ISSUE ON GENERAL HISTORY

Editorial Note

Our journal is celebrating another anniversary: we are pleased to present to our readers the sixtieth issue of Historical Reporter. It seems that it was only recently that we marked the publication of our fiftieth issue, and yet ten new issues have already appeared. Our hard-working team has every reason to be proud as we continue to faithfully serve Russian scholarship.

The sixtieth issue is devoted to general historical topics, with the section on Russian history traditionally occupying the largest part of the volume. It opens with an article by A.P. Bogdanov, which examines the reform of the coronation ceremony of Russian tsars in 1676–1682. His thorough and in-depth studies of documentary and palaeographic sources have led the author to reconsider a number of established views in historical scholarship and to clarify who, and on the basis of which literary sources, established at the highest level of government the concept of Russia as a sacred state. The article by I.S. Khimich and S.I. Tsembalyuk is devoted to counterfeiting in Tyumen from the seventeenth to the early twentieth century, when the city became one of the key centres for the sale and distribution of counterfeit coins in Siberia. The article makes a significant contribution to the study of the region’s economic history, legal history, and the everyday life of the city’s population in the pre-revolutionary period.

The works by K.V. Vanicheva, Yu.P. Orlova, and J.A. Safronova constitute a separate section and address various aspects of theological education in Tsarist Russia, relations between the bureaucratic apparatus and ecclesiastical authorities, and the legal history of the clergy. Thus, K.V. Vanicheva’s article examines a rather unexpected subject: a legal dispute over ownership of the Andronikov Icon of the Mother of God between the clergy of the Trinity Cathedral in St. Petersburg and a private owner. Interesting details from the life of the Romanov dynasty are reflected in the article by D.O. Yastrebov. They concern the mechanisms governing the guardianship of Grand Duke Nikolai Konstantinovich from 1874 to 1881. The scandal caused by the Grand Duke’s actions not only brought about a moral shock within the Imperial family but also confronted it with the need to establish bureaucratic procedures for dealing with this unprecedented incident. At the same time, rules had to be developed governing the life that Nikolai Konstantinovich was to lead.

The section concludes with an article by E.M. Magomedova and E.M. Ozdamirova devoted to Caucasian studies, in particular the historical geography of the feudal domains of Dagestan. It examines the history of relations between the Tabasaran Maisumate and neighbouring domains of Dagestan and Transcaucasia in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

The General History section opens with an article by A.A. Voytenko devoted to the study of the anonymous Encomium to St. Mark. This interesting work makes it possible to gain a better understanding of the history of the creation of certain medieval rhetorical and hagiographical writings.

The next article in the section, by G.V. Shebaldina, addresses what may broadly be described as the “woman question”. It examines the role of women in the political life of eighteenth-century Sweden, when women from the aristocracy began to occupy an increasingly significant and prominent position in the cultural and socio-political spheres.

The article by G.Sh. Pilavov is also devoted to European history. It argues for the need to move away from a panegyric attitude towards the intellectual legacy of French Enlightenment thinkers and to subject their works to critical re-evaluation. Taking as an example the ideological confrontation between the French Enlightenment, represented by Denis Diderot, and the Jesuit order, the author draws attention to the obvious bias displayed by the renowned writer and philosopher in his article on Jesuits in the famous Encyclopédie. The article also points to the lack of a scholarly approach and, more generally, to the article’s failure to meet the standards expected of an encyclopaedic entry.

The article by M.M. Yakushev addresses a subject frequently discussed in the pages of our publication: relations between the Russian and Ottoman Empires. This time, the subject of research is the activities of dragomans and secretaries serving in the Russian Mission in Constantinople in the eighteenth century.

The final article in the section, by V.M. Akhmedov, examines the socio-political aspects of Arab-Iranian relations. We consider this study highly relevant, since the historical features of the formation of Arab-Iranian relations continue to influence interaction between Iran and the Arab states to this day. The article’s novelty lies in the fact that some earlier approaches and methods have not always been capable of providing an adequate explanation of the policies pursued by these states.

The issue concludes with the Source section, which features A.V. Ganin’s study of the case of K.I. Zhikhor, a tsarist colonel and Soviet military specialist, and the Military Intelligence Section of the All-Russian General Staff (1918). Many of the archival materials used by the author are being introduced into scholarly circulation for the first time.

The editorial board continues its work on the next issue, thanks our authors for the materials they have submitted, and looks forward to receiving further interesting contributions.

A.E. Titkov
Editor-in-Chief The Historical Reporter