The Ter Sámi according to the Russian census of 1858: Ethno‐social characteristics

Census material representing the tax‐paying segments of the population of the Russian Empire can be used as an empirical basis for carrying out local research in the field of ethno‐social history. This article deals with ethno‐social characteristics of the Ter Sami of the Kola Peninsula, and is based on archival data from a local census report from 1858. Special attention is given to family structure, marriage preferences and the distribution of family names.     

Mothers,communities and the scale of difference

Only recently did geographic concern turn to why and how, and when and where political identities are reproduced but, as yet, our understanding of the political relations between families and communities remains understudied. This lack of attention is attributable, in part, to the complexities of families and communities but, this aside, all societies regulate reproduction and there are always claims for legitimization of particular views of family values and community relations. With this paper, I argue that highlighting the social construction of scale suggests ways that the social imaginary of a domestic myth is spatially embedded within a nurturing local community. I outline some recent feminist discussion of local childcare cultures and critique of 'the public sphere' prior to raising scale as a way to open up static versions of justice and difference. Arguments in the paper that relate to the social construction of scale are illustrated by examples from a study of the impact of a new child and a residential move on mothers in San Diego. I argue that although the birth of a child highlights important questions that relate to responsibility, self-identity and notions of family, community and society, it is from within a politically structured notion of scale that many of the constraints and contexts of childcare arise. This paper focuses specifically on negotiating childcare as a basis of resistance through day-to-day contestations at multiple scales.     

Nobles, Modernism, and the Culture of fin-de-siecle Munich

Historians of central Europe agree that the fin de sièclewas a time of artistic ferment and change that was criticalin the formation of the ‘modern’, but ignore theinfluence and role of the nobility, assuming that nobles wereinsignificant actors in the cultural realm. This article conteststhat notion by investigating the janus-faced artistic nobilityin Munich. The author argues that nobles played an importantrole in the artistic markers of Munich's fin de siècle(Secession, art nouveau, cabaret); more importantly, many nobleswere instrumental in the reception and propagation of ideasthat informed the European avant-garde, and acted as a modelfor a European variant of alternative modernism.     

The political geographies of religious sites in Moscow’s neighborhoods

Abstract

This paper addresses the spatial politics of Russia’s increased religiosity in Moscow. It analyzes the rights of minority Muslim communities within the context of increased political support for expressions of Russian Orthodoxy in Moscow’s public space. Moscow’s Russian Orthodox and Muslim religious leaders claim that their communities have a lack of religious infrastructure, with one church per 35,000 residents and one mosque per three million residents, respectively. The Russian Orthodox Church has been more successful than Muslim organizations at expanding their presence in Moscow’s neighborhoods. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork, religious spaces are examined as sites of dissent as well as participatory, active citizenship at three different sites in Moscow. Protests over Russian Orthodox Church construction in one neighborhood are contrasted with the protests over mosque construction in two neighborhoods. This paper provides insights into how civil society and religious groups have increased their public presence in Moscow and shows the unequal access that different groups have to public space in that city.     

Between Vienna,St Petersburg,and Warsaw: August Lobkowitz in Galicia, 1826–32

Abstract

This article analyses the relationships between Austrian imperial bureaucrats and the Polish elites in Habsburg Galicia during the 1820s and 1830s. Its main focus is on Prince August Lobkowitz, who was the governor of Austrian Galicia between 1826 and 1832. Even though he was a representative of the German Habsburg dynasty, with family roots in the Bohemian aristocracy, Lobkowitz switched allegiances in Galicia and declared himself a Pole. Against the instruction of his senior colleagues in Vienna, he supported the idea of an independent Poland as a buffer state between the Habsburg monarchy and the Russian Empire. Between 1828 and 1831, he maintained close contacts with Polish politicians — both in Galicia and in the Russian empire — and promised them Austrian support in the event of a Polish uprising against Russian rule. The article seeks to challenge the historiographical stereotype of a uniform Austrian bureaucracy that enforced its will upon the largely non-German elites in the Habsburg provinces.     

The Experiences of a Polish Family from the Eastern Borderlands (1914–1921): The Protassewiczes of Borki

ABSTRACT

This article examines how two generations of a large Polish landed family from the Grodno governorate in the Russian Empire were affected by the political and social upheavals brought about by World War One, the Russian Revolution, the threat of Bolshevism, and the rebirth of a Polish state. The Protassewiczes, like other landed noble families in the region, despite their Polish- Lithuanian identity, enjoyed a privileged social status in tsarist Russia. Marriage and work took many of the family’s members to Wilno (Vilnius) and Siberia, while a younger member studied in Austrian Galicia where he joined Pi?sudski’s organisation. The article describes the evacuation to Taganrog in 1915 of the senior Protassewicz and his subsequent return to Borki in 1918 to face the ensuing Polish-Soviet War. Two members of the family who were engaged in railway building in Siberia met a tragic end. The younger generation participated in Polish military efforts in the east in 1919–21 and adapted successfully to life in restored Poland. Attention is paid to issues of national identity raised by rival Polish and Lithuanian claims to Wilno in the context of the fall of empires and the emergence of new national states.     

A LIFE AND DEATH DECISION: THE INFLUENCE OF TRENDS IN FERTILITY,NUPTIALITY AND FAMILY ECONOMIES ON VOLUNTARY ENLISTMENT IN SCOTLAND,AUGUST 1914 TO DECEMBER 1915

Abstract

This article examines the influence of nuptiality and fertility patterns, and family economic strategies, on county variations in the percentage of Scottish men who voluntarily enlisted in the British Army in I9I4-I5. It relies partly on new quantitative methods, which employs the untapped War Office Memorandum of Compulsory Service [MCS] of I9I5. The MCS details the percentage of men that enlisted in British counties, and its variations for Scottish counties are cross-referenced with local demographic and economic data in a multivariate analysis. The quantitative data is then compared with reports, letters and editorials regarding voluntary enlistment in seventeen different newspapers (sixteen Scottish, and The Times) in I9I4 and I9I5. The investigation shows to what extent voluntary enlistment trends related to conditions, especially fertility trends, which pre-dated the war. It further reveals how decisions about family standards of living, made men hesitate to enlist. The article thereby further qualifies the use of ‘patriotism’ as an explanation for voluntary enlistment and the response to war in I9I4.     

Russia,nuclear leakage,and the non-proliferation regime

Abstract

Russia inherited from the Soviet Union vast holdings of nuclear weapons and of the fissile materials necessary to build them. These nuclear assets have been in the possession of a Russia in the midst of an extraordinarily difficult and turbulent political, social, and economic transformation. Never before have such enormous inventories of nuclear weapons and fissile materials existed in such circumstances of political instability and uncertainty and economic distress. The economic struggles and financial crisis experienced by Russia since it emerged as an independent state in 1991 have placed enormous stress on its society. The Russian military and the Russian nuclear complex have not been exempt from these pressures. This reality has led to concerns that the Russian state is not in a position to provide adequately for the safety and security of its nuclear assets. If true, this would raise the risk that these assets could leak out of Russia and into the hands of those who wish to acquire nuclear weapons –the so called nuclear leakage problem.     

IN SEARCH OF COMMUNITY HISTORY

Abstract

This editorial response to the preceding article by Dennis Mills addresses the meaning of community history. Rejecting an over-tight definition, we argue for a methodologically distinct community history, combining a micro-historical approach with a sensitivity to the discursive construction of the term ‘community’. Furthermore the role of family and community historians should be to adapt a critical stance towards contemporary meanings of both past ‘communities’ and past ‘families’, The article concludes that Withington and Shephard’s schema for approaching the history of ‘community’ offers a practical way forward for the family and community historian.     

Imperial Nationality Policy and the Russian Version of the History of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the Mid-Nineteenth Century

Abstract

This article analyses how changes in Russian nationality policy after the 1830–31 Uprising in Poland and Lithuania led to the initiative of an historical project that sought to prove the Russian nature of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. It focuses on the tender organized by the Ministry of Education in the 1830s for the publication of a history textbook, which was to form the canon of Russian interpretations of the history of the Grand Duchy. The most important creator of this narrative was Nikolai Ustrialov. According to Ustrialov, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was just as much a Russian state as the Grand Duchy of Moscow, with the sole caveat that the tiny Lithuanian nation had played a part in creating it. Territorial rivalry between these two states was a mere ‘family quarrel’ over which dynasty would prevail. The supremacy of the Lithuanian dynasty did not mean the victory of an alien power since the Lithuanian princes were closely related to Russian princes and moreover, a considerable number of them belonged to the Eastern (Orthodox) Church. Russians could regard therefore them as their own. The last part of this article is devoted to the changes in nationality policy after the 1863–64 Uprising and the requirement for a new interpretation of the history of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.     

Information and Confusion: Russian Resident Diplomacy and Peter A. Tolstoi’s Arrival in the Ottoman Empire (1702–1703)

Abstract

This article explores the arrival of the first Russian resident ambassador to the Ottoman Empire in a period when Russian diplomacy underwent major transformations. It focuses on Peter A. Tolstoi’s network and the management of information gathered during the first year of his appointment in Adrianople (1702–03). The article revisits the notion of resident ambassador, not as a hallmark of ‘modern European diplomacy’ with an overemphasis on the diplomat as a state-representative and office-holder, on the states system, or on institutional reform, but to suggest that a resident embassy in the early modern period was more than a formal, self-contained, and sovereign institution located in a particular place. The transformation from ad-hoc to resident diplomacy in Russian–Ottoman relations did not originate from the adoption of European diplomatic norms alone: it created new or relied on the existing trans-imperial networks of the ambassador rather than on bilateral inter-state relations. The example of Russian–Ottoman relations demonstrates that while the new diplomacy introduced by Peter I was driven by Europeanization and reform, the transformations emerged from the adaptation to circumstances in different locations and depended on the development of contacts embedded in the geo-cultural and religious entanglements of the region.     

The imperial governors of Dyrrakhion in the reign of Alexios I Komnenos

Abstract

This article considers the conclusions that we can draw about the imperial governors of Dyrrakhion in the reign of the Emperor Alexios I Komnenos. It looks at why Dyrrakhion became increasingly important in the course of the 11th Century and, above all, after Alexios' usurpation of the throne in 1081. Careful attention is paid to establishing the identity of the various individuals whom we know to have held the position of doux of the town in the period between 1081–1118, and the chronology of and context for the appointments looked at in detail. The significance of Dyrrakhion is further highlighted by drawing attention to the fact that only the very closest intimates of the Emperor – and indeed only senior members of the imperial family itself – were made governors of the town in this period. This study represents a fresh examination of Dyrrakhioii, and establishes several new conclusions about the identities and careers of the imperial governors of the town in the reign of the Emperor Alexios I Komnenos.     

‘Russian merchant’ legacies in post-Soviet trade with China: Moral economy,economic success and business innovation in Yiwu

ABSTRACT

This article focuses on Russian traders operating in China, particularly in Yiwu, the major commercial hub for the ‘small commodity’ trade, and explores the idea of the ‘Russian merchant’ prevalent in Russia today. Rather than examining the new commercial culture from the perspective of global neoliberalism, it deals with Russia’s pre-Soviet merchant estate (soslovie) and its present-day political-ideological evocations. While there is no direct cultural-professional continuity between pre-Soviet and post-Soviet merchants, some similarities have come to the fore and have been encouraged by the state and the Church. This is due to the promotion of a particular moral economy wherein the ‘Russian merchant’ figures as a positive category. Using a case study of a Russian trader in Yiwu, the article illustrates the new ways in which mistrust as well as ‘traditional’ merchant attributes such as patriotism and patriarchal authority, have been harnessed to create a successful Russian transnational business.     

Hierarchies of trade in Yiwu and Dushanbe: The case of an Uzbek merchant family from Tajikistan

ABSTRACT

This article focuses on the trading trajectory of an Uzbek family of merchants from Tajikistan. This family runs businesses in both Tajikistan’s capital, Dushanbe, and China’s famous international trading city: Yiwu. The analysis is centred on the accounts placed by Tajikistan’s Uzbek merchants about their historically sustained experience, often across several generations, in trading activities. These merchants’ claims of belonging to a ‘historical’ trading community rather than being ‘newcomers’ to long-distance commerce are articulated in relation to notions of ‘hierarchies of trade’ as they evolve in a twofold relational model linking Yiwu’s Changchun neighbourhood and Dushanbe. I suggest that the forms of conviviality enacted in Yiwu’s Changchun neighbourhood need to be understood in terms of the historical, multinational and transregional contacts that have occurred within the spaces of the former Soviet Union, as well as along the China-Russia and China-Central Asian borders. Equally, the hierarchies of trade of Uzbek merchants from Tajikistan in Yiwu’s Changchun neighbourhood cut-across markers of identity that juxtapose the roles of Tajik and Uzbek communities in Tajikistan’s contemporary politics and economics.     

Society News

Abstract

The railway navvy is an elusive and rather obscure figure for the family and community historian. He is traditionally regarded as a single, hard-working, hard-drinking, hard-fighting Irishman who was a perpetual outsider, isolated from the communities in his working neighbourhood. This article examines these stereotypes through a study of the navvy community engaged in building the Dore and Chinley railway line, linking Sheffield and Manchester, between 1888 and 1894. In addition to reviewing the composition of the navvy workforce, the relationship between the navvies and the resident communities is also examined. The analysis rests primarily on data from the 1891 census but also uses evidence from several other sources, including newspaper reports, parish registers, school records and local authority records.     

A Byzantine Grand Embassy to Russia In 1400

Abstract

The Acta Patriarchatus Constantinopolitani, published by Miklosich and Müller, contain a pittakion sent by Matthew I, Patriarch of Constantinople (1397-1410), to his subordinate and representative in Moscow, Cyprian, Metropolitan of Kiev and All Russia. The document is undated, but it is clear from the contents that it was written either in the last three weeks of December 1399 or, more probably, in 1400. Its professed aim was to persuade the Russian primate to embark on a fundraising campaign in aid of Constantinople, besieged by the forces of the Ottoman Sultan, Bayazid I. This pittakion has often been used by students of late Byzantine history; yet it is still capable of yielding new material to the historian. The purpose of this article is to identify this material and to comment briefly upon it.     

Svalbard‐centre and periphery

From an ethnological point of view, the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard above all constitutes a meeting place of many different ethnic groups and cultures: From time to time its natural resources have been utilized by entrepreneurs of several nationalities, with the aid of multi‐ethnic crews and parties and with varying resources in mind. Thus, the Dutch and English whaling, from about 1600, was to a large extent based on the skills of Basque harpooners. Russian parties wintering on Svalbard had their homelands in the “Pomor” villages on the shores of the White Sea, where Russians, Karelians, Saami and other ethnic groups were repre ‐sented. The Norwegian exploiters came from similar multi‐ethnic communities.

In outlining two perspectives of Svalbard cultural research I want to start out by referring to an 18th century Russian settlement, situated at the inlet called Trygghamna, or “Safe Harbour”, on the north side of the Ice Fiord. This settlement was excavated in 1960, under the guidance, of the late professor Helmer Tegengren of Åbo Akademi University in Åbo (Turku), Finland. Being a member of his team I had the opportunity of making observations of my own, but on this occasion my point of departure is based on the results of this excavation put forth by Tegengren in 1962. Tegengren had intended to summarize the results of his three expeditions to Svalbard, but unfortunately never had strength enough to carry out this work before his sudden death in 1974.     

The structure of the pomor settlement complex on the Schønningholmane site (Hornsund,West Spitsbergen) archaeological data

This article is an attempt to develop a discussion within the archaeological world, with reference to a particular aspect of Russian hunting on Svalbard.

In general, such a discussion is vital, because the written sources concerning the Russian activity on Svalbard are rather weak (as is frequently the case with areas on the periphery of cultural centers).

Archaeology must therefore play an important role in the reconstruction of the archipelago's cultural history, even as recently as the 17th ‐19th centuries.