The article publishes materials of a new Paleolithic component of cultural remains of the Niryakan I site on the River Mama (Baikal-Patoms Upland, Mamsko-Chuisky District of Irkutskaya Oblast’). The Niryakan I site was discovered by E.M. Ineshin. in 1993, cultural remains and a burial from the early Iron Age were discovered. During the rescue operations at the site in 2020, a new component of Paleolithic cultural remains was discovered, which was designated as the 2nd cultural horizon. The collection consisted of 576 items of findings, mainly from metamorphosed shale. 13 % were quartz artifacts. The original planigraphic and stratigraphic positions have been lost, however, the concentration of stone artifacts and burnt bone (47 % of the entire collection), apparently, was originally a congestion at the fireplace. The collection includes cores of the radial, Levallois principle of splitting, the simplest transverse splitting, terminal small-blade cores. Among the artifacts are end-scrapers, retouched flakes, a side-scraper, and a transverse burin. The obtained radiocarbon date gives a calendar age of 13455-13226 BP. The main objects for correlations are 1-2 united cultural horizons of Kurla I - III (Northern Baikal) and 3A - 9 cultural horizons of Bolshoi Yakor I (Lower Vitim). The significance of the discovery of the Final Paleolithic assemblage of the Niryakan I site is that for the first time in the valley of the River Mama this is the site having a statistically large, typologically representative and chronologically defined assemblage of artifacts from the Stone Age. The great importance of the discovery of the Final Paleolithic Niryakan site is also the fact that it indicates that people lived in the middle reaches of the River Mama and the inner regions of the Baikal part of the Baikal-Patom Upland in periglacial conditions of the final stage of the still ongoing last glaciation.

This paper examines archaeological collection of Katina Schel Neolithic site (Kata-Yodarma confluence in North Angara). The characteristic feature of this site is the geomorphological position - the location is situated at the top of rock massif dominated over landscape. Cultural layer is deposited in the bottom of Middle Holocene humus sediments (AT). Radiocarbon analysis of residue on outer surface of ceramic fragment and faunal sample presents the age of 7561±67 and 7258±93¹⁴C years ago. The lithic assemblage is characterized by the predominance of debitage , including a number of small and middle-size flakes and waste material; small group of tools (scrapers, polisher, hard hammer, tool preforms) is also presented in the collection. Most of paleofauna is Cervidae, including moose ( Alces americanus ). The ceramic assemblage consists of two types: net impressed pottery and «Khaita» pottery. According to the hunter-gatherer subsistence-settlement patterns, the location is interpreted as short-term logistical camp with functions of hunting lookout and raw material preparing station. This hypothesis is suggested by specific features of the assemblage, the ratio of bone and lithic materials versus archaeological data on neighboring sites, ethnoarchaeological correlations. Landscape position of Katina Schel site provided the possibility of observing the surrounding space, while time resources were used to preparing raw material for the transportation. It can also assumed ritual component at the site: a competitive advantage as an observation post potentially determines the ritual significance of Katina Schel site. Deductive nature of this study bases on the “collector” end of Binford’s forager-collector continuum and allows the projected correlation between logistical camp of Katina Schel site and other locations of Kata-Yodarma territory.

The archeological fund of the Museum of the BSC SB RAS demonstrates the material complex of cultures of the Western Transbaikalia from the Stone Age to the Middle Ages. Of special importance is the Bronze Age section from the collections of copper and bronze products, including those items unique to the region, which testify to the origin and development of local metal processing and wide cultural ties with adjacent territories in the II-I millennium B.C. The relevance of the present study lies in the poor knowledge of the ancient metal production of the region. In this regard the paper supplements this field by new data obtained by natural-scientific methods as well as by new materials and conclusions. The main Early Metal Age and Middle Bronze Age sites on the territory of Buryatia are shown, in which cultural layers copper and bronze alloys items found. A series of accidental finds has been analyzed, among which there are rare and unique items for the archeology of the region. The paper contains data on the history of formation of museum collections of copper and bronze objects from 1950s. The results of spectral analyzes of metal products performed by previous researchers and new data obtained by energy dispersive spectrometry (SEM-EDX) are presented in this article. The morphological and technological characteristics of the objects made it possible to characterize the methods of manufacturing different types of products, and the results of the elemental composition - to establish the types of metallurgical alloys and differentiate their special recipes. The presence of Bronze Age products in the materials of the Xiongnu burials made of arsenic and tin-arsenic bronze was recorded. The study is of practical importance for the systematization and exhibiting of museum objects, and the established chemical composition of the products supplements the database of museum and academic collections of Buryatia.

The proposed article is devoted to a classic topic for social anthropology and ethnology - gathering of non-timber forest resources among indigenous peoples, in this case, Evenkis of Kholodnoe village, Northern Baikal region. The ethnographic material, on which this article is based, refers rather to the history of the region, as it was collected quite a long time ago: in 2008. Of course, many changes in the local society and culture have taken place since then, and those dynamics will still be comprehended by anthropologists in the future. I hope that my work, on the one hand, will serve as a document of traditional ecological knowledge and ethno-economic gathering practices of Evenkis, which I recorded during that period, and, on the other hand, will show the versatility and complexity of the human-landscape alliance through reflexion of local patterns of knowledge reciprocity regarding the places of valuable wild-growing products of gathering. This article examines how locals and the taiga landscape cope with the interest of visiting wild-growers, in the local treasury of non-timber forest resources. In this relationship, cultural memory acts as a mediator between secrecy and the principles of knowledge reciprocity regarding the significant places of the resource of North Baikal gatherers. This article also explains how the relationship between the Evenks and the taiga, here designated as an alliance relationship, is formed through gathering practices and narratives about them. Ethnographic data obtained from the Evenks demonstrates practical skills related to the organization, search and redistribution of medicinal herbs, pine nuts and berries. Inhabitants of the village of Kholodnoye give explanations of their behavior in the forest and their attitude to the obtained natural resources, demonstrating the rules of human interaction with the natural environment that have been formed over the centuries.

This paper summarizes work with two Evenki reindeer herding collectives in the Severo-Baikal’skoe nagor’e in July, 2010. Ethnographic work with reindeer herder groups Oron and Uluki, both established in the early 1990s in the Kholodnoe community, highlighted two variations on the traditional Evenki approach to reindeer herding evincing numerous commonalities. Both groups relied on natural and human-made features of the landscape to habituate reindeer to areas where reindeer herding had been abandoned for close to 20 years. Reindeer herders and reindeer mutually determine seasonal and daily mobility patterns, and reindeer herding activities are leveraged to conduct big-game hunting and furbearer trapping activities in fall and winter. Hunting and trapping provides reindeer herding personnel with important sources of cash. The Uluki obshchina had grown their reindeer herd to a point by 2010 where they were able to slaughter some reindeer for meat sales, while the Oron obshchina kept a small reindeer herd. This paper presents some of the traces uncovered on the landscape relating to reindeer herding and discusses the rationale behind the revival of reindeer herding in modern times and the sustainability of this traditional Evenki activity. Confirmation of identity and land claims in addition to the material benefits of reindeer herding and hunting may be among the reasons for the reestablishment of reindeer herding in the 1990s.

The article examines the issues related to military units operating on Amur River in 1649-1653. They were joined together with the regiment of E. Khabarov in summer 1650. The research focuses on the problems associated with its number, structure and status of the campaigns’ participants, their supply, combat capability, conditions of transition from Yakutsk to Amur River. During this period there were many trappers in the Yakutsk district who wanted to volunteer for a campaign on Amur River. As an additional motivation for them was the opportunity to become warriors with a state salary in case if the expedition will appear successful. Generally, more than 400 people moved to Amur region in 3 stages. The supply of these people required large funds - several dozens of thousands of rubles. Most of money was received not from the treasury, but from private investors. The largest of them was the voievoda D. Frantsbekov. The financial resources of “Daurian project” were exhausted in 1649-1651, which had stopped expedition the new forces there. Troop’s transfer to Amur River took about 7 weeks and rafting down the river to its mouth took for at least 3 weeks. Amur inhabitants were significantly inferior in military organization and armament to the regiment of E. Khabarov so that its number was sufficient to take control on the entire Amur. However, the Manchurian intervention made this impossible.

The authors consider a complex reconstruction of the qualitative and quantitative composition of the Russian and Chinese gunpowder artillery directly used during the first siege of the Albazin fort in the summer of 1685. For a more detailed addition to the reconstruction authors also used already existing research in the field of military art in terms of the construction of the combat order of artillery and the tactics of the opposing sides. The development in the 15th century of cannon armament being more and more often used in the siege of fortresses, led to the fact that at the beginning of the next century and later the samples of siege throwing systems were almost completely replaced. Undoubtedly, this circumstance caused a significant change in fortification architecture, the main criterion for which was a compliance with the new military and technical requirements for fortress building, that was unfolding on a large scale throughout Russia, including the Far East, where the construction of fortresses was considered by the Prikaz administration as a way of securing new territories for the Russian state. Despite a slightly different procedure of construction, which is shown to us by the history of the founding of the Far Eastern forts, adherence to the general Russian norms of urban planning still allows us to rely on projects by analogy with which fortified settlements were built in European Russia. The foundation of long-term forts in the Amur Region was exclusively caused by the impending danger from the Manchus. Hence the new forts were supposed to be able to withstand cannon battle, which emphasizes the importance of the chosen by the authors direction to carry out the ontological reconstruction of the Albazin fort built in 1684.

The history of the Russian population in Transbaikalia such as Semeiskie is still insufficiently studied and contains many gaps. The result of this work, to our mind, will make an important contribution not only to the study of family genealogies of Transbaikalia, but also to the history of the Old Believers of Russia as a whole. Semeyskie (Trans-Baikal Old Believers) - are the independent ethno-confessional group of Russian people. Their ancestors had to settle in Trans-Baikal region in 1760s after the split in Russian Orhtodoxy. This article is devoted to testing the methodology of compiling the genealogy of a particular historical person, based on a comparison of folklore traditions and memories with documentary (archival) sources. The history of the well-known Old Believer family associated with the village of Bol’shoi Kunaley (Tarbagatai district of the Republic of Buryatia, Russia) since the XVIII century is studied. In this study we propose an approach developed in the framework of genealogical research, and based on the analysis of mass genealogical sources, and then we test the methodology of comparing a comprehensive study of various archival sources with data from oral legends, interviews and personal memories. The genealogy is compiled by moving simultaneously along both the ascending (from ancestors to descendants) and descending (from descendants to ancestors) lines. Optimal ways of finding missing information in various, including economic and statistical, documents are analyzed. The sources of the study are fiscal accounting materials (revision tales, salary books, backyard (household) books of the Presidium of the Bolshe-Kunaleysky Village Council of Workers' Deputies for 1929-1930, 1936, 1941-1943), administrative and police records (family lists), church records (confession list), statistics (statistics on the home inspection of 1897), records (petitions, reports, statements, orders), sources of personal origin (memoirs, autobiographies, interviews).

The article is devoted to the historian Afanasiy Prokopyevich Shchapov (1831-1876). In October 2021 the professional community as well as the people familiar with his work and fate will celebrate the 190th anniversary of the birth of the scientist and public figure. The paper reveals the main milestones of the scientist's biography, the stages of the evolution of his worldview, the formation of a democratic historical concept. It is shown how the development of new views in science, at the level of ideological representations, and then, in the process of scientific knowledge, acquired the logical outlines of a scientific concept. The new narodnik ideology, the founder of which he was, allowed A.P. Shchapov as a scientist and lecturer to leave a noticeable mark in the history of Kazan University. The sacrificial word at the Kurtin memorial service for the innocently murdered peasants, like his whole life, was the realization of this ideology in practice. And the “educational”, “humanitarian” advices to Alexander II reflected the urgent needs for reforming the state. The construction of a democratic system of “values” and the logic of cognition, in which the people became the subject of historical research, allowed A. P. Shchapov to open a new history of the fatherland. The “popular” beginnings of the process revealed by him such as colonization, oblastness, veche, community, zemstvo councils formed the basis of the doctrine of people's colonization (development) of the country. Reading history as a movement of the masses radically changed the previous ideas about the Old Believers, the Zemstvo: the depth of the religious split was not in the rituals, but in the “life of the people”; the “split of the zemstvo” was a dangerous confrontation for the country between “the sovereign and the zemstvo case”, finally, from the “zemstvo point of view” the negative consequences of the “conquest of nature” became obvious. The past time has confirmed the depth of the historian's forecasts. The timeless significance of the scientist's best research, which goes beyond the second half of the XIX century, attested in the works of many generations of historians and in the educational literature, puts A.P. Shchapov in the category of classics of Russian historiography.

This article based on a large body of unpublished documents from the Russian State Military Historical Archive (RSMHA). The author analyzes the current situation of Irkutsk and Krasnoyarsk Cossack Hundreds in 1899. In that year, there was a visit of the War Minister of Russian Empire Aleksey N. Kuropatkin to Siberian Military District. That visit was of historic importance as it took place about 4 years prior the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905, and less than 7 months before the Siberian Military District mobilization in response to the Boxer Rebellion in China. Its purpose was personal acquaintance of the War Minister with the recently created Siberian Military District; specifically, evaluation of the actual state and combat readiness of the dislocated troops, data gathering to further develop defense plans and regional military reforms in Siberia. Traveling by Trans-Siberian Railway, Kuropatkin inspected troops of the largest Siberian garrisons in cities of Omsk, Tomsk, Krasnoyarsk, Irkutsk, including Krasnoyarsk Cossack Hundred in Krasnoyarsk and Irkutsk Cossack Hundred in Irkutsk. In this article is first published the most detailed descriptions of both troops. It has been analyzed the quality of officership, the drilling, property and economic status, barracks accommodation. The article gives the opinion of War Minister about the level of training and combat readiness of Cossack Hundreds, and also about the maneuvers near Krasnoyarsk and Irkutsk. It has been estimated the extremely unsuccessful system of Cossacks compulsory military service, and the results of its use. It has also analyzed the proposal of how to improve the Cossacks existence, presented in the Most Devoted Report of War Minister.

The article examines the ranks and positions of medical workers that were encountered in Eastern Siberia at the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th centuries, and gives characteristics to them. The system of training doctors is studied in details, their number is given. Such questions as the qualifications of doctors of medicine who have a higher social status, the training of female doctors, which is associated with the problem of obtaining higher education by them are analyzed separately. The problem of professional development of medical workers in Russia in the era of Emperor Nicholas II is raised. The study notes the presence in Eastern Siberia of a systematic shortage of personnel, including doctors of narrow specialties, which made it relevant to organize a higher medical school in the region that could train qualified doctors. The opening of paramedic schools in Krasnoyarsk, Irkutsk and Yakutsk contributed to the employment of vacant positions by well-trained paramedical personnel. At the same time, up to 60 % of paramedics had low qualifications, since they received accelerated training while serving in the army. Due to the high birth rate, paramedics-midwives were of great importance for the population, who are gradually appearing at each medical department. Sisters of mercy are considered separately, since they were in the service of the Russian Red Cross Society. The author pays attention to the fact that in the late XIX - early XX centuries there was a gradual abandonment of the craft practice of training future workers. Instead, new medical educational institutions were opened or old ones were reformed.

The article presents the artistic life of the urban society of the Irkutsk province in the second half of the 19th - early 20th centuries. Author analyzes articles from the newspapers “Vostochnoye Obozreniye” and “Siberia”, which reveal the main stages in the development of artistic space in the region. The degree of participation of editors in the formation of public opinion about objects of fine art, art exhibitions, and public activities of masters and other problems is determined. The study notes that the sources of periodicals revealed the creative events of the masters from different sides: exhibitions, meetings, lectures, historical events. The articles exposed the opinions of both editors and participants in the events. The periodicals discussed the key points related to the artistic life of the Irkutsk province. An integrated approach is used in the analysis of articles, which helps to determine the value orientations of urban society in art. Newspapers, on the one hand, reflect the participation of artists in the creation of illustrative materials, and on the other hand, describe the results of art exhibitions, the reaction of visitors to paintings. Events of the late 19th - early 20th centuries contributed to the development of public opinion on art and work of famous masters. The horizons of knowledge about the culture of the Russian Empire were gradually expanded, and the artists appeared the new opportunity to realize their creative abilities by using different methods and techniques,. The society showed interest in topical social problems. Residents of the Irkutsk province were worried about the social, political, economic, cultural changes that took place in the second half of the 19th - early 20th centuries. The importance of the sources of periodicals for the study of the artistic life of the urban space is determined.

The article for the first time documents and analyzes the look on the problem of Black-Hundred terror of the prominent Russian right-wing politician, the last chairman of the Union of Russian People and the leader of the right-wing faction of the National Duma of III and IV sessions, and the chairman of the Supreme Monarchist Council in emigration Nikolai Evgenyevich Markov (1866-1945). The article gets an insight into Markov’s public utterance in response of accusations of Right-Wingers of organization of Jew bashing, establishment of Black-Hundred armed forces and assassinations of opposition politicians. The speech of Markov delivered in the III National Duma for defense of the Union of Russian People is introduced into scientific discourse as well as new facts of biography of that right-wing politician. The spotlight is turned on the fact that while finding excuses for open conflict of Black-Hundred detachments with left-wing radicals during the First Russian Revolution Markov didn’t find ground for public excuse of murders of political foes and dissociated himself from conformity of ideas with pogrom-makers and terrorists. The words of Markov that the problem of right-wing violence during the revolution of 1905-1907 cannot be viewed in isolation from left-wing mass violence and consideration of the whole political environment which threatened with civil war are also worth noticing. It is shown that despite the apologetic nature of Markov’s statements they are of real interest for researchers because they make possible not only to clarify the politician’s views but also to look at the problem of Black-Hundred terror, using “optics” markedly different from that popular in left-wing and liberal circles (as well as Soviet historiography).

The article examines the relations of the church administration bodies in the South of Russia during the Civil War with the Commanders-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the South of Russia A.I. Denikin and P.N. Wrangel, and the Don, Kuban and Crimean regional governments. The work is based on a wide range of sources, including church records, reports of the White Guard Oswag, materials from Denikin's personal fund, memoirs and regional periodicals. It is shown that the Orthodox Church provided unequivocal support to the White Movement, and the Main Command had priority. Relations with the Cossack governments were not uniform - warmer relations were built on the Don, where the Church enjoyed maintenance at the expense of the military treasury. There were also prospects for relations with the Second Crimean Regional Government, but the process of building them was interrupted due to the termination of its existence. In contrast, in the Kuban Regional Rada and the Regional Government, left-wing sentiments were observed, which, creeping into the personality characteristics and positions in relation to the officials of the government of Bishop John of Kuban (Levitsky), led to a confrontation between them. The Kuban Constitution abolished religious advantages, on the basis of which the government refused to patronize the Orthodox Church and its institutions. The article also considers the policy of A.I. Denikin and P.N. Wrangel in the religious sphere. It is noteworthy that all representatives of the white camp recognized the decisions of the All-Russian Local Council of 1917-1918 as the current legislation. The relationship between the church authorities, regional governments and Denikin during the Civil War was difficult, often conflictual. Each side tried to defend its own interests: the regional governments put the interests of the region and their political prerogatives above all; the church authorities demanded a respectful and benevolent attitude towards themselves.

This article is devoted to newspapers and magazines that were published in universities of Irkutsk from 1918 to 1941. Their topics and problems, their role in the life of the university and their coverage of the history of higher education in Irkutsk are analyzed. At the first stage (1918-1921), one-day newspapers were published (“Gaudeamus”, “Irkutskiy gosudarstvennyy universitet”, “Tat'yanin den'”, “Klich”), which performs a specific function (opening a university, fighting hunger, etc.). In 1922-1924 continuing newspapers were published (“Universitetskiy klich”, “Universitetskoye slovo”, “Kuznetsy gryadushchego”) that were not limited to academic topics and conducted public discussions about the role of the university in the city. The newspapers reflect the ideological struggle between the old (pre-revolutionary) and new (proletarian) understanding of the university's activities. At the end of the 1920s. and in the 1930s. university newspapers were forced to pay maximum attention to ideology. Editions focused only on academic topics (“Krasnyy tekhnik”) were criticized. And the most politicized was the newspaper Vostochno-Sibirskiy komvuzovets (organ of the party committee of the East Siberian Communist University). In the late 30s. newspapers wrote a lot about the military training of students. University newspapers were used for communication between the university administration, teachers and students, for the university's public relations, for public discussions about the role and functions of the university in the city. And therefore, today they are a useful source of information about the life of the university as an organization and about the students as part of the youth.

The paper is devoted to the historiosophical understanding of the role Catholicism and the Catholic Church played in the Russian-Lithuanian relations of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the works of Yevgeny Frantsevich Shmurlo. The research is based on the content analysis of two generalizing works of this historian, created by him in exile at the end of his life: “History of Russia. 862-1917” and “Course of Russian History”. In addition, materials from E.F. Shmurlo’s personal fund, stored in the State Archive of the Russian Federation, works of pre-revolutionary historians as well as modern Russian historiography were used as sources. The paper attempts to analyze the process of forming the historian’s point of view onto this issue. The analysis of the textbook “History of Russia. 862-1917” showed that the historian briefly describes the Russian-Lithuanian relations and only indicated his clearly negative attitude to Catholicism. “Russian History Course” (1931-1934), in which the history of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Russian-Lithuanian relations is given a significant place, will show E.F. Shmurlo’s opinion more clearly. A detailed content analysis showed that, according to the historian, the union of Lithuania and Poland was accompanied by the introduction of alien Catholic elements and stopped the natural process of social assimilation of the Lithuanian element by the Russian, Orthodox, element, which eventually led to an increase in social conflict in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The growing national confrontation is based on the religious one between the Orthodox-Russians and the Poles-Catholics. As a result of the research, the author of the paper comes to the conclusion that E.F. Shmurlo was a supporter of the concept of a negative attitude to the Catholic presence on the territory of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. This historian’s opinion has its roots in the socio-political discussion of the second half of the 19th century and the work of historians, in particular S.M. Solovyov, K.P. Bestuzhev-Ryumin, O.M. Koyalovich, D.A. Tolstoy, etc. It can be said that while in exile, E.F. Shmurlo developed a consevative opinion on this issue, typical of Orthodox nationalism.

This paper deals with the fate of representatives of the Latvian post-war emigration on the example of a unique personality, the Russian priest Archpriest Feodor Mikhailov. A priest born on the territory of the current Pskov region. In the 1920s he became one of the representatives of the clergy in opposition to Metropolitan Sergius (Stragorodsky), for which he was punished in jail from 1929 to 1941. Leaving places of detention at the beginning of 1941, he soon found himself in the territory occupied by the Nazis and became a member of the Pskov Orthodox Mission. Together with the Pskov missionaries Archpriest Feodor Mikhailov was evacuated first to Latvia and then to Germany. There the priest was faced with a choice of two ecclesiastical jurisdictions: his mentor, Bishop John (Gaklavs) of Riga, and the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia. Subordinating to the latter in the second half of the 1940s he managed to serve in several Orthodox parishes, including in Regensburg, and also to help in the nourishment of Orthodox believers in local prisons. By the end of the 1940s the priest and his family were faced with the choice of moving to the United States of America. After much deliberation, for the welfare of the children, Archpriest Feodor Mikhailov moved to the United States and came under the jurisdiction of the North American Metropolitanate. The article is based on material from the Archives of the German Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia and the works of authors specializing in Russian church emigration, published collections of documents. The material is one of the first works in a series of articles devoted to the Russian, Estonian, Latvian and Belarusian post-war church emigration.

The article is devoted to the analysis of the evolution of the Soviet historiography of the Civil War in Russia on the materials of the East of Russia. There are four main stages: the 1920s - the beginning of the 1930s, the mid-1930s - the beginning of the 1950s, the second half of the 1950s - the end of the 1980s, the 1990s - to the present, of which the first three are Soviet. The conceptual and factual content of historical research was predetermined by the current socio-political situation. Lenin's military ideas were emotionally developed, supplemented, and commented on by contemporaries. The difficulties of the first stage included the need to master Marxism, develop scientific criteria, form a source base, and train a cadre of historians. The Soviet authors showed the greatest interest in the armed intervention of the Entente powers, in the creation and strengthening of the Far Eastern Republic. The researchers were not influenced by ready-made schemes, and their publications were distinguished by their applied practical nature. Since the beginning of the 1930s, new negative trends have been manifested in Soviet historiography, caused by the development of the cult of the personality of I.V. Stalin. The number of publications on the history of the Civil War became decreased, and previously published ones were withdrawn from circulation. Access to archival funds was sharply restricted, the names of famous participants of the Civil War declared as “enemies of the people” disappeared from current publications. Many historians had become victims of repression. The continuity of Soviet historiography was interrupted. The resolutions of the modern supreme party meetings became a model of interpretations for scientists. The authors focused on highlighting the role of the party, “adopting” the citation method of presenting and interpreting factual material. Simplified schemes have been established in historical works. For the second stage, references to the statements of I. V. Stalin are mandatory. After his death, there are some adjustments in the study of Soviet history. However, it was still prescribed to follow the “Leninist” principle of partisanship in historical science - to proceed from the interests of the advanced class when analyzing facts and conclusions, to oppose “objectivism”. In conclusion, the prospects for studying the events of the Civil War are outlined and key generalizations from its experience are proposed.

The review examines a historical encyclopedic dictionary devoted to various aspects of the socio-cultural life of the unique city of Yeniseisk. The authors have collected and systematized significant data on the history of everyday life of the town. When compiling the encyclopedic dictionary, narrative sources of a wide range were used. Special attention is paid to representatives of different social and professional groups. A significant place in the work is occupied by biographical articles and descriptions of old-age families. The importance of this study is related to the implementation of state programs for the development of small towns and the preservation of their historical and cultural heritage.

The review describes the collective monograph “Irkutsk - the city of labor valor”. It notes the novelty and relevance of the publication, a wide source base and contribution to the development of the history of the Irkutsk region. In this work, for the first time, Irkutsk is presented as the most important logistics center of Eastern Siberia, which played a significant role in winning the victory in the Great Patriotic War. However, some shortcomings were also noted, primarily related to the costs of writing collective work. The work is assessed as historical, but can be interesting not only to history liking people, and can be used in the preparation of educational classes in educational institutions.