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In this study we set out to present an unknown map regarding the capital of the Principality of Moldavia, Iași city, and its surroundings from the middle of the 19th century. The map is entitled Jassi und Umgebung, it is provided by the Military Archives in Vienna (Kriegsarchive) and was created during the Austrian military occupation of Moldavia (1854–1857), during the Crimean War. The map points out yet again that, during that period, the Austrian army initiated geodetic activities in Moldavia, not only in Wallachia, as was known until now. Its realization was subordinated to an old political and military objective of the Habsburg monarchy for the exploration and mapping of its own territory but also of its political and economic influence areas located in the vicinity of its borders. For this reason, I briefly presented other military maps and plans regarding the Principality of Moldavia and the area of Iași in the 18–19th centuries, highlighting the historical context in which the map was drawn in 1855. Given the above, I paid a special attention to the identification of the officers who made the map (Anton Krzisch, Eduard van der Schlott / Sloot, Gustav von Löw, Rudolf von Friess and Franz Matosović), whose military careers we reconstructed in order to understand, on the one hand, how and where they acquired the cartographic knowledge and skills and, on the other hand, if they also made other topographic works related to the Romanian Principalities.Due to its technical properties, dimensions (527 × 527 mm) and large scale (1 : 28 800), the map offers the most detailed and precise topographic perspective up to 1855 over an area of about 230 km2, which includes the Iasi city, centrally located, and 25 villages around it. The map shows the geographic forms and land usage, roads, structure of localities and households, locations and structures of ecclesiastical (churches, monasteries, cemeteries) and economic (mills, taverns, fountains and aqueducts, bricks, slaughterhouse, telegraph) objectives, headquarters of some institutions, public and private gardens, residences of the social elite in Iași and in its vicinity, etc. Topographic information is important and consistent, which is why the map can be used as a source of documentation for research topics in various fields: history and archaeology, geography and cartography, urbanism, toponymy and others.
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The article contains a survey of the Lithuanian folksong investigations, dealing with the fragmentary character of the song texts. The notion of fragmentary character in folksong research is applied to discuss incoherence of expression, and its saltatory nature. The problem of fragmentary character of folksongs, as well as that of their textual structure, has only gradually entered the Lithuanian scholarly discourse of folklore. Certain hints regarding peculiarities of the fragmentary structure of Lithuanian folksongs can be found in the 19th century writings already: here, attention was primarily paid to the folklore variations and improvisations, but also, the unstable nature of folksong texts, the incoherence of contents, certain singularity of their composition was pointed out. In the course of the 20th century, the studies of folksongs grew more particular, while the attitude of the folksong researchers towards the fragmentary character of the songs was increasingly revealed by their approach to the text. The special concerns of individual researchers encouraged analysis of the separate folksong fragments in terms of their meaning, origin, development, application of comparative and statistical methods, etc. Problems related to functioning, autonomy, valency, systematization of these fragments, as well as nature and causes of this phenomenon increasingly attracted scholarly attention. The textual segmentation used to be actualized in relation to the analysis of text, as an organic artistic whole, and the relationship between its meaning generating components. It was noted, that in majority of studies since the first half of the 20th century until nowadays, this strictly unspecified way of folksong analysis is mostly used as a subsidiary means in order to define and concretize the subject of the study, making it more “handy” for the comparative, synchronic, diachronic and poetical research. The segmentation of folksongs is justified by the great variety of tasks and goals posed by the researchers, while the textual components are most frequently discerned on the basis of stereotypical nature of content and form. Still, the blatant variety of concepts used to define the fragments of folksongs, and the incoherence of their usage apparently testify to the peripheral role played by the question of the folksong structure in the theory of Lithuanian folklore, contrary to the individual studies.
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This article explores the Bitlis massacre of 1895 and its aftermath with a particular focus on the role of local actors and Ottoman state elite in shaping the unfolding of this event. Through an in-depth examination of archival documents, it emphasizes the importance of local networks and dynamics in shaping the developments on the ground. Exploring the differences in the approaches of local and central Ottoman officials and political elites towards the treatment of the initiators of the massacre, the article reveals that there were explicit disputes among Ottoman authorities which were seemingly resolved after the Sultan Abdülhamid II imposed his will and ensured total impunity for the local perpetrators.
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The early 19th century saw a radical change in the composer’s function in society. Instead of providing music for an aristocratic employer, it was now wanted to please a multitude. The first group of composers: H. Berlioz, F. Liszt, R. Wagner grasped and held the attention of the huge new public and sought to lead it on to higher musical level. The next group hoped at first to preserve the values of true classical art. Robert Schumann was the most articulate spokesman of this group, F. Chopin - its most extreme practitioner. F. Chopin is unique among the great masters in that his compositions are almost exclusively for the piano instrument. When F. Chopin graduated from the Warsaw Conservatory, he traveled to Viena, Munich, Berlin as pianist and composer, winning a good success. The young artist stayed for a long time in Paris and made it as his new home. His fame was growing up and at his pivotal time of his life F. Chopin wandered from the faith of his childhood. He raised in a devout Catholic family and his parents continued to pray for their distant son and wrote him reassuring letters. In this period of disorientation and spiritual confusion, F. Chopin met the famous French novelist George Sand. She invited him to spend the summer of 183 8 with her, and for the next eight years they endured a stormy romance. Even in this phase of spiritual draught, there are indications that F. Chopin’s faith was trying to resurface. In Sand’s autobiography „Story of My Life” some passages seem that F. Chopin’s faith deeply surprised her. She complained that „he was a prisoner of Catholic dogma”. For much of this period F. Chopin was deeply distressed with inner turmoil, provoked in composer’s soul a permanent fear of hell, since his relationships with G. Sand had not been blessed by the Church. There is evidence that composer was a man of prayer, but he kept his religious feelings to himself and never touched upon his faith, but held it without attracting attention to it. The tension F. Chopin felt at this time of his life was finally resolved in a painful break with G. Sand. With maturity his religious feeling became intense. As F. Chopin’s conditions became critical, the Abbe Jelowicki, who had known the Composer for many years, was sent for. After spending much time with F. Chopin he repented, received a reconciliation and a new birth in Christ. Patience, trust in God, love to all people, even joyful confidence never left him in spite of all his sufferings till the last breath in the morning of October 17, 1849.
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The 70th birthday of the ethnographer, native historian and historian Bela Csorba is an appropriate event to review and evaluate the results of this fruitful and creative career. The focus of the scientist's interest was the history of his native village, Temerin, however, when exploring the events and values of folk life he always liked to see and expand the area of southern Bacska. During his research career of more than half a century, he has always, as in every activity, evaluated the work of the Hungarian community in creating authentic values, occasionally emphasizing the importance of the activities of some exceptional individuals. In his ethnographic books he summed up two hundred years of the history of his beloved community.
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The paper presents a picture of piano culture in Bratislava in the second half of the 18thcentury and especially after 1770, the period which saw the hammer piano make a remarkable advance and even win dominance in European musical culture. The research is based on sources primarily of Bratislava provenance, which document piano culture among various social layers (aristrocratic, bourgeois, church and school milieux) and resulting from the work of influential figures who contributed to its development (composers, teachers, organisers, patrons, musical dilettantes, instrument-builders). Given the broad scope of the question, a selected approach is taken in this study, focusing especially on the circumstances and conditions in which piano culture evolved in Bratislava: opportunities for the cultivation of piano playing, reports on keyboard instruments in the press, concerts and events, manufacture of instruments. Particular attention is devoted to Johann Nepomuk Erdődy and his role in piano culture. The findings and presentation of sources are confronted with the picture of Viennese piano culture, which, mediated by the activities of a variety of social layers, contributed in a specific manner to the profile of piano culture in Bratislava.
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The dance phenomenon was one of the sources of inspiration for piano composers active in the second half of the 19th century in Slovakia. Dance forms were composed with both a utilitarian and an aesthetic function, or there could be a fluent transition between those two poles. The dance genre was associated with salon music and with the employment of technical virtuosity. Among the favourite dances in society, the quadrille, mazurka, csardas, waltz and polka were particularly loved. A speciality was the so-called Slovak quadrilles composed especially in the 1850s – 1870s, using Slovak folk songs. The dance genre evoked a response from such composers as Jozef Rizner, Ján Egry, Emil Kovárcz, Leopold Dušinský, Maximilián Hudec, Ján Levoslav Bella, Štefan Fajnor, Ignác Boldiš, and many others. The paper examines the range of representation of individual dance forms and their musical style characterisation, as well as the relationship between functionality and autonomy in this work.
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The Estonian settlements in Abkhazia developed in the 1880s, and soon after were taken under the wing of the Russian Lutheran Church. Since most of the Lutheran pastors in tsarist Russia had been educated at the University of Tartu, and many of them came from the Baltic provinces, they often also spoke Estonian. The article examines the relations of the settlers with the pastors, some of whom had previously served in Estonia. It also looks at the role played by the parish clerk/schoolteachers of the settlements who came from Estonia or other Estonian settlements in tsarist Russia.
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The Slovak Catholic hymnbook Nábožné katolické pesňički (Trnava 1804). Compiler of the hymnbook Jur Hollý (1760 – 1818), his life and work. The tradition of Catholic church singing in 18th century Slovakia and the hymnological sources. Circumstances of the hymnbook’s emergence, its conception, editorship of tunes. New texts and tunes of hymns in the hymnbook. Review of tunes and text incipits.
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Review of: Татьяна Борисова - Yukiko Tatsumi and Taro Tsurumi, eds. Publishing in Tsarist Russia: A History of Print Media from Enlightenment to Revolution. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2020. 280 pp. ISBN 978-1-3501-0934-6.
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The article is the first essay in Russian historiography on the history of the emergence and establishment of women’s political organizations in Russia at the beginning of the XX c., the struggle for women’s suffrage and the competence to voice women’s demands in the State Duma. The authors recreate the history of women’s political participation in Russia, its role and significance in 1900-1914.
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The symbolic starting point for modernization of the school system in Hungary was the Ratio Educationis I. issued by Maria Theresia in 1777, which is an illustrative example of top-down modernization of the school system. Elementary schools maintained by denominations were important tools for this kind of top-moderated modernization. The opening of the first independent, multi-grade German and Slovak-language institute in Spišská Kapitula was of great importance for the history of Catholic elementary teacher training. The foundation was the merit of László János Pyrker (1772 – 1847), Bishop of Spis, later Archbishop of Eger, who started the institute in the autumn of 1819. The language of instruction of the teacher training institute was German and Slovak, according to the composition of the population. The aim was, therefore, to supply villages with cantor teachers, and this is reflected in the palette of the subjects: theology, biblical stories, reading, spelling, arithmetic, pedagogy, teaching methodology, liturgy, church Latin, church singing, organ. Nine years after the founding of the institute of Spišská Kapitula, he continued his work in the first Hungarian-language, two-year Catholic teacher training institute, which opened in the fall of 1828 in Eger. The need for attachment to direct pedagogical practice is felt in every element of the training plan – like in the first training institute in Spišská Kapitula. This intention exemplifies the peculiar path of the development and practical professionalization of the folk-teaching profession.
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The article describes the history of the study of the “female enzyme” in the mass Russian labor movement. It concludes that there was no so-called proletarian branch in the women’s movement in Russia of the late XIXth - early XXth c. The female theme in the history of the mass actions of Russian workers (reflected in the writings of contemporaries and historians from the beginning of the 1890s to the latest period, the end of the 2010s) appeared as a study of the activism of individual revolutionaries, leaders, agitators from various socialist parties, as the study of the social status and social image of female representatives of fabric workers (but not their identity, their mass protest activity). The article reveals the debatable issues of the proletarians participation history in the All-Russian women’s movement, analyzes the reasons for the impossibility of creating a unified All-Russian women’s organization at the beginning of the XX c. and outlines promising trends in research analysis in the area of women’s history, history of women’s workers.
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The article considers the ideas of the Russian writer, poet and journalist M. I. Mikhailov, that became intellectual prerequisites for the formation of feminist discourse in Russian sociology of the XIX century. Domestic thinkers have contributed greatly to the emergence in Russia of feminism as a social phenomenon and the theory of feminism in the history of Russian social thought. The specifics of historical and cultural development have influenced the reflection of many issues within the social sciences, including the need to explore the “female issue” in sociology. The author shows that the problem of the position of women in society is markedly expressed in the context of Russian culture and is widely revealed in Russian literature in the works of famous writers, poets, journalists, philosophers, in particular in the works of M. Mikhailov. This article can be considered as an attempt to develop and deepen courses on the history of Russian sociology, it gives an idea of how feminist discourse was formed in classical sociology. The presentation of the problem of inequality, overcoming the dependent position of women and ensuring their rights in Russia differs from the Western specificity. This difference is reflected in the works of M. Mikhailov. The author shows significant influence on shaping the feminist discourse of European scholars, on the one hand. On the other hand, the author describes a revision and critical analysis of these ideas in the works of the Russian writer. The article analyzed Mikhailov’s creativity as one of the components of the process of spiritual and intellectual development of Russian social thought, immediately preceding the emergence of sociology in Russia and the formation of feminist discourse within some leading scientific schools.
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The material presented is the memoirs of a professional diplomat, first-class adviser, Honorary Worker of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and poet A. E. Gladkov about the anniversary celebrations in Bavaria dedicated to the 200th birthday of F. I. Tyutchev. F. I. Tyutchev is known to the general public, primarily as a talented Russian poet. They know less about him as a diplomat. Meanwhile, he showed his talents in this field. The fact of recognition of the poetic and diplomatic merits of F. I. Tyutchev became a program for celebrating his birthday in 2002—2003 at the state level, not only in Russia, but also abroad. In particular, in Bavaria, with which the poet and diplomat has been closely associated for more than 20 years. The culmination of a series of anniversary events in this federal state was to be the unveiling of a monument to F. I. Tyutchev in Munich. This is the plot of E. A. Gladkov and it is put in the center of memories. Published materials are unique. First of all, the cited facts of the great work carried out by Russian diplomats on a worthy birthday meeting for F. I. Tyutchev in Germany. The work, which is usually hidden from the general public, and the details of which experts will be able to get acquainted after opening the archives only after decades. These words are fully applicable also to the recollections of the actions of the leadership of Munich to open the monument to F. I. Tyutchev. The distinctive side of the presented memoirs is the clearly visible personal deep sympathy of E. A. Gladkov to F. I. Tyutchev, for the sake of opening a monument to which Alexander Evgenievich even decided on a well-known career risk. And such sympathy is not accidental. Both are diplomats and poets, both served in Bavaria and knew it well. Both have done a lot to expand and deepen Russian-German relations, to create a positive image of Russia abroad. The same noble purposes are called to serve and published memories.
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The collection of photographic materials of The Vladimir Dahl State Museum of the History of Russian Literature, related to the life and work of F. M. Dostoevsky, is the largest such collection and currently includes 2540 items. The collection of photographs is based on the memorial collection of A. G. Dostoevskaya from the Memorial Museum of F. M. Dostoevsky. In the 1930s, it was transferred to the F. M. Dostoevsky Museum, established in Moscow in 1928, and after its merge with the State Literary Museum in 1940 (since 2017 — The Vladimir Dahl State Museum of the History of Russian Literature), it became a part of its photography collection. The compendium of photographs related to the life and work of Fedor Dostoevsky continued to grow in the following years. The article provides a comprehensive description of the collection of photos based on two main criteria: by the type of material — original photos, reshot photos, duplicate photos; by genre and thematic content of the images — portraits of F. M. Dostoevsky, portraits of relatives, portraits of children of F. M. Dostoevsky, nephews, descendants, portraits of friends, acquaintances, contemporaries, sights of places related to the biography of F. M. Dostoevsky. The article analyzes the accompanying inscriptions and autographs on the photographs, specifies the dating and location of the images, which allows to make corrections and additions to the Chronicle of the life and work of F. M. Dostoevsky. Based on a comparative analysis of the translator’s gift autograph on his photo, the facts of F. M. Dostoevsky’s biography, and the analysis of F. M. Dostoevsky’s letter to an unidentified person dated December 5, 1863, an assumption is made that the addressee of the letter is W. Wolfzon.
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The article examines the Latin aphorism Strepitu belli propelluntur artes, which is found twice in Dostoevsky’s notebooks. The spelling and translation of the aphorism, its grammatical and stylistic structure, as well as the possible sources of the Latin quotation are elucidated. The expression in question is contextually unrelated to the Russian text and functions as an independent statement. The semantic connection of the aphorism with the content of the pages where it is found is revealed. The Latin expression marks the theme of war. The juxtaposition of war and art inherent in the aphorism and traditionally understood as the impossibility of their coexistence, is interpreted by the writer as a paradox: through his paradoxical hero, Dostoevsky fosters the idea that only during a war true art awakens souls and mobilizes a society’s spiritual needs. Subsequently, on his own behalf, the writer speaks about the nature of true art, which arouses people by its lofty ideals in the times of peace. However, the social reality is such that the only way for a spiritually unhealthy society to awaken and cleanse itself is a war over a noble idea. The Latin quotation is a key link in the writer’s reasoning, and it becomes an instrument of his argumentation.
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This paper aims at presenting the censorship of books and documents at the library from the first high school from southern Bucovina – Griechisch-orientalische kaiserlich-königliche Obergymnasium in Suczawa, a typical high school in which German was the tuition language, founded by imperial decree on the 30th of June 1860, today known as Colegiul Național “Ștefan cel Mare” from Suceava. This study is based on original archive documents, previous studies on the topic and documents from the school library. Relying on historical research approaches, the phenomenon of book censorship is analysed during all political regimes that succeeded in the nearly 160 years of existence of the school library. The paper points out to the restrictions imposed during the Austrian rule (1860-1918), the cleansing and even destruction of the most valuable books belonging to the Romanian heritage during the totalitarian regimes after the Great Union of 1918, the reorganization of the special collections, the restriction of the public accessibility to certain titles. This paper, alongside previous ones on the same topic, is meant to contribute to the understanding of the complex phenomenon of censorship in Romanian libraries.
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The perception of the celebration of the 220th anniversary of the USSR Academy of Sciences (June 15–30, 1945) by Harold Innis, a Canadian scientist, was discussed. The focus of the study is the “Russian Diary” that H. Innis kept during his long journey from Ottawa to Moscow, Leningrad, and back. The diary was published in Canada 35 years after the anniversary celebration. Professor William Christian of the University of Guelph was the publisher, editor, and author of the opening letter. The motivation of H. Innis to study Russia, as well as the interlocutors, informants, and places of memory that shaped his vision of Russia as a “mysterious country” were analyzed. The specifics of his narrative (brief and telegraphic sketches of the surroundings with complex associations) were considered. His peculiar way of description and perception of the anniversary celebration was investigated. It was concluded that H. Innis paid little attention to the ceremonial part of the anniversary, because something else was more important to him. He was more interested in understanding the role of science in the USSR and in the modern world. The restoration of the academic relations disturbed by the war was perceived by H. Innis as an important step towards overcoming the civilizational crisis.
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