countries, there were also striking similarities in how camps operated during the Great War.


LINKS
Cornell University Press: https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501765902/out-of-line-out-of-place/#bookTabs=1

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Out-Line-Place-History-Internments/dp/1501765906/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=


CONTENTS
Introduction: Military, Civilian, and Political Internments: Examining Great War Internments Together, by Iris Rachamimov and Rotem Kowner
Part I: Internments in Europe
1. (Dis)entangling the Local, the National, and the International: Civilian Internment in Germany and in German-Occupied France and Belgium in Global Context, by Matthew Stibbe
2. The Captives of the Kaiser: Schutzhaft and Political Prisoners in Germany, by André Keil
3. Securitized Protection: Health Work in Wartime Austria-Hungary and the Making of Refugee Camps, by Doina Anca Cretu
4. Alexandra Palace: A Concentration Camp in the Heart of London, by Assaf Mond
5. Prisoner-of-War Civilian Experience: The Role of Profession among POWs, by Lena Radauer
6. The Face and Race of the Enemy: German POW Photographs as a Weapon of War, by Nancy Fitch
Part II: Internments Beyond Europe
7. "Enemies of Our Country": Internment in Canada's Rocky Mountains National Park, 1915–1917, by Bohdan S. Kordan
8. Globalizing Captivity: "Little Germany in China", by Naoko Shimazu
9. German Propaganda and the African and Asian Theaters of the War, by Mahon Murphy
Part III: Interwar Repurcussions and Beyond
10. Internment after the War's End: "Humanitarian Camps" in the POW Repatriation Process, 1918–1923, by Hazuki Tate
11. POWs, Civilians, and the Postwar Development of International Humanitarian Law, by Neville Wylie and Sarina Landefeld
Conclusion: World War I and Its Internments: Final Remarks, by Iris Rachamimov and Rotem Kowner


REVIEWS
"This volume changes the picture on the significance of this internment history in several respects. First, internment should be considered one of the core dimensions of the First World War experience, alongside such experiences as trench warfare on the Western Front, and as such calls for examination both on a global and the local level. Clearing up prevailing misconceptions about the rigidity of distinctions between military prisoners of war (POW) and civilian internees, the authors emphasise the fluidity in the use of these terms by camp administrators and internees alike. The authors also provide a helpful overview of the sheer range of social categories of civilians interned by different regimes … This is a landmark study in the field, and a book which will be indispensable for the teaching of the First World War.”
— Dina Gusejnova, First World War Studies (2023)

"Rotem Kowner and Iris Rachamimov emphasize the blurring of boundaries between the classic types of internment and the global system of camps first introduced during the First World War, as well as their exemplary effect in the decades after 1918. … This attractively illustrated volume does justice to its aim to draw a nuanced picture of well-known processes and, on the other hand, to shed light on topics and regions that have received little attention to date.”
— Martin Moll, Militaergeschichtliche Zeitschrift 82, no 2 (2023): 493–6

"This collective work presents the results of an international research project on the issue of prisoners of war (POWs), interned enemy civilians (IECs), and 'suspicious' citizens imprisoned during the First World War. … In their introduction, Rotem Kowner and Iris Rachamimov point out that between 1914 and 1920, captivity and internment assumed massive proportions: over eight million POWs, one to two million IECs, and tens of thousands of suspect nationals were living in camps, alongside millions of displaced persons. … We commend the excellent coordination and synthesis work carried out, acknowledging that it could not be exhaustive on such a broad subject.”
— Jean-Noël Grandhomme, Francia Recensio (July, 2023)

"This book has great merit. It compares various case studies in Europe and beyond and, thus, offers a broad picture of internment operations. Such a wide-ranging approach presents the multiple categories of individuals interned, including combatants, enemy aliens, and political prisoners; widespread camp locations; and connections among state practices. The reflections that chapters propose on the global character r of this wartime phenomena also helps foster an understanding of the First World War beyond the battlefield and beyond the period of 1914–18. … These essays will encourage other researchers to pursue work in this direction as many questions remain opened. … For all these reasons, this book is necessary reading for anyone interested in the history of internment and war captivity.”
— Jean-Michel Turcotte, H-War (July, 2023)


ENDORSEMENTS
  "Out of Line, Out of Place is a major contribution to the history of captivity and its immense consequences throughout the 20th century. The editors overcome the complex challenge of encompassing the thousands of camps and millions of people who experienced internment by implementing a global focus with diverse perspectives."
— Sarah Kovner, Columbia University, author of Prisoners of the Empire

  "Out of Line, Out of Place is an important addition to the social and cultural history of war. The editors show that the First World War was only the beginning of the creation of l'univers concentrationnaire with impressive, well-knit essays addressing internment camps and a vast range of internee experiences."
— Jay Winter, Yale University, author of War beyond Words

This article draws on a rare extant manuscript of the Melissino Rite, preserved in the archives of the Prince Fredrik Masonic Centre in The Hague, as well as on other primary material, in order to examine the pivotal role played by Pyotr Ivanovich Melissino (1726-1797) in forming an Illuminist-Masonic milieu in St. Petersburg from the mid-1760s. Melissino and his high-grade Masonic Rite have hitherto been largely overlooked by scholars, yet this article aims to emphasize the formative influence he played in Russia in creating an “invisible chapter” in which select initiates could embrace currents of Illuminist thought (alchemy, theosophy and Christian Kabbalah in particular). Scholars have principally examined the development of Illuminism in the second half of the eighteenth century within the restricted space of the Chapters of high-degree Freemasonry in France (and to a lesser extent in Germany and other European countries). Little attention has been paid to Illuminism in Russia prior to rise of the Rosicrucian Circle associated with Nikolai Novikov and Johan Schwarz in Moscow in the 1780s. Thus, this article seeks to re-examine the Melissino Rite as part of a pan-European phenomenon, whilst also highlighting its importance within the sizeable aristocratic Masonic milieu in Russia.

The spotty and dilapidated record of single trial of an alleged witch in the outskirts of Galich in 1636 serves as a window through which to view the workings of the highly stratified society, its interactions with local courts and central tsarist authorities, and, most importantly, the beliefs, fears, and interpersonal dynamics that drove low-ranking people to turn to the courts. Particularly valuable are the tangential references to common practices that normally did not reach the courts and therefore eluded the historical record. The case of the landlord Gorikhvostov and the "known witch" Mitroshka Khramoi, with its dramatic canvass of devilish spirits and supernatural havoc, reveals the universal acceptance, at the height of Muscovite witchcraft prosecutions, of healers working with roots and herbs, spells and prayers.

Статья посвящена проблеме происхождения царских родословных древ в России. Это важный памятник государственной идеологии России XVII–XVIII вв. Самое известное царское родословное древо представлено на иконе Симона Ушакова 1663 г. «Древо государства Московского». В 60-е годы XVII в. появилось три композиции родословного древа русских царей. Автор доказывает, что самую раннюю из них следует датировать 1661 г.

The pogroms in Ukraine between 1917 and 1921 represent the largest and bloodiest anti-Jewish massacres prior to the Holocaust. The estimated number of Jews murdered in Ukraine in the aftermaths of World War I ranges from 50,000 to 200,000, with many more Jews suffering violence, rape, and loss of property. Altogether 1.6 million Jews were affected by these violent events. Although it is impossible to determine the exact number of victims of these pogroms, there is no doubt that this was the largest outbreak of anti-Jewish violence before the Shoah, the genocide during World War II in which 6 million European Jews, around two-thirds of the Jewish population of the continent, were systematically murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators.

Resume analytique The First State Duma, 1906: The View from the Contemporary Pamphlet and Monograph Literature Ian D. Thatcher In 1906 Russia began its experiment in constitutionalism. The First State Duma sat for only 72 days but it brought forth an extensive monograph and pamphlet literature. This article is the first to examine this source base. It illustrates the main forms of analysis, and in particular a mix of polemics and domestic political science in embryo. There was a robust defence of the representative institution that despite an early closure remained a feature of Russian politics to the Tsar 'sfall. En 1906, la Russie entreprit une expérience en constitutionalisme. La première douma d'état ne siégea que durant 72 jours, mais elle généra un corps littéraire considérable en monographies et opuscules. Nous sommes les premiers à examiner cette base de données. Nous illustrons ¡es formes principales d'analyse et, en particuiier, un mélange de polémiques et de sciences politiques domestiques rudimentaires. U y eut une défense énergique de / 'institution représentative qui, en dépit d'une clôture hâtive, demeura un élément de la politique russe jusqu 'à ¡a chute du tzar

The three terms describing the goal of Bakunin’s ‘secret societies’ in this article’s subtitle (‘self-emancipating’, ‘collectivist’ and ‘social revolution’) correspond to the three following ‘antis’. Anti-Blanquism corresponds to the self-emancipation that the secret society transmits throughout society (rather than being emancipation decreed and enacted from on high). Anti-Bebelism corresponds to its collectivist nature, in contrast with the authoritarian communist nature of such a decreed revolution, also following Bakunin’s famous distinction between the two at the 1868 Geneva Congress of the League of Peace and Freedom. Anti-Bernsteinism corresponds to the social revolution itself and particularly its internationalist nature. An understanding of how these strands are interwoven throughout the ‘infrastructure’ of Bakunin’s mature anarchist thought and activity requires an awareness of the early and enduring influence upon him by Fichte as well as Hegel. At the convergence of these strands is his anarchist concept of the purpose and activity of the secret revolutionary organisation, or ‘secret society’.

REB 53 1995 France p. 237-270 C. Zuckerman, On the Date of the Khazars' Conversion lo Judaism and the Chronology of the Kings of the Bus Oleg and Igor.—This study dwells on several key issues in the history of the Khazars: the date of their conversion to Judaism— ...

Stella Ghervas (2017). "Balance of Power vs. Perpetual Peace: Paradigms of European Order from Utrecht to Vienna, 1713-1815", The International History Review, 39, 3 (2017): 404-425.

Abstract:
"Over the course of the eighteenth century, two major models of European international order emerged as alternatives to universal monarchy: one was based on the balance of power; the other centred on the idea of perpetual peace. This article traces each back to its origins in debates around the moment of the Peace of Utrecht in 1713. In particular, it examines the evolution of the doctrine of balance of power in early eighteenth-century English political thought and then as a legal principle incorporated into the Treaty of Utrecht, before proceeding to the counter-proposal in the form of the Abbé de Saint-Pierre's "Plan of Perpetual Peace" and the objections it raised. It then shows how Saint-Pierre's paradigm of a league of European states found (albeit in altered form) its way into the Treaty of the Holy Alliance (1815) proposed by Tsar Alexander I after the defeat of Napoleon. It concludes by highlighting the fundamental soundness of the idea of European league, as well as the flaws inherent in the early model of Saint-Pierre."

To link to this article: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07075332.2016.1214613

Biographies typically rely more heavily upon personal documents than do other kinds of history, but subtleties in the use of such documents for psychological interpretation have long been recognized as pitfalls for misinterpretation even when contemporaries are the subject of study. Psychobiography is most persuasive and successful when its hypotheses and interpretations weave together the individual with broader social phenomena and unify these two levels of analysis with any necessary intermediate levels. However, in practice psychobiography rarely connects the individual with phenomena of a social-psychological scale. Psychobiography is probably the only field of historical study more problematic than psychohistory in general, principally because questions of interpretation are so much more difficult. Russian revolutionaries and have been one of the groups most fascinating to historians for the application of psychological approaches, and among these revolutionaries Mikhail Aleksandrovich Bakunin stands out as the most captivating and attention-getting personality. A comparison of two late twentieth-century psychobiographies of the nineteenth-century Russian anarchist Mikhail Aleksandrovich Bakunin (Aileen Kelly, Mikhail Bakunin: A Study in the Psychology and Politics of Utopianism [New York: Oxford University Press, 1982]; and Arthur P. Mendel, Michael Bakunin: Roots of Apocalypse [New York: Praeger, 1981]) reveals some key problems of psychohistorical interpretation and also sheds light on important issues in the historiography of the great anarchist.

Chinese Economy and Central Asia.  Academy of Taiwan Business Management Review. 11(3): 1-14.  2015.  ISSN 1813-0534.
Chinese economic growth has accompanied the rise and development of the Chinese economic model with its own types of multinational enterprises, and state owned enterprises.  Major stock market plunges in 2015 have taken away the focus from the model and the manufacturing base that upholds it.  Analyses of the system of the Chinese state, its enterprises and the private sector need to continue to understand the future of this economy and its implications for the rest of the world.  Central Asian energy markets, which China has entered a decade ago, are important in this context, as their future behaviour will have consequences for the EU, North American and Australian markets.  The Chinese state is the owner of the largest banks and sovereign wealth funds in the world. When China lost its energy independence in 1993, it began to rely on Central Asian energy markets and increasingly placed more emphasis on the region as a hub for ... . 

Please read the rest of this paper in Academy of Taiwan Business Management Review.

“He appears to be a disciple of Lenin, that is, to favour the attraction of foreign capital to aid in the rehabilitation of Russia,” commented the British consul on his Bolshevik colleague, Karim Khakimov, a Tatar originally from Ufa province, who had arrived in Mashhad, north-east of Iran contiguous to Turkestan, at the beginning of December 1921. “In appointing a Muslim to the position of Consul-General it may not be far-fetched to assume that the Soviet Government is aiming at getting at the Persian proletariat.” Why the Tatar in Mashhad as a Soviet representative? In fact his career-making path from the Southern Urals via Turkestan to Iran in a very fresh fashion shows a continuum of Russia’s Civil War and the nascent Soviet engagement with the East. This enables the integration of the two separate historiographies: the Civil War literature that itself has developed discretely along the lines of regions and national republics, and the recent transnational studies that reappraise the role of anti-imperialism and personal networks as its conveyors in the interwar period. I make heard the voice of “internationalists,” like Khakimov, who opposed any form of territorial autonomy, either Zeki Velidi’s Bashkiriia or Sultangaliev’s Tatar-Bashkir Republic, and incited class struggles in Turkestan. I also address a predicament Khakimov as Russia’s plenipotentiary in Bukhara confronted in the growing struggle of indigenous communists to oust Tatars from government posts, the story untold in the nationally framed narratives. The biography of Karim Khakimov as a Bolshevik interlocutor to the Muslim world illuminates the Bolsheviks’ modus operandi in gathering a fractured empire and building an empire of revolution.

Primary Chronicle, sub anno 945) Aleksandr V. Koptev Th e article deals with the story of the revenge of Kievan Princess Olga to the Drevlyans who murdered her husband, Prince Igor, in 945. Th ree stages of the revenge are interpreted as a princely funeral ritual, determined by the mythological picture of the tripartite structure of the universe. Th e Russian Primary Chronicle (Th e Tale of Bygone Years, ca. 1110), under the year 945, relates the story of the murder of Kievan prince Igor by tribesmen of the tributary Drevlyans:

This book facilitates exchanges between scholars and researchers from around the world on China– Eurasia relations. Comparing perspectives and methodologies, it promotes interdisciplinary dialogue on China’s pivot towards Eurasia, the Belt and Road Initiative, Beijing’s cooperation and arguments with India, the EU, the Western Balkans and the South  Caucasus states and the Sino– Russian struggle for multipolarity and multilateralism in Eurasia. It also researches digitalization
processes in Eurasia, focuses notably on China's Digital Silk Road, and
the Digital Agenda of the Eurasian Economic Union. Multipolarity without
multilateralism is a dangerous mix. Great power competitions will remain. In the Asian regional system more multilateral cushions have to be developed. Scholars from different nations including China, India, Russia, Austria, Armenia, Georgia, United Arab Emirates, and Montenegro introduce their own, independent research, making recommendations on the developments in relations, and demonstrating that through joint discussions it is possible to find ways for cooperation and for ensuring peaceful coexistence. The book will appeal to policymakers and scholars and students in Chinese, Eurasian International and Oriental Studies.

The Nobel Prize has been described as the highest honour awardable among humankind. Spanning the gamut of the highest levels of endeavour achievable in the sciences and the humanities, a Nobel laureate may thus tend to be viewed as a repository of wisdom, innovation and revelation; and, for many who have won the category in literature, as one who is adept at articulating the human condition in its myriad psychological and cultural manifestations.

The paper, written by Lawrence V McCrobie, discusses music at the turn of the Russian Revolution.  Focusing in on the impact the military atmosphere of the Russian political side had on the music during the time.  How music pushed forward and continued to develop.

This article examines British reactions to Stalin’s deportation of over one million peasants and religious believers to the Soviet gulag. It follows events in Britain as the evidence mounted and public protests grew, first over the persecution of religious believers and then over the British government’s refusal to halt imports of timber cut by camp inmates. It highlights the role played by Prebendary Alfred Gough’s Christian Protest Movement and the worldwide protests against Soviet persecution which Gough’s campaign inspired. It reveals how Labour ministers and other leading British Socialists obstructed the protest campaign and publicly denied accounts of crimes against humanity which they either privately admitted or, because of their enthusiasm for Soviet Communism, dismissed as right-wing fabrications.

There is evidence that Tolstoy did quite a bit of research to supply detail for his novel, Anna Karenina.  In his wife Sofia’s diary, she wrote, “Today Lyovushka (Leo) asked me for some fashion magazines regarding Anna’s ball gown.”  Highly critical of the Westernized nobility in Russia, it is difficult to imagine that Tolstoy undertook this research just to provide credible detail for the entertainment of the upper class.  It is equally implausible that detailed descriptions of berthas, guipure lace and pink tulle are meant to make the novel more accessible to the lower classes, which he feared might aspire to such things.  Instead, Tolstoy carefully juxtaposed extensive physical detail about certain characters with a notable lack about others.  This foregrounding technique, often accompanied by defamiliarization, serves to highlight themes and messages by focusing the reader on what is not said.  This paper analyzes how Tolstoy used fashion as imagery to communicate his growing concerns about Russian society.

By examining patterns of ransoming strategies, this paper generates insights about the interactions between state, economic and social actors across the Russian-Kazakh frontier in the early 19th century. Generally, first encounters across borders and boundaries include violence and invasion. Accordingly, the enslavement and subsequent ransoming of captured people represent common practices in frontier regions. Analyses of these processes illuminate the nature of interactions between different actors along the border. Securing release of slaves through ransom was a regular component of Russian foreign policy from the 16th century onwards. Imperial institutions were established for ransoming Russian Christian brothers-in-the-faith and, later, for other subjects of the Russian Empire who had been enslaved by the Ottoman Empire and Central Asian Khanates. With imperial financing, the Orenburg Border Commission (1799-1859) co-ordinated the ransoming process and developed networks for achieving the release of Russian subjects held in the Kazakh Steppe, in Khiva and Bukhara. Actors involved in these networks were of heterogeneous descent, including Russian imperial officials, Bukharian and Khivan merchants, Kazakh officials, as well as Russian agents. Drawing on archival research, this article explores ransoming networks and strategies along the Russian-Kazakh frontier and probes the motives of the actors involved.

In recent years, Western experts have generally portrayed the Kremlin's actions as either strategic or tactical. Yet this proposition raises a very important question: how closely does the West's interpretation of Russian strategy reflect the country's own definitions? While many military historians have sought to interpret Russian strategy, 'Strategiya' takes a different approach. It brings together, in English, the classic works of the Russian art of strategy, which were rediscovered after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Instead of explaining his analysis of Russia's contemporary strategy, Ofer Fridman offers his translation of and commentary upon the founding texts of Russia's own Clausewitzes, Baron Jominis and Liddell Harts, who have been inspiring Russian strategic thinking--both its conceptualisation and its implementation--from the moment Moscow rejected the exclusive role of Marxism-Leninism in strategic affairs. Russian contemporary strategists draw their inspiration from three main schools of thought. While works by Soviet military thinkers have already been translated into English, those by both Imperial strategists and military thinkers in exile have remained almost inaccessible to the Western reader. Filling this lacuna, 'Strategiya' offers a fascinating glimpse inside the foundations of Russian strategic thought and practice.

This history of modern Iran is not a survey in the conventional sense but an ambitious exploration of the story of a nation. It offers a revealing look at how events, people, and institutions are shaped by currents that sometimes reach back hundreds of years. The book covers the complex history of the diverse societies and economies of Iran against the background of dynastic changes, revolutions, civil wars, foreign occupation, and the rise of the Islamic Republic.

Abbas Amanat combines chronological and thematic approaches, exploring events with lasting implications for modern Iran and the world. Drawing on diverse historical scholarship and emphasizing the twentieth century, he addresses debates about Iran’s culture and politics. Political history is the driving narrative force, given impetus by Amanat’s decades of research and study. He layers the book with discussions of literature, music, and the arts; ideology and religion; economy and society; and cultural identity and heritage.



For further details about this book, including the Table of Contents and selections from chapters, please visit: https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300112542/iran. For ebook (including Kindle) and audio version (both Audiobook and audio CDs) please see: https://www.amazon.com/Iran-Modern-History-Abbas-Amanat/dp/0300112548/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=amanat+Iran&qid=1557691542&s=gateway&sr=8-1. The audio version can be listened  concurrent with highlighted ebook through Audible. A paperback edition by Yale University Press appeared in August 2019.  For audio sample (4 hours) go to: https://play.google.com/books/listen?id=AQAAAECMBkxG0M.

For reviews please search online: New York Review of Books, Economist, Times (of London), Sunday Times, Wall Street Journal, and International Journal of Middle East Studies.

The reign of Peter the Great (1672-1725) was marked by an unprecedented wave of reform in Russia. This book provides an innovative reappraisal of the Petrine Age, in which hitherto neglected aspects of the tsar’s transformation of his country are studied. More specifically, the reforms enacted by the tsar are assessed in light of the religious notion of instauration – a belief in the restoration of Adamic knowledge in the last age – and a historical and cultural analysis of the impact of Western esotericism at the Russian court. This book will appeal to scholars of Russian history and religion, as well as being of wider interest to those studying Western esotericism in Early Modern Europe.

This article surveys the shifting constituencies associated with the naming alternatives of the Ukrainian past. I have written with two objectives in mind: one, to suggest that the reinvention and propagation of the term ukraïnets' (in plural ukraïntsi) as a national name was one of the greatest achievements of the national movement; two, to call attention to the past vitality of now-defunct naming alternatives
and the shifting valences assigned to them.

A book written in 2009, one year after Russian troops invading Georgia and brutally violating International Humanitarian Law when usurping two of its regions, South Ossetia and Abkhazia. The mot Western reaction to this invasion and annexation.

Tracing the life and work of Nikodim Kondakov, a pioneer in the field of late Antiquity and Byzantium in eastern Europe, this biography is a true tale of adventure. It follows the complicated and challenging events in Kondakov’s life before and after the Russian Revolution, from his humble beginnings to his university studies and analyzes his inspired creation of an innovative and precocious study of art history in Russia. From a brilliant and successful career to the trauma endured during the Russian Revolution, the story becomes one of wandering and dependence; nevertheless, and in spite of the shift in history and in his own life, Kondakov’s studies sketch a vast geography of Late Antique and medieval culture from the Mediterranean to the Urals. The work approaches distant horizons, giving a glimpse of the migrations from Asia and the inception of medieval Europe with its Christian values; and it travels the paths of history along trails marked by artifacts and monuments. Reconstructing the personal and existential events in Nikodim Kondakov’s life contributes to the understanding of a critical phase in the founding of art history, and more broadly, the histories of Russia and of the countries the scholar traversed during a long life filled with tribulations.