Revolutions of 1917 in Russia: Contemporary Historiography (in Russian)

Революции 1917 года в России: современная историография (обложка)A collection of reviews and library-research papers published in 2017 for the centenary of the Russian 1917 revolutions.  Its materials address the works of Russian and foreign scholars that deal with the 1917 events, including their broader historical background.  Considerable attention is paid to the military-political, social and cultural aspects of the revolutionary period which are examined in the context of the collapse of empires.  Special emphasis is placed on the literature containing the most significant changes in research evaluation of the 1914–21 global crisis.

Contents:

  • Preface
  • V. M. Shevyrin, ‘Politicheskie protsessy v Rossii v preddverii revoliustii 1917 goda’ [Political processes in Russia on the eve of the 1917 revolution] (Review essay)
  • V. M. Shevyrin and I. K. Bogomolov, ‘Ekonomicheskoe polozhenie Rossii nakanune revoliutsii 1917 goda’ [Economical situation in Russia on the eve of the 1917 revolution] (Review essay)
  • D. Lieven, The End of Tsarist Russia: March to World War I and Revolution (Abstract)
  • J. Sanborn, Inperial Apocalypse: The Great War and the Destruction of the Russian Empire (Abstract)
  • E. Lohr, V. Tolz, A. Semyonov, and M. von Hagen, eds., The Empire and Nationalism at War (Abstract)
  • L. Riga, The Bolsheviks and the Russian Empire (Abstract)
  • V. M. Shevyrin, ‘Kontseptsiia russkoi revoliutsii v trudakh V. P. Buldakova’ [Conception of the Russian revolution in the works by V. P. Buldakov] (Review essay)
  • E. Cinnella, 1917: La Russia verso l’abisso [1917: Russia on the way into the abyss] (Abstract)
  • M. D. Steinberg, The Russian Revolution, 1905–1921 (Abstract)
  • D. P. Koenker and W. G. Rosenberg, Strikes and Revolution in Russia, 1917 (Abstract)
  • S. V. Bespalov and O. L. Aleksandri, ‘Obrazy rossiiskoi vlasti epokhi voin i revoliutsii v trudakh B. I. Kolonitskogo’ [Images of the Russian power in the period of wars and revolutions in the works by B. I. Kolonitskii] (Review essay)
  • A. N. Medushevskii, Politicheskaia istoriia russkoi revoliutsii: normy, instituty, formy sotsial’noi mobilizatsii v XX veke [Political history of the Russian revolution: norms, institutions, forms of the social mobilization in the twentieth century] (Abstract)
  • B. D. Palmer and J. Sangster, ‘The Distinctive Heritage of 1917: Resuscitating Revolution’s longue durée’ (Abstract)
  • E. Acton, V. Cherniaev, and W. Rosenberg, eds., Critical Companion to the Russian Revolution 1914–1921 (Abstract)
  • Iu. V. Dunaeva, ‘Publikatsii zhurnala “Kritika” v preddverii stoletiia revoliutsii 1917 goda’ [Publications in Kritika on the eve of the centenary of the 1917 revolutions] (Review essay)

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Washington, Arlington National Cemetery

Some more old photographs.  Strictly speaking, Arlington National Cemetery is outside Washington, on the other side of the Potomac River.  The cemetery was established during the American Civil War on the land of the Arlington Estate that had been confiscated by the federal government from the private ownership of Confederate States Army general Robert E. Lee’s family.  The Arlington Memorial Bridge connects the cemetery with the centre of Washington, D.C.

Iwo Jima Memorial
Iwo Jima Memorial

 

08_Claudia

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Russia in the First World War: New Lines of Research (in Russian)

A collection of reviews and library-research papers prepared in 2013 in collaboration with Irina Glebova and Olga Bolshakova for the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War.  Its materials examine new interpretations and approaches of Russian and foreign historians to the study of World War I and Russia’s role in it.  Special attention is paid to the current lines of research, including the history of empires, new cultural history, the study of memory about World War I.

Due to various reasons, the volume was not printed, its electronic version was posted on the website of our institute: https://legacy.inion.ru/files/File/Russia_in_WW1_SOR_Preprint.pdf

Contents:

  • ‘O iubileinykh perspektivakh i nastoiashchem izdanii’ [The perspectives of the centenary and current volume]
  • I. I. Glebova, ‘V poiskakh utrachennoi voiny: O Pervoi mirovoi v rossiiskoi istorii i pamiati (Predislovie)’ [In search of the lost war: The First World War in Russian history and memory (Preface)]
  • J. Winter, A. Prost, The Great War in History: Debates and Controversies, 1914 to the Present (Abstract)
  • V. M. Shevyrin, ‘Rossiia v Pervoi mirovoi voine (Noveishaia otechestvennaia istoriografiia)’ [Russia in the First World War (Recent Russian historiography)] (Review article)
  • Pervaia mirovaia voina: Vzgliad spustia stoletie: Doklady i vystupleniia uchastnikov mezhdunarodnoi konferentsii ‘Pervaia mirovaia voina i sovremennyi mir’ [The First World War: A view from a century later: Proceedings of the international conference ‘The First World War and the modern world’] (Abstract)
  • P. Gatrell, Russia’s First World War: A Social and Economic History (Abstract)
  • P. Holquist, Making War, Forging Revolution: Russia’s Continuum of Crisis, 1914–1921 (Abstract)
  • M. M. Mints, ‘Vostochnaia Evropa v Pervoi mirovoi voine: Stolknovenie i raspad trekh imperii’ [Eastern Europe in the First World War: The clash and collapse of three empires] (Review article)
  • M. A. Reynolds, Shattering Empires: The Clash and Collapse of the Ottoman and Russian Empires, 1908–1918 (Abstract)
  • J. Sanborn, ‘The Genesis of Russian Warlordism: Violence and Governance During the First World War and the Civil War’ (Abstract)
  • M. M. Mints, ‘Obraz vraga v soznanii russkikh i nemtsev v gody Pervoi mirovoi voiny’ [The image of the enemy in Russian and German thought during the First World War] (Review essay)
  • V. M. Shevyrin, ‘“Vnutrennii vrag” v Rossii v gody Pervoi mirovoi voiny’ [‘The enemy from within’ in Russia during the First World War] (Review essay)
  • B. I. Kolonitskii, ‘Tragicheskaia erotika’: Obrazy imperatorskoi sem’i v gody Pervoi mirovoi voiny [The images of the imperial family during the First World War] (Abstract)
  • A. J. Cohen, Imagining the Unimaginable: World War, Modern Art, and the Politics of Public Culture in Russia, 1914–1917 (Abstract)
  • O. V. Bolshakova, ‘Pervaia mirovaia voina v sovremennoi angloiazychnoi istoriografii Rossii: Gendernyi aspekt’ [The First World War in modern anglophone historiography of Russia: Gender dimension] (Review article)
  • O. S. Nagornaia, ‘Drugoi voennyi opyt’: Rossiiskie voennoplennye Pervoi mirovoi voiny v Germanii (1914–1922) (Abstract)
  • O. V. Babenko, ‘Deiatel’nost’ pol’skikh gumanitarnykh organizatsii na zemliakh Rossiiskoi imperii v gody Pervoi mirovoi voiny’ [The activity of the Polish humanitarian organisations in the Russian Empire during the First World War] (Review essay)
  • A. Sumpf, ‘Une société amputée: Les retours des invalides russes de la Grande Guerre, 1914–1929’ [An amputated society: The homecoming of the Russian invalids of the Great War, 1914–1929] (Abstract)
  • K. Petrone, The Great War in Russian Memory (Abstract)

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Two Articles Comparing the Russian and Western Bibliographical Standards (in Russian)

Here are my two articles comparing the Russian and Western (mainly Anglo-American) bibliographical standards (both in Russian):

They are, in a sense, a byproduct of my work upon The Bibliography of Middle-earth that I styled according to the GOST 7.0.5-2008 standard although bibliographic indices in Russia are most often styled according to GOST 7.0.100-2018.  These two articles are an attempt to give reasons for my choice.

Choosing an Appropriate Style for Bibliographic Indices and Lists: A Comparative Analysis of Russian and Foreign Approaches (in Russian)

Mints M. M. “Vybor oformleniia dlia bibliograficheskogo ukazatelia: Sravnitel’nyi analiz rossiiskikh i zarubezhnykh podkhodov” [Choosing an appropriate style for bibliographic indices and lists: a comparative analysis of Russian and foreign approaches]. In Vzaimovliianie informatsionno-bibliotechnoi sredy i obshchestvennykh nauk: Sbornik materialov nauchnogo seminara [Mutual influence of the information and library environment and of social sciences: Proceedings of a seminar], edited by S. V. Sokolov, 7: 85–99. Moscow: INION RAN, 2025.

The article provides a comparative analysis of the Russian bibliographic standards (GOST R 7.0.100 and GOST R 7.0.5) and of their equals in the English-speaking world as well as of the particularities of their actual use from the viewpoint of styling a bibliographic index or a bibliographic list. This analysis shows that the most appropriate solution for such indices and lists in Russian is a full bibliographic description of each item styled according to GOST R 7.0.5 instead of GOST R 7.0.100 which is most often used in Russia in such cases.

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“Chicago Manual of Style” (Bibliographic References and Bibliographic Indices Presentation in the English-Speaking World) (in Russian)

Mints M. M. “ ‘Chikagskoe rukovodstvo po stiliu’ (bibliograficheskie ssylki i bibliograficheskie ukazateli v angloiazychnykh stranakh)” [Chicago Manual of Style (bibliographic references and bibliographic indices presentation in the English-speaking world)]. Bibliografiia i knigovedenie [Bibliography and bibliology], no. 3 (2023): 107–22.

The article deals with the styling of bibliographical data in the English-speaking world, mainly with the rules of the ISBD and of the Chicago Manual of Style. Special attention is paid to the styling of bibliographic references in scholarly papers and of bibliographic indices. The conceptual framework of Anglo-American bibliographic standards and styles is quite different from their Russian equivalents, including a wide variety of citation styles instead of a single standard, styling bibliographic references according to the common rules of English punctuation and typography, providing full names instead of surname and initials etc. The meaning of the term bibliographic reference in English is wider than in Russian that allows to style bibliographic lists and indices according to the same rules as those used in bibliographic references, in sharp contrast to the Russian practice.

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The Second World War: Contemporary Foreign Historiography (in Russian)

The Second World War: Contemporary Foreign Historiography: a collection of reviews and library-research papersThe collection on the history of World War II has been finally published.  We were going to publish it by last September (80th anniversary of the capitulation of Japan), but actually we only managed to prepare the manuscript by that time, so we received the paper copies in early May—right by the 81st anniversary of the capitulation of Germany.

The volume covers only non-Russian historiography of the Second World War because foreign publications are still quite hard to access in Russia.  Mostly these are papers on political, economical and social history; we almost didn’t consider the warfare history.  The materials of the collection cover not only the Eastern Front, but also the other theatres of World War II (Western and Southern Europe, South-East Asia), some papers deal with the situation in neutral countries.

Contents:

  • Preface
  • J. Eckel, ‘Pivot years: World War II in 20th-century history’ (Abstract)
  • G. Golub, ‘The eagle and the lion: reassessing Anglo-American strategic planning and the foundations of U. S. grand strategy for World War II’ (Abstract)
  • A. Holmila, ‘Parliament and the press: forging the United Nations in wartime Britain, 1939–45’ (Abstract)
  • R. I. Guzaerov, ‘Turtsiia i Velikobritaniia vo Vtoroi mirovoi voine’ [Turkey and Great Britain in World War II] (Review article)
  • O. V. Babenko, ‘Sovetsko-pol’skie otnosheniia 1939–1945 gg. (po materialam zhurnala Przegląd Wschodnioeuropejski 2022–2024 gg.)’ [The Soviet–Polish relations in 1939–45 (based on 2022–24 materials of Przegląd Wschodnioeuropejski)] (Review article)
  • M. H. Folly, ‘ “They treat us with scant respect”: prejudice and pride in British Military Liaison with the Soviet Union in the Second World War’ (Abstract)
  • T. Piffer, The Big Three Allies and the European Resistance: intelligence, politics, and the origins of the Cold War, 1939–1945 (Abstract)
  • M. Fritsche, ‘Spaces of encounter: relations between the occupier and the occupied in Norway during the Second World War’ (Abstract)
  • P. Fonzi, Oltre i confini: le occupazioni italiane durante la Seconda guerra mondiale (1939–1943) [Beyond the borders: Italian occupation during the Second World War (1939–1943)] (Abstract)
  • A. J. Rieber, Storms over the Balkans during the Second World War (Abstract)
  • G. Huff, World War II and Southeast Asia: economy and society under Japanese occupation (Abstract)
  • D. V. Petrukhina, review of A. Pomiecko, ‘ “It is never too late to fight for one’s family and nation”: attempts at “Belarusifying” soldiers in German-sponsored armed formations, 1941–1944’
  • S. G. Holtsmark, ‘Improvised liberation, October 1944: the Petsamo–Kirkenes Operation and the Red Army in Norway’ (Joint abstract)
  • Iu. V. Dunaeva, review of J. K. Hass, Wartime suffering and survival: the human condition under siege in the Blockade of Leningrad, 1941–1944
  • N. Belsky, Evacuee encounters on the Soviet home front during the Second World War (Abstract)
  • A. V. Apanasenok, ‘Kak “chuzhaia” voina stala “svoei” ’ [How the ‘someone else’s’ war became ‘ours’]: Review of V. Davis, Central Asia in World War Two: the impact and legacy of fighting for the Soviet Union
  • J. Rodgers, ‘A single wooden house standing in Stalingrad: Alexander Werth’s “Russian Commentary” on the BBC during the Second World War’ (Abstract)
  • N. Eaton, German blood, Slavic soil: how Nazi Königsberg became Soviet Kaliningrad (Abstract)
  • K. T. Hall, ‘The flyer trials: seeking justice for Lynchjustiz committed against American airmen during the Second World War’ (Abstract)
  • D. A. Harrisville, The virtuous Wehrmacht: crafting the myth of the German soldier on the Eastern Front, 1941–1944 (Abstract)
  • M. M. Mints, ‘Evrei vo Vtoroi mirovoi voine’ [Jews in the Second World War] (Review article)
  • D. C. Clary, The lost scientists of World War II (Article)
  • T. Dedering, ‘German “enemy aliens” in internment camps in South Africa in the Second World War’ (Abstract)
  • G. Papalia, ‘The Italian “Fifth Column” in Australia: Fascist propaganda, Italian-Australians and internment’ (Abstract)
  • Tzung-Ruei Tsou, ‘Schooling in camp: incarceration camps and the Japanese American school experience during World War II’ (Abstract)
  • M. Oprel, ‘Categorisation. Classification. Confiscation: dealing with enemy citizens in the Netherlands in the aftermath of World War II (1944–1967)’ (Abstract)
  • O. V. Bol’shakova, ‘Zhenshchiny vo Vtoroi mirovoi voine: sovremennaia zarubezhnaia istoriografiia’ [Women in World War II: contemporary foreign historiography] (Review article)
  • U. Khaitan, ‘Women beneath the surface: coal and the colonial state in India during the Second World War’ (Abstract)
  • O. Ayers, ‘Jim Crow and John Bull in London: transatlantic encounters with race and nation in the Second World War’ (Abstract)
  • C. O’Connell, ‘A Roman Holiday? African Americans and Italians in the Second World War’ (Abstract)
  • J. P. Smith, ‘Race and hospitality: Allied troops of colour on the South African home front during the Second World War’ (Abstract)
  • D. Littlewood, ‘Conscription in Britain, New Zealand, Australia and Canada during the Second World War’ (Abstract)
  • P. Iacobelli, ‘Japan’s intelligence network in Chile during the Second World War’ (Abstract)
  • N. Glover, K. Arnberg and F. Cottrell-Sundevall, ‘The making of consumer patriotism: mobilizing Christmas in Sweden during the Second World War’ (Abstract)
  • Bibliography
  • Contributors

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Special Aspects of the Study of Imaginary Worlds, Through the Example of Fiction by J. R. R. Tolkien (in Russian)

Mints M. M. “Osobennosti izucheniia voobrazhaemoi real’nosti na primere proizvedenii Dzh. R. R. Tolkina” [Special aspects of the study of imaginary worlds, through the example of fiction by J. R. R. Tolkien]. Vestnik kul’turologii [Herald of culturology], no. 1 (2026): 182–97.

The article deals with a number of theoretical and methodological issues related to the study of J. R. R. Tolkien’s fictional universe as an imaginary world. The author concentrates mainly on particularities of the primary sources, their classification, various kinds of internal authorship, interrelations between certain groups of Tolkien’s works. Tolkien’s own views on the nature of creative work are also considered.

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The Centenary of the USSR: Contemporary Historiography (in Russian)

The collection on historiography of the Soviet period published in 2024.  It covers both Russian and foreign historiography.  The materials of the volume analyze various issues relating to the establishment of the Soviet Union, its political system, national policy, economy, culture, science and education.

Contents:

  • Preface
  • F. Asschenfeldt and M. Trecker, “From Ludendorff to Lenin? World War I and the origins of Soviet economic planning” (Abstract)
  • A. Willimott, “Time at home: the October Revolution and Soviet temporalities” (Abstract)
  • J. D. White, “Leon Trotsky and Soviet historiography of the Russian Revolution (1918–1931)” (Abstract)
  • P. Dukes, “The Russian Revolution in The Encyclopaedia Britannica” (Abstract)
  • V. P. Liubin, review of XV Plekhanovskie chteniia: Sovetskii Soiuz v geopoliticheskikh usloviiakh 1927–1941 gg.: Problemy, tseli i rezul’taty v oblasti vnutrennego i vneshnepoliticheskogo kursov stroitel’stva gosudarstva: Materialy mezhdunarodnoi konferentsii, 23–25 sentiabria 2022 g. [The XV Plekhanov Readings: The Soviet Union in the geopolitical conditions of 1927–1941: Problems, aims, and results of internal and foreign policy in state building: Proceedings of the international academic conference, 23–25 September 2022]
  • A. V. Apanasenok, “Kak bezbozhie popytalos’ stat’ religiei [How the atheism tried to become a religion]”: Review of A Sacred Space Is Never Empty: A History of Soviet Atheism, by Victoria Smolkin
  • M. Battis, “On common ground: Soviet nationalities policy and the Austro-Marxist premise” (Abstract)
  • D. V. Petrukhina, “Natsional’no-kul’turnaia politika BSSR v 1920-e gody: Probleny i znachenie [National and cultural policy of the Belorussian Soviet Socialist Republic in the 1920s: Problems and significance]” (Review article)
  • O. V. Babenko, “Novye zarubezhnye publikatsii o sovetsko-pol’skikh otnosheniiakh mezhvoennogo perioda (2022–2023) [New foreign publications on Soviet–Polish relations in the interwar period (2022–2023)] (Review article)
  • E. N. Emel’ianova, “SSSR i Afrika v 1920-e—1930-e gody: zarubezhnaia i rossiiskaia istoriografiia [The Soviet Union and Africa in the 1920s—1930s: Russian and foreign historiography]” (Review article)
  • J. L. Mickenberg, American Girls in Red Russia: Chasing the Soviet Dream (Abstract)
  • M. M. Mints, “Sovetskii Soiuz vo Vtoroi mirovoi voine: za predelami istorii boevykh deistvii [The Soviet Union in the Second World War: beyond the history of military operations]” (Review article)
  • O. V. Babenko, “Deiatel’nost’ frontovykh khudozhestvennykh brigad i teatrov v gody Velikoi Otechestvennoi voiny [Concerts and theatrical performances at the front in the years of the Great Patriotic War]” (Review article)
  • “Sovetskaia drevnost’ ”: liudi, uchrezhdeniia, knigi i nauka o drevnosti v SSSR [“Soviet antiquity”: people, organizations, books and scholarship on antiquity in the Soviet Union] (Abstract)
  • K. Świder, “Ekonomiczne przyczyny i mechanizmy rozpadu Związku Radzieckiego [Economical causes and mechanisms of the collapse of the Soviet Union] (Abstract)
  • Ch. J. Sullivan, Motherland: Soviet nostalgia in the Russian Federation (Abstract)
  • About the Authors

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The Bibliography of Middle-earth, English version

The Bibliography of Middle-earth, cover imageThe English version of my bibliography on Tolkien has been finally published. It covers both writings by Tolkien himself (including drafts published posthumously) and secondary sources including research papers, non-fiction literature and reference works, mainly in English, but also in Russian, French, German, Italian, and Ukrainian. The bibliography contains a total of about 2,600 references. The list of writings by Tolkien is accompanied by an overview article describing the main components of his creative legacy. References to publications in Russian are provided with annotations in English.

I hope paper copies will become available, sooner or later. Electronic version may be downloaded here. Hyperlinks should be clickable in a browser, but, strangely, may not function properly in PDF viewers.