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The article examines the role of historical archives in the commemoration of the Russian revolution of 1917. In particular, it focuses on two specific case studies: the attempts to create the Archive of the Revolution in Petrograd in spring–summer 1917 and the competing archival project, which evolved in “Russia Abroad,” among the Russian emigrants in Prague, in 1923. The declared aim of both projects was to collect documents for future historians, but they were far from being politically neutral. All the participants in these archival projects had their own vision of the revolution; as a result, the very act of collecting documents actually instigated the formation of various, and sometimes contradictory, narratives of the revolutionary events.

The article surveys contemporary Israeli historiography of the 1917 revolutions, focusing mainly on studies that appeared in Hebrew, but also considering some works by Israeli historians that were published in Russian and English. The article examines the research problems addressed by Israeli historians, including such questions as the inevitability vs. unpredictability of the February and October revolutions; the conflicting character of the Russian revolutionary cultures; elements of modern utopianism in the revolutionary ideology; and individual and communal survival during the revolutionary era. Special attention is paid to the representation of the 1917 revolutions in Jewish history, including biographies of historical figures who were active in both the Russian revolutionary and the Jewish national movement in Palestine. The article claims that the studies of Israeli historians are characterized by a rich documentary basis and approach the 1917 revolution as a profound cultural, and not only political and social, event.

This paper deals with the role of patronage networks, which served as safety nets in the period of revolution. These informal hierarchical associations were eventually incorporated into the new networks that appeared in the process of the establishment of post-revolutionary institutions, and became integrated into the new Soviet hierarchies, thus mitigating the social rupture caused by the upheaval of 1917. Documentary sources reveal that personal relations of various kinds extended across 1917, providing relief and support in the course of the revolutionary turmoil and playing an extremely important role for those who identified themselves with the old regime. As a result of the revolution they became byvshie; for them to live through the revolution meant to survive, physically and mentally, while trying to sustain an old identity and to develop – or accept – new ones. A recent sociological study has determined a number of patterns of response to the revolution among the old elite: protest and emigration...

According to both historical and sociological research, the appearance of voluntary associations played an important role in refashioning the social order based on rigid social-legal divisions. By introducing new social arrangements, voluntary associations undermined the very idea of closed corporative worlds organized around rank or estate. While recent studies have demonstrated the significant dimension of associational activity in late Imperial Russia, the role of voluntary associations in shaping new collective identities has not yet been addressed. This article seeks to consider this issue by examining these associations’ practices of voluntary membership, norms of interpersonal communication, and mechanisms for disciplining those who did not meet the ideological or moral standards imposed on their members. The article focuses on the activity of the Society of Zealots of Russian Historical Education (Obshchestvo revnitelei russkogo istoricheskogo prosveshcheniia, 1895–1918), whose unique archive has not yet been utilized in historical research. From the methodological point of view, the article demonstrates that applying the concept of sociability makes it possible to discern the new tensions and conflicts that arose from the coexistence of old hereditary and new voluntary frameworks of social grouping.

(2007). The History of Reform in Russian Higher Education. European Education: Vol. 39, Higher Education in the Russian Federation (I), pp. 37-59.

This article explores the elaboration of Bolshevik educational policy that was underway in February–October 1917, even before the establishment of the Soviet regime. The initial steps towards formulating this policy were undertaken as soon as the Bolshevik party was legalized under the Provisional Government. In May–June 1917 a reassessment of the party's educational programme was proposed and a school municipal programme was developed. The Bolsheviks addressed seriously the role of propaganda among teachers and supported the organization of the Social Democratic Teachers' Group in Petrograd. Moreover, efforts to implement specific aspects of the Bolshevik programme were undertaken in the Vyborgskii district of Petrograd, where the Bolsheviks controlled the local Duma. The successes and failures of these early attempts to devise a communist educational strategy are scrutinized and assessed here. The study is based on an analysis of the contemporary press, archival materials and published documents.

The article examines the changes in both the meaning and the role of the concept of socialism in post-Soviet historical discourse through the particular prism of the writing of history textbooks. Reinhardt Koselleck's ideas on the nature of modern historical concepts and Jerzy Topolski's model of historical narrative serve as analytical devices for exploring methodological aspects of the subject and for surveying Russian history textbooks. The article claims that the changes undergone by the concept of socialism, which was one of the fundamental Soviet axioms of historical discourse, served as the basis for developing a new theoretical language that became characteristic of post-Soviet historical writing.