编号 1 (2024)

In the interwar period, three powerful ideological factors – nationalism, pan-Islamism, and communism - simultaneously undermined the power of the metropolis in the dependent territories. Behind this façade, as was reasonably assumed in Delhi, Simla, Jerusalem, Cairo, and London, the interests of rival states were concealed. Overseas territories were seen both as a source of strength (economy, international prestige) and weakness (diversion of resources because of the leadership’s belief in the existence of an external threat).The historiography of the British Empire pays attention to how the colonial administrations and the metropolis responded to the challenges posed by the prospects of combining crises of loyalty and worsening international competition into a single problem of ensuring colonial order after the First World War. The question remains open about how the representatives of the military class themselves looked at such a cross-border threat. The article shows that, in this light, one of the key topics for the army corporation in the framework of the professional discussion was the institutionalization of the colonial army. To what extent did the esprit de corps of the British Army have an imperil character in terms of institutional peculiarities and public self-presentation? Was colonial service has been perceived as a priority over participation in conventional conflict in the training of the officer corps? How was it supposed to solve the problem of the growing obligations of the army to suppress anti-colonial protests (including guerrilla warfare in full-scale) against the background of worsening international relations, financial shortages and personnel restrictions? To what extend did the logics of the military thought development and corporate interests had mirrored the evolution of the colonial rule’ models after the Great War? As the results of the presented study demonstrates, these issues did not only constellate internal and interdepartmental discussions on the declared topic. Their participants had a hand in the further development of a wider discursive field – about the prospects for the future of the British Empire as such.

In this article, the author concentrates on the intellectual projects of John Leland (1503–1552), the first antiquarian of early modern England. The origins of a certain tradition of English antiquarian historiography are connected with the name of this poet and polemicist. Today, researchers see heuristic potential in studying the political and socio-cultural foundations that led to the emergence of antiquarian discourse in the first half of the sixteenth century. The aim of the article is to define the role of John Leland’s intellectual thought within two interrelated and most relevant processes for his time, namely the imperial and nation-building of England during Henry VIII’s reign. In order to achieve his research goal, the author, firstly, identifies the peculiarities of the genesis of the imperial idea in the Middle Ages and its transformation during the reign of Henry VIII; secondly, analyses Leland’s creative projects aimed at legitimising the Tudor dynastic rights to “recreate” the ancient composite monarchy of the British Isles; thirdly, drawing on the Swiss historian Caspar Hirschi’s theory of pre-modern nationalism, identifies the characteristics of the proto-national discourse and the signs of the participation of the English antiquarian in it. The article is based on an analysis of John Leland’s “New Year’s Gift”, a letter in which the sender informs the monarch of his plans to produce a series of works on the history and geography of Britain. The study shows that the envisaged projects were aimed not only at creating an image of the Tudor empire fulfilling dynastic political ambitions, but also at consistently glorifying the “British” collective subject.

In the mid-eighteenth century, the Electorate of Saxony, one of the largest German states joined in a personal union with the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, played a significant role in European politics. Relations with Saxony were critical in the diplomatic calculations of Europe’s major powers, including Great Britain, France, and Austria. This holds true during the time of the Silesian Wars (1740–1742; 1744–1745) as Prussia’s strengthening political influence gave rise to two major power centres in Germany. Austria and Prussia were both keen on winning Saxony’s favour as a potential ally. Its significant army and advantageous strategic location were the key factors. The importance of Saxony in the military and political conflict between Vienna and Berlin rose during the Second Silesian War. However, not much is known about Saxony’s involvement in this conflict as both Russian and foreign historians have not extensively researched it. The article aims to address this gap as comprehensively as possible, in other words, to ascertain the extent of Saxon diplomacy’s impact on the initial stage of the Second Silesian War and to establish the objectives and outcomes of Saxon policy during the relevant period. The research is based on a wide range of sources, including the documents from the Main State Archives (Hauptstaatsarchiv) in Dresden, the Austrian State Archives (Österreichisches Staatsarchiv) in Vienna, and the Archive of Foreign Policy of the Russian Empire in Moscow. Most of the documents had never been used before or were being introduced for the first time for the current subject. The author concludes that during the period in question, Saxon diplomacy managed to gain advantageous positions in negotiations with Great Britain, Austria, and the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands in Warsaw and Vienna in the autumn of 1744 and spring of 1745, securing assurances of forthcoming subsidies and acquisition of some Prussia’s territories.

The recently published second part of the memoirs of Heinrich Claß, chairman of the Pan-German League, who made a personal contribution to the dissemination and public acceptance of anti-Semitic, racist and expansionist views, and who also played an essential role in establishing and developing the communication of right-wing forces that sought to exert background influence on public policy, are of great scholarly interest and broaden the source base for studies of radical nationalism on the eve and during the Great War. In addition to the Pan-Germans’ own military aims related to the annexation of European territories that have already been studied in historiography, the memoirs illustrate the internal tense struggle for their approval within the Pan-German League as well as Claß’s various attempts to forge co-operation with high-ranking civil servants and the Reichswehr leadership. Claß made the resignation of Reich Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg his goal, for the sake of which he established contacts at the highest level. Under wartime conditions, the Pan-German leader’s previously cautious attempts to hint at the need to change the national system of government took concrete shape and became the subject of public and political struggle. Claß’s ideas were associated with the establishment of a dictatorship in the form of the unlimited power of an emperor-appointed official who would, under war conditions, be allowed to act bypassing constitutional norms and established mechanisms of power. The war, in his opinion, was to bring to power a dictator capable of looking after the national interests. The memoirs of Claß show how, against the background of the struggle for the resignation of the Reich Chancellor and a series of military failures, the imperial civilian and military elite evaluated the idea of dictatorship and coup d’état, which allows one to assess in a new way the effectiveness of the Pan-German actions and, consequently, the potential of the Pan-German League.

In this article, based on documents from the League of Nations archives, the author examines the history of the creation of the League of Nations Health Organisation after the First World War. The founders of the League failed to implement the Treaty of Versailles and create a single global organisation to fight epidemics and preserve public health. At the time of the creation of the Versailles world order, there were several centers around which a permanent international health organization could be formed. The Covenant of the League of Nations, which was part of the Treaty of Versailles, required stricter coordination of all international health institutions and their subordination to a single center in the League of Nations. The British delegation at the Paris Peace Conference took initiative in solving this problem. However, all attempts to create a health organization quickly ended in failure due to disagreements between the Allied Powers. The United States, guided by the interests of commerce and the preservation of influence, took the position of protecting the independence of the International Office of Public Hygiene in Paris. France also wanted to keep the prestigious international office in Paris. As a result, the Health Organization of the League of Nations experienced constant underfunding, as well as bureaucratic red tape in an environment where quick decisions had to be made in the field of medical research and disease control.

In the wake of the anti-war student movement, it was decided to hold the next IX World Festival of Youth and Students in 1965 in Algeria. After a long civil war against French colonial rule, the state gained independence in 1962, choosing a “non-capitalist path of development”. Due to the military coup that took place, the festival had to be canceled. The history of the failed festival has not been reflected in historical research. However, the events that took place around this festival deserve attention, since they influenced the youth movement both in the Soviet Union and around the world. The article analyzes the events that accompanied the preparation of the festival. Ideological differences between the CPSU and the Communist Party of China, which served as the background of these events, had a decisive impact on the international relations of the Komsomol with youth organizations of other countries. Excessive guardianship on the part of the Soviet Union did not allow international and student organizations to agree on the terms of the festival in Algeria in 1965. Based on archival documents and declassified CIA materials, the author comes to the conclusion that by the mid-1960s the influence of the USSR in the world had weakened. Soviet foreign policy was no longer in line with the fermenting “world revolution… of small, poor people all over the world,” as Secretary of State John Marshall put it. New leftist centers were now emerging, often at odds with each other, and the USSR’s authority was no longer sufficient.

In this article, the author analyses the scientific relationship between Soviet and French molecular biologists and biochemists in the first half of the 1970s. This cooperation is associated with the names of the prominent Russian and French scientists. The pioneers of this cooperation were Academicians Alexander Baev, Yuri Ovchinnikov, Alexander Spirin, Lev Kiselev, and other Soviet scientists, and Marianne Grunberg-Manago, François Gros, and Jean-Pierre Ebel, on the French side. Soviet-French scientific cooperation involved numerous research centers on both sides and manifested most vividly in the symposia devoted to “Physico-chemical origin of life”, the first of which was held in 1974 in Pushchino. The symposia were held alternately in the USSR/Russia and France until the mid-1990s. The topic under consideration is not sufficiently reflected in the works of professional historians. Despite the fact that Russian/Soviet/French scientific ties, including those in the field of biology, are to some extent represented in Russian and international literature, only the first steps have been made in the study of effective interaction between molecular biologists and biochemists of the two countries. The paper draws on a wide range of new archival sources from the funds of the Main directorate of the foreign relations of the USSR Academy of Sciences, Institute of molecular biology and some other funds of the Archive of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The author study the symposia in Pushino (1974, 1975), Concarno (1975) and the results of the foreign trips of Soviet researchers. The Soviet-French scientific links are analyzed in the context of international political situation. The relations with France were more favorable in comparison with other Western countries, which provided the development of scientific contacts. In the field of molecular biology and biochemistry in the first half of the 1970s we can notice: several symposia in both countries, exchanges of the delegations, mutual trips and joint research of Soviet and French scientists. At the same time the author touches upon the difficulties that hindered international contacts. These problems were common for the Soviet science and were caused by the Iron Curtain and clumsiness of the Soviet bureaucracy.

The victimization of refugees in the recipient communities has been broadly explored, especially in the context of West African civil wars, however the role refugees had in armed violence against local population and in the maintenance of the regional conflict economy requires further research. In this article, the author examines matters of refugee involvement in a civil war ravaging the recipient country based on the case of Sierra Leone conflict (1991–2002) and role that Liberian refugees played at the outset and different periods of war. The primary aim of this study is to determine the extent to which the role refugees played in the Sierra Leone conflict went beyond the traditional perception of refugee victimhood, the transformation of their involvement in war and the influence of the various regional and extra-regional forces. The existing academic literature on conflict in Sierra Leone is evaluated in accordance with the topic in focus and the extent to which this national experience can be applied to a broader set of regional wars. The role of refugees in trans-border economy is appraised in the theoretical framework of conflict support networks elaborated by William Reno and Jennifer Hazen using the functional analysis methodology treating civil wars as dynamic, with shifting intentions and roles of parties considered. Overall, the article provides additional angle in appraisal of the conflicts in West Africa and the cases of refugees’ involvement in these wars. The Liberian refugees had a changing active role in the conflict, gradually getting entangled in hostilities, illicit actions and violent entrepreneurship, turning from the victims of regional wars with their grievances into the destabilizing force for the recipient state of Sierra Leone and the entire region. The article is based on the materials of the Special Court for Sierra Leone, reports of international humanitarian organizations and documentation of the relevant state structures.

What follows here below is the publication of documents from the Archive of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan on the visit of the delegation of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR to Iran, which took place from 15–25 January 1968. This delegation was headed by Dinmukhamed Kunaev. These archival materials are important in the context of studying Soviet-Iranian economic and political relations in the 1960s and 1970s, when interaction between the two countries became more intensive. The paper demonstrates that the visit of the Soviet delegation was not just a protocol event, but an important milestone in building specific areas of co-operation, primarily the construction of a metallurgical plant in Isfahan. The documents introduced into the academic circuit for the first time, above all, testify to the deep interest of the Soviet side in the “white revolution” in Iran. At the same time, they do not record the contradictions of the ongoing reforms and the presence in the country of significant opposition to the Shah, especially on the part of the Islamic clergy. The archival documents clearly demonstrate certain difficulties in the development of bilateral relations. The appendices to the report of Dinmukhamed Kunaev contain rather sharp criticism of Soviet practices of cooperation with Tehran. Moreover, the edge of this criticism is directed at the all-powerful sectoral ministries and organizations, at the slowness of the Soviet planned economy. In the reporting documents of 1968, Soviet-Iranian cooperation in certain areas was essentially called a failure. Moreover, this applies to such an important area as oil exploration, production, and refining.

Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben played a key role in the professionalization of George Washington’s Continental Army, managing to pass on to the Americans his experience gained in the Seven Years’ War and the War of the Austrian Succession. At the same time, there are no studies dedicated to Steuben in American studies in Russia. It seems that this gap needs to be filled, especially since some episodes of Steuben’s biography are connected with Russia. In addition, the article sets the task of critically verifying Steuben’s self-representations – a task that somehow confronts all his biographers. The source base of the study is mainly represented by epistolary materials from the era of the War of Independence. The materials of the Congress, the press, and Steuben's own surviving works himself were also used. All these sources document the American stage of Steuben’s career well, but leave aside the Russian and German stages. The Prussian military documentation of the eighteenth century allows one to judge the poorly-studied aspects of his biography. The study of the sources leads to the conclusion that Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben was part of that peculiar culture of the eighteenth century, which made that century an era of brilliant adventurers. He had the talent, imagination, and charm that allowed him to recreate his own past and convince Americans of the truthfulness of his stories. Yet, at the same time, he represented a piece of the Prussian military machine created by Frederick the Great, which allowed him to make a career in the American army. At the same time, it should be noted that his contacts with the American civil authorities were not always as successful.