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The paper gives a brief overview of infrared (IR) imaging techniques and the cases of their applying to the study of ancient manuscripts and objects of cultural heritage. The method of IR reflectography is used in fine art research, which allows the visualization of details hidden by the paint layers with the help of a scanner. There are also the cases, when IR reflectography is implemented into papyrology with the purpose to make ancient papyri, that turned dark-brown, more legible. Thermography is also used both in studies of cultural heritage and written documents, such as research of bookbinding and supports. Multispectral analysis is a well-proven method of text visualization and digital restoration of ancient manuscripts, which usually is applied in palimpsest decipher. Then the paper considers the method that includes part of IR spectrum is hyperspectral analysis. It is also used in papyrology. Finally, the author observed method of near-infrared imaging (NIRI) and its use for different purposes of the source studies. The paper concludes by arguing the relevance of near-infrared analysis of paper-based historical documents as a key-element of source study. NIRI allows researchers to obtain digital copies of watermarks and investigate corrections of the text made with different inks. The paper provides reader with the technical recommendations on basic NIRI equipment. To sum up, the author declares that there is a possibility for NIRI to become an everyday routine practice for researchers in near future due to its ability to provide a basic analysis of paper, watermarks and ink.

Great Britain implemented a model of transfer of power in India by granting independence to the country while preserving its place in the Commonwealth of Nations. The key element was handing over governance by Imperial authorities to local forces by legal means. The transfer of power led to the building of nation-states in former British India. The completion of the process marked a new stage for contemporary India and enabled Indian political institutions to operate on the basis of the British Empire’s legacy since that time. Therefore, the legacy’s values were important features of the power transfer. However, the Imperial legacy had material representation in numerous official documents kept in colonial offices. Some documents being witnesses of the British governance were eliminated by Britain’s ‘Operation Legacy.’ During the Operation, some of the official papers were incinerated, while others retained under the title of ‘legacy papers’. A connection between the transfer of power and Operation Legacy has not been explored to date, but one may exist. Some questions are: could the two processes, one of which had finished in 1947 and the other had commenced, supposedly, in 1947, be interconnected? Could the transfer of power have influenced Operation Legacy, and could Operation Legacy, in turn, have become a part of other colonial power transfers by Britain after Indian independence? The article aims to investigate how Britain’s experience in India influenced its developing Operation Legacy in other colonies and whether it later changed the practices of transfer of power. The author discusses why the first indications of a well-organized Operation Legacy emerged in Ceylon in late 1947, when Ceylon sought independence. This became known as the result of the internal inquiry by the Foreign Office, also known as the Cary Report.

During the Second World War large numbers of inhabitants of central, eastern and southern Europe joined the German Armed Forces. Among them were around 250,000 soldiers who identified themselves as Ukrainian. They served in the Wehrmacht, as well as the Waffen SS; a considerable number of them also served in the auxiliary police. They were motivated to join the German Armed Forces by a combination of different factors. This paper aims to shed some light on the broad range of circumstances that facilitated the recruitment of thousands of Ukrainians to fight on the side of the Third Reich. It discusses several well-known formations that were comprised of Ukrainians, such as the Nachtigall and Roland battalions and the Waffen SS ‘Galicia’ Division, as well as other units that have not been widely discussed in an academic context. During the Second World War large numbers of inhabitants of central, eastern and southern Europe joined the German Armed Forces. Among them were around 250,000 soldiers who identified themselves as Ukrainian. They served in the Wehrmacht, as well as the Waffen SS; a considerable number of them also served in the auxiliary police. They were motivated to join the German Armed Forces by a combination of different factors. This paper aims to shed some light on the broad range of circumstances that facilitated the recruitment of thousands of Ukrainians to fight on the side of the Third Reich. It discusses several well-known formations that were comprised of Ukrainians, such as the Nachtigall and Roland battalions and the Waffen SS ‘Galicia’ Division, as well as other units that have not been widely discussed in an academic context.

The paper discusses the new monograph, published in 2019 by V. A. Artamonov, well-known researcher of the Petrine epoch. His book is dedicated to studying the military conflict between Russia and Ottoman empire in 1710–1713. The author shows clearly that Ottoman Sultan Ahmed III and his commander in chief Mehmed Pasha had no plan of any invasions to Russia, but wanted just return to the borders before 1696 in the Priazovye region. Peter I, planning his expedition to Moldavia in 1711, did not take to consideration the experience of Austrian and Polish campaigns against Ottomans in the end of the 17th century. This led to encirclement and blockade of the Russian army by the Ottoman forces on the Pruth river (July 9–12, 1711). Under these conditions Peter I could not make a decision to fight, but preferred to negotiate peace, although Russian army was quite able to defeat enemy. The Ottoman side willingly agreed to make peace, which was supported by giving almost 300.000 Rubles to commander in chief Mehmed Pasha and his staff. After that Russia lost some fortresses in the Priazovye region and political influence on the Christian peoples under Ottoman rule in the Balkans. This monograph could be highly recommended for academic scholars, teachers and students of higher education institutions.

For the first time in historiographe the article reconstructs the personal history of Kirill Alekseevich Naryshkin. This research is based on the personal and private letters of Naryshkin to the Tsar and Prince Alexander Menshikov. The former are extracted from various documentary collections, first of all, “Letters and Papers of Peter the Great”, the latter are found by the author in the Russian Archive of Ancient Acts and have not been studied before. The reconstruction is focused on the history of the career that was built by K. A. Naryshkin during the first one and a half decades of the 18th century. He successfully and efficiently ruled over the northwestern counties of Russia, solving the difficult tasks of endowing the Russian army, reorganizing garrison regiments, mapping and supervising fortifications on the adjoining lands of Ingria and eastern Estonia as a chief commandant (ober-komendant). However, after being appointed to the post of Moscow governor in 1716, the career of Naryshkin collapsed. Problems at work, tensions with the Senate, harassment by investigative and administrative authorities coincided with a personal drama – the death of his wife and serious property losses. The author both in the context of the general administrative situation of the era, and in line with the then established system of informal ties surrounded by Tsar Peter analyzes the reasons for the collapse of a capable and energetic manager.

The article focuses on the critical analysis of sources of the late 16th century – “shert’” letters, that were discovered by the author in the Russian archive of ancient acts. The author discusses the origins of these documents and the circumstances of their discovery in the Archive’s funds. The first discovered source is the shert’ of Khan Kuchum given to Tsar Ivan the Terrible in 1571/72. Although this document was known in the first half of the 17th century, its original was considered lost. This paper presents a transcription of this shert’ letter, preserved in the collection of diplomatic correspondence. The second discovered source is “shert’ of Yermak” 1580 (1582). Different versions of this document are contained in the Esipov Chronicle, in the Pogodin Chronicle, as well as in a copy of the turn of the 18th – 19th century, as part of documents collected by A. F. Malinovsky. The last-mentioned version was published by V. I. Sergeev in 1976. This publication, however, has several inaccuracies. Comparison of publications and archival versions of sources showed, that over the years, researchers used defective editions, that had a bunch of incorrectness. In light of the fact, the need for further archival research aimed to discover the earlier existence of these valuable sources becomes apparent. The text of the documents is published in this article according to the simplified rules for publishing historical sources.

The paper is devoted to some daily activities of the Russian expeditionary “Lower corps” in Iranian province Gilan, acquired as a result of 1722–1723 Persian Campaign of Peter the Great. Relational of the corps’ commander general-in-chief V. Ya. Levashov from the Archive of Russian empire’s foreign policy published here for the first time. These documents show, that local people did not reconcile with foreign and gentile authorities. Just after the Persian campaign there were several uprising in Russian territories. Rebellions were caused by the struggle of not recognized Shah against Afghan and Turkish armies. Published documents revealed daily activities of Russian military expedition forces there during the fight against rebels in 1731. Expedition forces consisted of regular army troops and Russian administration volunteers, recruited from local people. V. Ya. Levashov’s messages provide some information about tactical activities of army, casualties, military trophies, and also present some details of the rebels’ behavior. Combat losses of Russian troops were usually minimal, but sometimes Gilan rebels managed to achieve victories. Maintenance costs for “Lower corps” and necessity to conclude a peace treaty with new Iranian shah Nadir on the eve of war against Turkey forced Empress Anna Ioannovna’s government to give away previously occupied territories.

The article analyzes the correspondence between two outstanding archaeographers of the 20th century – academician M. N. Tikhomirov and founder of the Archive of Ancient Relics (Institute of Russian Literature (the Pushkin House), Russian Academy of Sciences) V. I. Malyshev. The paper aims to research, how they understood and discussed the problem of preservation of manuscripts. The authors studied 182 letters from Malyshev to Tikhomirov (for 1947–1965) stored at the private fund of M. N. Tihomirovand 66 letters from Tikhomirov to Malyshev (for the same period) as well as the memoirs and articles of Tikhomirov and Malyshev themselves, their students and followers. Comparison of the sources revealed their understanding of the essence of the problem and possible ways of its solution. The authors highlighted the general and particular in the views of two correspondents on the issue of the preservation of manuscripts. According to Malyshev, at that time the most urgent task was a collection of the manuscripts kept by ordinary people. Tikhomirov, recognizing the importance of the above-mentioned mission, insisted that maintenance of archives was just as crucial. At the same time both of them agreed on the need to organize the archaeographic expeditions, examine and registrate private collections, monitor preservation of materials in state archives, publish manuscripts, involve government resources and stimulate public attention to the problem. The letters show the mutual respect of the correspondents, their understanding of the merits of each other as well as demonstrate their successful cooperation. Together Malyshev and Tikhomirow completed reconstruction of the Archaeographic Commission, effectively promoted their common cause in the press and impressively replenished the Tikhomirov’s collection of manuscripts and old printed books (later accurately transferred to Novosibirsk). The analysis of the above-mentioned sources leads to the following conclusions: even today the experience of Soviet scholars is still relevant.

The article aims to find persons of Polish ancestry among Russian generality of Patriotic war of 1812. It seems that there were only nine Polish generals in the Russian army at that time. Futhermore this paper also dedicated to the family background of these generals and investigation of their biographies. The author considers the problem of ethnicity identity in historical context. The question of national ancestry is really complicated especially in case of studying the epoch of 1812 Patriotic war. Unfortunately, official lists of all serviceman of the Russian imperial army is inapplicable, since this research is intended to reveal criteria that were used by contemporaries of the French invasion to Russia. Even the surname of a person indicates just belonging to a certain family, but it may not match the nationality. On the biographical material of nine Polish generals the author shows some specific characteristics of ethnic identity in the 19th century, such as religious and language affiliation. Comparison of the biographies of Polish ancestry generals, based on a few parameters, including the social and economic status of these people, shows that there were both rich (“magnates”) and impoverished aristocrats among them. All of them participated in battles, promoted in army career fast (especially “magnates”), but generally their biographies do not contain any specific features. The author draws attention to the perception of Polish generals in Russian society, not always positive strongly related to ethnic-religious stereotypes.

The article examines the materials of the anti-colonial discourse of the second half of the 19th – early 20th centuries, which is based on the ideas of the national intelligentsia of Kazakhstan about the status of the indigenous population of the Steppe Territory in imperial projects and colonization practices. The research of the written sources and activities of the liberal national intelligentsia revealed, that the priority was given to criticism of Russia's imperial policy towards nomadic groups of the population. This paper aims to identify the sociocultural conditions of the formation of the national intelligentsia, as well as the approaches of the early Kazakhstan historiography to the assessment of the factors of the agrarian colonization. As a result, the author found out that implementing the policy of “big Russian nation”, the Russian authorities tried to create the favorable conditions for the natural Russification of the Kazakh elite. The political measures included among the others the involvement in education and management system. Thus the emerging layer of the national intelligentsia actively participated in the imperial activity o intended to study of the colonization fund, jointly with a detachment of state officials – groups with common signs of professional identity. in the second half of the 19th century, in the period of growing popularity of separatist sentiments in Kazakhstan, the national intelligentsia, educated in the European spirit, actively perceived the ideas of Siberian regionalism, and in the early 20th century – radical leftist parties and movements, which strengthened the anti-colonial the focus of their rhetoric.

The functioning of any organization depends, in many ways, on the personnel policy. The implementation of the directives of the Russian Communist party and any changes in the political course required dedicated and efficient cadre. In scientific literature one can often come across the statement according to which the party authority successfully resisted political clans, formed at the local level, through intensive personnel replacements. This article aims to describe the human resource policy of the Siberian regional party administration towards to the Altai provincial Committee of the RCP(b) in March – June 1924. In particular, the author planned to find out whether employee transfers were actually effective, who made decisions about the replacement of the staff members and how they reacted to these replacements. Studying historical sources, that were found in the State archive of the Novosibirsk region and the State archive of the Altai territory, the author revealed the staffing structure of the Bureau of the Altai gubkom and analyzed the relationships bound the members of this organization. The research showed that the Altai gubkom secretary A. I. Podneck and the chairman of the provincial executive committee L. E. Goldich completely failed cooperation work, and this circumstance forced the Siberian krai committee of RCP(b) to start personnel replacements, which mainly meant sending away high-ranking officials-Latvians from the province. The paper concludes by arguing that in the first half of the 1920s, employee transfers were a universal means of fighting political clans. However, Siberian regional party leadership used them only as a last resort, because of the difficulties to find an appropriate successor for the dismissed official.

This paper explores the development of the Russian cotton industry and export of its cotton fabrics in the first half of the 19th century. At a time when religion and ethnicity were a key basis for people, communication naturally proceeded between groups which shared religion and ethnicity and so Asian merchants assumed the trade between Russia and Asia between the 18th – 19th centuries. This was a commercial base for Asian merchants, operating businesses across borders. As Russia increased its trade with Asian regions, it used the commercial network of Asian merchants in neighboring countries. After power sources in Russia’s cotton industry shifted from natural energy and animal power to fossil fuels, faster transportation was realized on a larger scale. This trend of transformation radically changed Russia’s trade with Asia and heavily influenced the commercial network of Asian merchants.

The book is a collection of essays based mainly on papers presented at a conference organized by the German Historical Institute, London, in 2007 in conjunction with the Society for the Study of Labour History and consists of fourteen essays arranged in five substantive parts covering a 200-year panorama with an impressively diverse range of experiences from Beerbuhl's work on the Blanketeers of early nineteenth-century Britain through to Vietor-Englander's examination of ‘Unemployed Protest in Germany in the Internet Era’ and deals with countries as various as Austria, Britain, France, Germany, New Zealand, Palestine and the USA, although the majority focus on Britain and western Europe. However, there is a clear interest in the inter-war period with four essays grouped into a part entitled ‘The Golden Age of Unemployed Movements’, while five other essays are also located during this period. The essays are introduced and grounded in two themes. First, one of the two editors writes on ‘Marienthal’, an Austrian textile-producing village which during 1931–2 was the subject of ‘socio-graphic’ research into its two-year experience of high levels of unemployment by a team of Vienna-based researchers with a cross-disciplinary remit. Secondly, there is an exposition by Klanderrmans of the predominant social psychological theories underpinning unemployment as a social phenomenon. The collection attempts to challenge the accepted notion that the unemployed were essentially passive and seeks to demonstrate the variety of instances through which different individuals and organizations responded to the experience of unemployment.