Vol 43, No 3 (2024)

The article is devoted to the diplomatic protocol and the process of preparing official foreign policy documents of the Moscow State. Among the new sources identified in the Vienna State Archives concerning the diplomatic mission of the imperial ambassador A. von Donau are original letters from Dyak V. Ya. Shchelkalov addressed to the imperial diplomat. The documents allow us to outline the range of topics discussed in Moscow and show that along with foreign policy topics during the negotiations, the parties also treated financial issues concerning private individuals – subjects of the Empire and top officials of the Russian state. The authors pay special attention to the design of the texts of the Vienna letters: first, for example, the names of the addressee and sender are not disclosed, the address usual for a business or personal document is missing; the second, written on the “Alexandrian sheet”, opens with the “titles” of Tsar Fyodor Ivanovich and Emperor Rudolf II, but they are followed by the names and “titles” of the author of the letter and the addressee of the message. The second letter is sealed with the personal seal of Dyak V. Ya. Shchelkalov. Seal impressions in Russia and other countries are still unknown. The circular inscription contains the name and title of its owner, and in the center of the seal there is a composition of two birds. It is probably an illustration of the parable “On Talkativeness”, which was widespread in medieval Russian literature. The seal is completely unique and characterizes the head of the Russian diplomatic service as a scribe and a high professional in his field.

The article, based on unpublished sources and sources introduced into scientific discourse for the first time from the Scientific and Historical Archive of the St. Petersburg Institute of History of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Russian State Archive of Literature and Art and the Central State Archive of St. Petersburg, reconstructs the stages of professional development of the outstanding historian Anatoly Vasilyevich Predtechensky (1893–1966). An appeal to the youthful diary of A. V. Predtechensky, as well as his personal file as a student of the historical and philological faculty of St. Petersburg Uni- versity, made it possible to supplement his biography, emphasizing the spe- cial role in his life in this early period of his cousin, the famous ethnographer S. A. Teploukhov. Apparently, it is precisely the influence of S. A. Teploukhov that can explain A. V. Predtechensky’s departure from revolutionary Petrograd and service in Tomsk at the Institute of Siberian Research until the end of 1920. Upon returning to Petrograd, A. V. Predtechensky actively taught and, previ- ously far from narrowly specialized studies of Russian history, turned to such subjects. The surviving minutes of the meetings of the Section for the Study of the Decembrists and Their Time at the Leningrad Branch of the All-Union Society of Political Prisoners and Exiled Settlers, of which A. V. Predtechensky became a member in January 1927, record the young researcher’s interest in is- sues of economic and socio-political development of Russia at the beginning of the 19th century. Other young researchers, who by the end of the 1920 formed the main circle of contacts and professional connections of A. V. Predtechensky, also turn to these same themes. They were historians of the New Age (gradu- ates of the Petrograd University of the pre-revolutionary and revolutionary era) – V. N. Kashin, A. N. Shebunin, I. M. Trotsky. S. Ya. Gessen became a true friend of A. V. Predtechensky, as evidenced by their sincere correspondence. In creative tandem with him, the historian prepared a number of scientific publi- cations. In the conditions of the 1930^s, the close circle of A. V. Predtechensky actually disappeared, but the scientist himself, already having experience in sci- entific work, continued his research practice within the walls of the Leningrad branch of the Institute of History of the USSR Academy of Sciences, strictly relying in his constructions on critically understood information from histori- cal sources, thereby continuing the traditions of pre-revolutionary Petrograd historiography.

Materials and documents of Anatoliy V. Predtechensky in the Archive of the St. Petersburg Institute of History of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the St. Petersburg Branch of the Archive of the Russian Academy of sciences. The article offers a detailed description of the biographical documents and individual parts of the scientific heritage of the historian A. V. Predtechensky (1893–1966), which are deposited in several funds of the Scientific and Historical Archive of the St. Petersburg Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, such as f. 301 (A. V. Pretechensky), f. 193 (A. E. Presnyakov), f. 276 (Publishing Archive of the Leningrad Institute of Historical Sciences). No less valuable evidence of the academic activities of the historian, his participation in large collective projects of the Leningrad Institute of Historical Sciences in the 1930s-1950s, in the procedures of scientific discussions can be extracted from f. 133 of the St. Petersburg Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Based on these materials, the work of A. V. Predtechensky in scientific institutions of Leningrad is traced, including that which, for various reasons, was not reflected in his published works. Of great interest to the historian of Soviet historical science and historiographical life are not only the unpublished scientific works of Predtechensky, but also his dia- ries, unique memories of the musical life of Petrograd-Leningrad, scientific correspondence, materials of university lectures, texts of public speeches. The historian's archive clearly demonstrates the breadth of his creative interests, individual methods of scientific work, and circle of scientific communication. Of most interest for studying the creative laboratory of the historian is the unfinished book about military settlements, materials for which were collected by A. V. Predtechensky in the last years of his life.  

The publication is a translation and commentary of four letters from the former Queen of Sweden Christina Vasa to the Apostolic Nuncio in Madrid Galeazzo Marescotti in the period 1672–1673, which turned out to be the least documented period in her biography. All four letters are devoted to the topic of the so-called «Neapolitan sums» – loans issued by Bona Sforza, the Dowager Queen of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, in 1557 to Philip II of Spain. As the second cousin of Jan II Casimir, the former king of Poland, Christina called herself his only legitimate heir and made claims, relying on the support of Cardinal Decio Azzolino Jr., her Roman confidant. The course of the correspondence testifies to the establishment of business relations between the correspondents in the previous period and reflects attempts to rely on the support of Pope Clement X, his nephew, Cardinal Paluzzo Altieri, Secretary of State of the Holy See, and other unnamed influential hierarchs, and dissatisfaction with obstacles that will prove insurmountable in the future. Correspondence from the collection of N. P. Likhachev serves as a documentary confirmation of the assumptions of Polish scientists of the late 19^th century about Kristina’s struggle for the «Neapolitan sums».