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This article investigates the relationship between middle-class German Jewish women and food in the context of prewar emigration. Often these women were leaving culturally, economically, and materially rich lives, yet arrived in Britain, America, and other shorelines with very little. Rationing and cultural differences added complex layers to their experience of hosts’ foodscapes. The paper argues that food and its material culture were key parts of German Jewish women’s toolkits for negotiating emigration. Additionally, the article argues that the loss of middle-classness was a defining and enduring feature of their emigratory experience, which is revealed in their relationship to food. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the seventeenth century, the Dutch Republic was at the forefront of modernity, though not quite modern yet. The disproportion concerned a crisis that would burst out in 1672: a crisis of the bourgeoisie, the protagonist of modernity. Following Antonio Negri, Baruch Spinoza is the philosopher who was able to go beyond the crisis from within. After all, Spinoza is a thinker of immanent production and liberation, the thinker of the multitude. However, the critical year of 1672 remains in the shadows of Spinoza’s and Negri’s work. Both seem to consider 1672 under a certain ambiguity. It is precisely this ambiguity that we will trace in order to advance the philosophy of crisis and multitude. By understanding 1672, we will be able to orient ourselves better in modernity, together with Spinoza and Negri. This essay brings us back in the disproportion of history: revolution.

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Bankruptcy has never treated people equally, and it still bares many gendered features today. In pre-industrial societies there were only a few bankrupt women debtors, and those who did go bankrupt were typically widows, who could continue their husband’s business and become commercially and legally independent. This article builds on a micro-historical case study of two Finnish merchant widows who eventually went bankrupt, with the aim of investigating the gendered features of trading business and bankruptcy, and what it meant to be a female debtor in the late pre-industrial society. The choices they had in these life cycle crises of losing a husband and insolvency are also examined. The article demonstrates that widows did business with a level of self-determination almost equal to men, but this meant they were held responsible when problems arose. Being a woman and a widow were not sufficient reasons to save a debtor from a lifetime of repayment liability, even though the widows appealed in the hope of achieving this. The article highlights that the widows felt compelled to continue the business independently, and that for women bankrupts, especially those who were older, family ties were particularly important when coping with bankruptcy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Founded in 1882, the Racing Club de France (RCF) was one of the very first sports clubs to exist in France. It began operating only in 1884, however, under the leadership of Georges de St Clair (secretary general) and Ernest Demay (president). After two difficult initial years, RCF was reorganized, and its responsibilities redistributed internally with the aim of starting afresh and extending its networks of influence. Until the end of the fifth President Michel Gondinet's mandate in 1908, the club was caught between issues of recognition by public authorities and social distinction, as well as geographic conquest and sport propaganda. The previous 26 years had, however, enabled the club's leaders to lay the foundations of RCF's long-standing presence in France's sports sphere, heralding its arrival on the international stage. This article contributes to understanding the political, economic, cultural, and social relationships between the Parisian elite and sport. RCF developed a range of sports, first based on athletics, then opening up to other practices. The stances adopted vis-à-vis values and the champion's role, as well as infrastructure financing and women's position, attested not only to a certain relationship to sport, built on excellence and performance, but also to the RCF's contribution to a social undertaking based on an educational project, a political concept, and the intention to participate in change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The negative critical reception of Władysław Stanisław Reymont's satire From the Diary makes it a potential case for the analysis of the phenomenon of graphomania. The article offers a terminological classification of graphomania, based on the psychology of creativity as well as text analysis and criticism. The work's origin and its connection with a railway accident that seriously impacted Reymont suggest that his graphomaniac writing episode was a way to regain his creativity. At the same time, the analysis of From the Diary enables the identification of the stylistic manifestations of graphomania. An essential element of satire is criticism of the bourgeoisie, and Reymont's depiction of this class underlines its consumerism, double morality, and imitation of the upper classes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The cultural turn has yet to fully reconfigure 'class' as a set of fictions, tropes, discourses and enduring culture-structures. Existing Durkheimian approaches have stalled at his middle period morphological reductionism. This paper constructs a more radical understanding in the late-Durkheimian idiom. It shows how class operates as a signifier in a language game of purity and pollution, virtue and vice. Taking a lead from studies of the 'unruly' working class, the paper opens up the more subtle pollution that attends to the mythical 'bourgeoisie' and its associated and imagined 'bourgeois' culture. As a sign system this class location is deemed inauthentic, sybaritic, and as strangely deadening to cultural vitality. Although commonly found in contexts of gentrification and commodification that involve class conflict, this critical discourse is also applied within the bourgeois milieu. Such needless auto-critique suggests a relative autonomy from determination by class struggle. The possibilities for this approach are illustrated at length with reference to a paradigm case: the highly bourgeois milieu of the composer Richard Wagner and his Bayreuth Festival. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article looks at the representation of anomaly in Nicolas Diat's Ce qui manque à un clochard. We examine the character of Marcel Bascoulard, a marginal figure inspired by a real person with the same name. More specifically, we highlight his anomaly and the stances he takes towards those around him. Our work leads us to the idea that anomaly and literary and artistic creation go hand in hand in Bascoulard's case.

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Copyright of Práticas da História is the property of Práticas da História and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article begins by surveying the commercial structure of nineteenth-century Yazd, centring on the economic activities of its Zoroastrian inhabitants. Next, we examine the house of Mehrabān, arguing that they were intermediate figures in Persia's transition from a pre-capitalist to an inchoate capitalist mode of production. Throughout the mid- to late nineteenth century, the Mehrabāns were significant socio-economic players and precursors for later generations of prosperous, worldly Iranian Zoroastrians. Ardeshir in particular epitomised the gradual emergence of an Iranian bourgeoisie in the urban centres of Persia, specifically Yazd. Concurrently, the rise of prominent members of the Mehrabān family was intimately related to their education, 'cultural capital', socio-economic connections, and business ventures in Bombay as well as their constantly developing political clout in Persia and India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay argues that the earliest genre of Jewish family photograph albums, the nineteenth-century portrait-card albums created by the bourgeoisie, may become a starting point for genealogical discoveries. Some display the visual genealogies of extended families, and many reveal the genealogical memories of family migration. The case studies presented here showcase the process through which an album became a starting point for the construction or expansion of a family's genealogy. They draw on the radial sources commonly employed by family genealogists, including birth and burial records, censuses, and other archival materials. The discussion looks at the role of family albums in the passing down of family history to future generations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Victorian bourgeois ballad is a distinctive genre that demonstrates the spirituality of religion transferred to the drawing room. This paper will examine in detail four examples of the genre—The Lost Chord, The Holy City, Arise O Sun and The Volunteer Organist to examine the spirituality of the genre in terms of the materials used, the musical construction, the value system underpinning it and the expressive character. It will interrogate their relationship to the spirituality of Victorian Anglicanism and the place of this spirituality in the lives of the people with whom they were popular and its role in their social life, drawing on the author's own experience. It was also a genre in which women excelled and this and the notion of spirituality will be examined culturally, drawing on Foucault's notion of subjugated knowing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the impact of the concept of Magdeburglawontheeconomic, political and cultural development of Ostrohin the 16th-17th centuries. The author establishes that today there are many issues which require through research and resolution, inparticular, the introduction of a clear division of administrative functions between state authorities and local self-government bodies, improvement of the system and structure of local self-government bodies, and creation of an appropriate legislative framework. It is believed that it is impossible to solve these problems without a clear and systematic analysis of the mainstages of formation of local self-government in the contex to historical data on Magdeburg law. The author establishes that Magdeburg law is a medieval type of law under which cities were partially exempted from the power of the central royal administration or the power of a feudal lord and, as a result, were able to self-governon a corporate basis. Thanks to the privileges of Magdeburg law, cities for the first time received self-government, their own mayor, mayor, councilors, shopkeepers, their own courts, and the right to create their own craftsmen's shops. The article confirms the idea that Magdeburg law is perhaps the clearest evidence that Ukrainian cities form any centuries were in a single political, cultural and economic space on a par with the leading cities of Europe. This thesis is confirmed by the history of the Magdeburg in many centers of our country, including the largest educational center of sixteenth-century Volhynia, the legendary city of Ostroh. Despite the outstanding importance of Ostroh in the socio-political and cultural life of Ukraine at the turn of the Middle Agesand the Modernera, the formation of the Magdeburg in this city has long been misinterpreted due to the lack of historical sources. The adoption of the concept of Magdeburg law provided Ostroh with a unique opportunity to develop local trade and, most importantly, the educational sphere. A characteristic feature of Magdeburg law in Ukrainian cities at the end of the sixteenth century was the transformation of its norms due to the influence of current factors of socio-economic development, as well as ancient Russian traditions of urban organization and law. Thus, the Magdeburg law did not initiate a new process of establishing local government in Ukraine, but only modified to a certain extent the existing norms of life and management of local affairs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article looks at the representation of anomaly in Nicolas Diat's Ce qui manque à un clochard. We examine the character of Marcel Bascoulard, a marginal figure inspired by a real person with the same name. More specifically, we highlight his anomaly and the stances he takes towards those around him. Our work leads us to the idea that anomaly and literary and artistic creation go hand in hand in Bascoulard's case. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article looks in depth at the construction of the first haussmanian public space in the south of Spain, the plaza Nueva in Seville, as well as the reasons that led to the dismantling of its architectural unity and, therefore, part of its heritage values. The loss of the original design unity derives from the introduction of historicist models and the Modern Movement, in which the singularity of architecture is given priority over the homogeneity of the urban project. Real estate speculation and the celebration of the 1929 Ibero-American Exhibition built a functional and aesthetically capitalist scenario that limited the social activities of a square originally conceived as a collective meeting point. Through the sequence of elaborated planimetries we can observe the change of paradigm from illustrated values to developmental strength. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article briefly reconstructs the profile of Alberto Asor Rosa as a scholar, political ideologue, cultural organizer and writer. The evolution of this author proceeded from his search for revolutionary political solutions to a pessimistic vision of contemporary society, which appeared to him as confused and disorderly. Furthermore, among the thousands of pages written by him, we have chosen some origin [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the analysis of sources on the history of Russian-Asian trade, the role of Eastern merchantry in it, published in the Russian press in the end of XVIII-beg. of XX centuries. Works on Economics and Statistics, memories of travelers and diplomats, history of Russian-Asian relations are valuable sources on the issue of justifying the political presence of the Russian Empire in the Asian region. That is especially important for the modern Russian statehood, as its geopolitical interests are also concentrated in this region. Statistical data (in particular, collection of “State Foreign Trade in Its Different Types”) and studies of contemporaries, published in the pre-revolutionary period, constitute a complex of historical sources and help to recreate an objective historical picture of the Russian-Asian trade relations. That is the purpose of our research. For its implementation we used general scientific methods of analysis and synthesis, special historical ideographic and historical comparative research methods. When using them, we considered the principles of historicism and objectivism. As a result, we’ve come to the conclusion that the published Russian-language sources of the end of the XVIII-early XX centuries represent a very significant set of documents allowing to determine the rather significant role of Asian merchants in Russian-Asian trade and, as a result, determine the factors of Russian economic and political influence in the states of the East.

This article takes a comparative approach, looking to two small cities in the Ottoman East – Mardin and Bitlis – and a group of mansions constructed by a new Armenian bourgeoisie in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Mardin and Bitlis were similar owing to the important position that Armenian merchants held in prosperous local markets that were booming in the period following the Tanzimat reforms. Members of this Armenian bourgeoisie were committed to their locality and showed this by playing an active role in new councils. However, they also displayed their commitment through the stylistic choices and symbolic vocabulary of their homes. This article shows how in both cities a rise in mansion-building took place in the aftermath of social turmoil and argues that this was a way for wealthy Armenians to reaffirm their presence. In Bitlis, this was in the 1880s in the wake of the Russo-Turkish War, amid problematic relations with missionaries and Russian-Armenian incursions. In Mardin, it was in the 1890s to 1900s following the (averted) Hamidian Massacres. At these crucial junctures, local decorative traditions were used as a show of support for authority and to reinforce a social alliance.

In the wider phenomenon of the reception and readaptation of aristocratic architectural heritage in post-revolutionary Europe, the repurposing of former aristocratic palaces in Venice after the Fall of the Serenissima in 1797 constitutes a preeminent example. The paper takes as a case study Ca’ Rezzonico, one of the most splendid palaces along the Grand Canal, which has housed, since 1936, the illustrious Museum of 18th-century Venice (Museo del Settecento veneziano). After the Rezzonico family died out in 1810, the palace was gradually stripped of its art historical treasures and has served the most diverse purposes. From being the seat of the Austrian Tobacco Administration to housing dealers’ galleries, from hosting the ateliers of stage designers and international painters to being the home of renowned intellectuals and aesthetes, Ca’ Rezzonico’s rooms and walls have witnessed the profound changes in art, taste, and culture that rang through Europe during the long 19th century. The paper offers a comprehensive recon struction of the palace’s 19th-century history, drawing from both published and unpublished sources.

In 1605, Sebastian Petrycy of Pilzno published a translation of Aristotle's Politics into Polish, accompanied by his own original commentary. In this work, Petrycy presented an image of an idealized state that served as a model to address the issues within the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The article deals with the political thought of Sebastian Petrycy, whom older historiography regarded as a monarchist or even a supporter of absolutism. Contary to this categorisation, the article analyses the philosopher's oeuvre through the lens of early modern republican theory. Central to the analysis are the fundamental elements of early modern republicanism such as virtue, freedom, law, and a mixed system. Petrycy critiques the implementation of these principles within the noblemen's republicanism and proposes modifications to move towards what is defined for the purposes of this article as 'burghers' republicanism'. Utilizing Quentin Skinner's methodology, Petrycy's work has been set against the political crisis of Zebrzydowski's rebellion, and its political significance has been demonstrated, despite its academic nature. Additionally, an attempt has been made to highlight Petrycy's commitment to the royal camp, alongside the hypothesis that the author was expressing the intentions of senators-regalists while simultaneously seeking to improve the situation of non-noble citizens in the country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This article develops a model to explain the incorporation of new groups into the political elites in oligarchic societies. In this model, factions within the traditional power-holding group compete, and as their conflict escalates, they recruit the support of groups traditionally excluded from politics. This mechanism changes the ruling class's social composition without the need for a substantial push from lower-status groups. I apply this model to analyze sequential changes in the social composition of the Chilean Congress from 1834 to 1894. To identify old versus new elites, I use an original database of kinship ties among all Chilean ministers and Congress members. By combining social network analysis and historical evidence, I show that, in times of increased intra-oligarchic conflict, groups traditionally excluded from the inner circles of power – the bourgeoisie and the bureaucrats initially – made breakthroughs in their political representation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels exposed a pattern of societal conduct they chose to name capitalistic bourgeoisie. The bourgeoisie created a common language of communication through collaboration, gathered in circles such as free academies, scientific academies, literary circles, and the media, that provided forums for the emerging bourgeoisie to conceive of new social orders. One aspect of bourgeoisie culture is conspicuous consumption, central to which, is a culture of prestige through material consumption. Capitalism is an economic system based on private ownership and the operation for profit. Characteristic features of capitalism include competitive market, commercialism, property rights recognition, capital accumulation, material consumption, culture of prestige, sycophancy, and coterie. Critiques of capitalism allege that it is exploitative, alienating, unstable, unsustainable, and inefficient. In turn, critical theory inspired philosophers such as Michel Foucault to conceptualize how we form identities through social interaction. When the patient's body entered the field of medicine, it also entered the field of power where the patient can be manipulated by professional authority. Without forcibly being a proponent of political theory, as an academic, one is inevitably confronted with Marxism in terms of philosophy. As a discipline at the interface of medicine, lifestyle, and cosmetics, trichology is particularly susceptible to the primary aims of profit, consumption, and prestige that characterize the capitalistic bourgeoisie. The trichological sciences, particularly trichoscopy, have discovered a profitable market for itself. The practice of trichology is not immune to malpractice. It has created an industry that dwells on the autistic thinking of patients and doctors, and because it is prosperous, makes propaganda among lay people and doctors that necessarily leads to abuses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The play entitled The Bedbug is one of the most imaginative political satires on the Soviet Union in the twentieth century which was written by one of the greatest Russian poets, Vladimir Mayakovsky in 1929. The primary purpose of this study is to analyze the play in terms of Marxism’s Materialistic Aspects. This article intends to show the economic positions and influence of materialistic interests of the characters in general, and the protagonist of the play, Prisypkin, in particular. It shows how Prisypkin behaves like the upper classes, and it also explains the reasons behind the character’s change. Moreover, the paper demonstrates the reasons why Mayakovsky portrayed him like that. In conclusion, Mayakovsky criticizes all the self-interest proletariat class through Prisypkin, he also indirectly criticizes the Soviet Union leaders.

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This article examines the representation of Catalan identity in Ventura Pons's 2007 film Barcelona (un mapa). The discussion breaks down the daring, anti-objectivistic ways in which Pons revisits early Francoism in order to denounce the regime's essentialist rhetoric and counter its lasting imprint on the city of Barcelona. Special emphasis is devoted to the film's complex portrayal of those members of the Catalan bourgeoisie who supported Franco, a portrayal that foregrounds secrecy and the practice of cross-dressing as a fitting sociopolitical metaphor. First, the adoption of an anthropological perspective illuminates the dynamics of the massive religious events that allowed individuals to affect their adhesion to the Francoist state in public. Secondly, a Derridean examination of the act of cultural transmission in the film suggests that Pons invites spectators to experience the violence inherent in Catalan heritage in order to overcome its despotic hold on contemporary politics and culture. The conclusion argues that Barcelona (un mapa) centers often neglected processes of construction and performance of identity and opposes the notion that constructed identities need be "false." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Copyright of En la España Medieval is the property of Universidad Complutense de Madrid and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Dicenda: Cuadernos de Filologia Hispanica is the property of Universidad Complutense de Madrid and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The contemporary Nigerian socio-political situation has created an imbalance where the ruling class oppresses and suppresses the masses. Similarly, the bourgeoisie stifles the proletariat by creating unequal distribution of opportunities for the creation of wealth against the proletariat. Nigerian Playwrights have engaged profoundly the foregoing socio-political situation, by using drama as a means of communication. This research undertakes a comparative study of the political engagement in Soji Cole's newer play, Embers. It examines the ideological dialectics in Cole's Embers against the dramaturgic postulations of the first and second generations of Nigeria playwrights. Using the theoretical frameworks of Conflict Perspective, the study employs the summative content analysis of the selected text to gather relevant qualitative data. The study discovers in Cole's Embers, that the newer playwrights have become less ideologically inclined in political engagement, as they portray the proletariat as being more confrontational, angrier, more emotional and far more rebellious against inept leadership. As such, they earnestly yearn for a change for better leadership and are ready to destroy the current chaotic system in a hasty desire to achieve their rebellious but patriotic desires. Against this backdrop, it is recommended that politicians should guide against tendencies capable of making them fail the people. The masses should not only clamour for responsible and responsive leaders, they should act decisively through the polls by voting for politicians who are genuinely concerned about their plight. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multiple Christian Names of Women from the Bourgeoisie and Peasant Strata of Mid-Western Podlasie (on the Materials of the 18th-Century Catholic and Uniate Parish Records) The paper addresses the problem of multiple names among women in the bourgeois and peasant environments in the 18th century. The anthroponymic material, which provides the basis for the analysis, dates from the years 1706–1799 and was extracted from 14 record books of 8 parishes (7 Catholic and 1 Uniate) in the mid-western Podlasie region. Despite the fact that the two- and three- name formations are scarce (in the examined onomastic material they account for only 2.7% of the nominations), they appear to be an interesting research object. The study analyzes their origin and frequency. Additionally, the spread of multi-name nominations in the study and their chronology were examined.

The article aims to present some of the characteristics of the 19th--century Habsburg welfare 'system' in the province of Istria, as perceived mainly through the perspective of (in)ability to work as a key criterion for determining eligibility for social assistance. Welfare issues were not addressed in a sufficiently systematic way at the time, nor were they long--term measures, but instead they mainly involved ad hoc solutions to individual problems, which suggests that the drivers of social welfare were mainly crisis circumstances. Seasonal poverty was also a pressing problem, especially in rural areas, but in general old age, illness and unemployment were identified as central drivers of poverty. The bourgeois work ethic (which helped to shape the regulation of charity) is also relevant in this context, since it understood the alleviation of poverty primarily in terms of providing work or training for individuals living in poverty. At national and provincial levels, the concept of charity was limited to institutional care, which covered only a small part of the social issues. The financial burden for all other forms of welfare rested with the municipalities, which had to find their own ways of providing resources, relying to some extent on the bourgeois ethic of philanthropism, but also on inter--municipal solidarity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The play entitled The Bedbug is one of the most imaginative political satires on the Soviet Union in the twentieth century which was written by one of the greatest Russian poets, Vladimir Mayakovsky in 1929. The primary purpose of this study is to analyze the play in terms of Marxism's Materialistic Aspects. This article intends to show the economic positions and influence of materialistic interests of the characters in general, and the protagonist of the play, Prisypkin, in particular. It shows how Prisypkin behaves like the upper classes, and it also explains the reasons behind the character's change. Moreover, the paper demonstrates the reasons why Mayakovsky portrayed him like that. In conclusion, Mayakovsky criticizes all the self-interest proletariat class through Prisypkin, he also indirectly criticizes the Soviet Union leaders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective/Context: To advance in the conceptualization of the State-bourgeoisie relationship, the paper returns to a classic debate in the Marxist tradition on the capitalist State. Methodology: In methodological terms, we carry out a critical analysis of the works of Ralph Miliband and Nicos Poulantzas —especially on the distinction of class power and State power, relative autonomy and State intervention in the economy— and we revisit the criticism of John Holloway. With this, we seek to understand the relationship between State and bourgeoisie, to explain the economic and political crisis of the forms of the capital relationship in Argentina, in 1998-2001. Conclusions: We conclude that there is a crisis of a specific form of State intervention in the economy, based on the expansion of market discipline, and, with it, both State power and capital power erodes. Originality: The article analyzes the Miliband-Poulantzas debate and, based on this, builds an explanation of the Argentinean crisis.

The article is devoted to the analysis of the current state of research on the history of the Russian merchants of the late XVIII - early XX centuries. The dissertations on the history of the merchants of different Russian regions are considered. It is concluded that the question of the social nature of the Russian merchants continues to be debatable. Some scholars characterize the merchants as an estate, others as part of the (highest stratum) of the estate, still others refuse it the right to be called such, considering merchants to be an artificially isolated state as a privileged part of the bourgeoisie. In historiography, there is still no definite answer to this question, and among historians there is no unity in assessing the social nature of the Russian merchants. For example, for B. N. Mironov merchants is the highest stratum of a single urban estate, representing a new hypostasis of the posad community. Historians working in this direction make urban estates an object of study as a single social community. As an example, we point to theses of V. P. Klyueva and K. A. Ankusheva. Their authors agree with B. N. Mironov that the result of the transformation of the posad community was the creation on its basis future urban estates. However, a significant part of historians, unlike B. N. Mironov, considers the merchants not an estate stratum, but an independent estate. Thus, the question of the social nature of the Russian merchants continues to be debatable. The purpose of this article is to identify the current problems of Russian historiography on the genesis of Russian merchants. An approach to its solution allows the introduction into the scientific circulation of new mass sources in dissertations and monographs on the merchants of individual Russian regions.