The Great Fatherland War in Contemporary Historiography (in Russian)

Michael

My collection of abstracts published in 2015.  One of the first books printed at my Institute after the fire.  Initially we were going to show the current situation in historiography, but so many publications have appeared in recent years that we had to limit our work to a relatively small set of the most interesting books standing out for their subjects or research methods. As a result, most of materials in the collection are based on works of Western historians who still much more often use various methodological innovations than their Russian colleagues. Yet there are also abstracts of several Russian books that deal with some insufficiently explored aspects of the history of the Soviet Union in the Second World War. We used almost no works on history of military operations or of the Red Army as, in spite of their importance, they are not so interesting from the viewpoint of methodology. Instead, we devoted special attention to publications that deal with ‘non-military’ subjects and investigate a human dimension of the Second World War, its long-term consequences and historical context.

The contents of the abstract collection:

  • Foreword
  • Preddverie i nachalo Velikoi Otechestvennoi voiny: Problemy sovremennoi istoriografii i istochnikovedeniia [The eve and the beginning of the Great Fatherland War: Problems of recent historiography and source criticism] (Abstract)
  • David M. Glantz about the Red Army in World War II (Joint abstract)
  • A. B. Orishev, V avguste 1941 [In August 1941] (Abstract)
  • The Blockade of Leningrad (Joint abstract)
  • Karel C. Berkhoff, Motherland in Danger: Soviet Propaganda during World War II (Abstract)
  • D. D. Frolov, Sovetsko-finskii plen, 1939–1944: Po obe storony koliuchei provoloki [Soviet-Finnish Captivity, 1939–1944: On Either Side of the Barbed Wire] (Abstract)
  • Jörn Hasenclever, Wehrmacht und Besatzungspolitik in der Sowjetunion: Die Befehlshaber der rückwärtigen Heeresgebiete, 1941–1943 [Wehrmacht and the Occupation Policy in the Soviet Union: The Commanders of the Army Groups’ Back Areas] (Abstract)
  • Igor’ G. Ermolov, Tri goda bez Stalina: Okkupatsiia: Sovetskie grazhdane mezhdu natsistami i bol’shevikami, 1941–1944 [Three years without Stalin: Occupation: The Soviet citizens between the Nazis and the Bolsheviks, 1941–1944] (Abstract)
  • Bogdan Musial, Sowjetische Partisanen, 1941–1944: Mythos und Wirklichkeit [The Soviet partisans, 1941–1944: Myths and Reality] (Abstract)
  • Evacuation and the Rear (Joint abstract)
  • V. N. Krasnov, I. V. Krasnov, Lend-liz dl’a SSSR, 1941–1945 [Lend-lease for the USSR, 1941–1945] (Abstract)
  • Irina V. Bystrova, Potselui cherez okean: ‘Bol’shaia troika’ v svete lichnykh kontaktov (1941–1945 gg.) [A kiss across the ocean: the Big Three in the light of personal contacts, 1941–45] (Abstract)
  • Anna Krylova, Soviet Women in Combat: A History of Violence on the Eastern Front (Abstract)
  • Soviet Jews in the Years of War and Holocaust (Joint abstract)
  • A. Iu. Bezugol’nyi, N. F. Bugai, E. F. Krinko, Gortsy Severnogo Kavkaza v Velikoi Otechestvennoi voine 1941–1945: problemy istorii, istoriografii i istochnikovedeniia [Mountain-dwellers of the Northern Caucasus in the Great Fatherland War 1941–1945: problems of history, historiography and source criticism] (Abstract)
  • Warlands: Population Resettlement and State Reconstruction in the Soviet–East European Borderlands, 1945–50, ed. Peter Gatrell and Nick Baron (Abstract)
  • The Veterans of World War II in the Soviet Union (Joint abstract)
  • The Significance of World War II for the History of the Soviet Union and the Post-Soviet States (Joint abstract)
  • Notes on Contributors

Download the full text (PDF, 3,4 Mb, in Russian).

Klingle Road—a ruined street in Washington, D.C.

Michael

Klingle Road is a small street in Washington, D.C., just near Macomb Street where I lived in 2012–13.  By now, it has been already repaired and transformed into a walking root, but eight years ago it was out of use and even closed to motor traffic.  The cause was that the main part of the road lies in a ravine, so that it used to be flooded by water and mud from the slopes after every heavy rain.  At the same time there are no houses at Klingle Road itself, all the nearest buildings look to other streets.  If I hadn’t been shown this street at the beginning of my stay in Washington, I would probably haven’t even noticed it at all.  The street is not too long, surrounded by nice and comfortable residential areas.  Its eastern end leads to Washington Zoo.  To see such a ‘secret’ small area of desolation at the heart of a big city was especially surprising.

Klingle Road
On 26 January 2013 I finally managed to take a photo of snow in Washington.  The previous days, it fell in the morning and melted away while I was having breakfast 😉

Continue reading →

A Centenary of 1917 Revolutions and the Russian Historiography (Review article)

Michael

M. M. Mints, ‘Stoletie revoliutsii 1917 goda i rossiiskaia istoricheskaia nauka (Obzor)’, in Rossievedenie: v poiskakh utrachennogo vremeni [Russian studies: In search for the lost time], ed. by I. I. Glebova (Moscow, 2019), 180–209.

Download the full text (PDF, in Russian).

The review article deals with the Russian monographs and collections of articles published in 2017 and timed to the centenary of the Russian revolutions of 1917.  These works cover quite a wide range of subjects including the institutional dimension of the revolution (constitutional law, history of politics, local governance), history of political leadership, revolutionary process in the province, role of the army and the navy in the events under review, etc.

As a whole, Russian research papers devoted to the anniversary of the 1917 revolutions make mixed impressions.  On the one hand, it is obvious that the investigation of the issues mentioned above is going on, the historians use new methodological approaches and new sources that have only recently become available.  New subjects are coming under review which were understudied or not studied at all in Soviet years.  On the other hand, many works are purely descriptive, without any real analysis.  Some authors replace such an analysis with blaming the Russian liberals for the collapse of the empire or even with conspiracy theories (the revolution as an anti-government plot).  Most of the works analysed in the article only deal with certain aspects of the history of the revolution, an overall study of those events remains a matter for the future.

Alexandria, Virginia

Michael

American town of Alexandria, Virginia, is one of the oldest towns in the country, founded in mid-eighteenth century, and the first settlements of European colonists emerged there already in late seventeenth century.  The town is near Washington, on the opposite bank of the Potomac River.  In 1791, Alexandria was included in the newly established District of Columbia, but in 1846 the federal government returned it to the State of Virginia.  The town in quite nice, with old streets and neighborhoods, so you certainly ought to see it if you ever come to Washington.

I was in Alexandria twice—in 2012 and in 2017.  The pictures below are made in 2012, when I was there together with Claudia Galloppa. It was in October, in the midst of autumn, on the eve of Halloween and of the presidential elections 😉

DSC_0267_01

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DSC_0283 Continue reading →

About the New Constitutional Amendments

Michael

I don’t support the latest amendments to the Constitution of the Russian Federation that allow Vladimir Putin to remain President until his death.  I don’t hope the official results of the ‘unique nation-wide voting’ will be relevant, current regulations for that voting provide the electoral boards with unprecedented opportunities for falsifications.  But at least I still can express my position publicly.  It’s time for Putin to retire.  And it has been time to for many years 😉

Vector Map of Númenor

Michael

NumenorWhile working at the maps for my friend’s book, I’ve also made a ‘canonical’ vector map of Númenor. Here it is, on the chance that it’s useful for someone else as well.

Download the file

The map is in SVG format, multilayered, geographical names in Russian and in English are in different layers. I used Inkscape 0.92 to draw the map, Century Schoolbook L font is used for the names. The map is based on the original map by Tolkien from Unfinished Tales rotated so that the North is strictly at the top, and on the map by Karen Wynn Fonstad. The aesthetics of the map is similar to the map of the Westlands by Chris Taylor.

Particularities of Study of Arda as an Invented World: Theory and Methodology

Michael

Mints M. (Amdir), ‘Osobennosti izucheniia Ardy kak vymyshlennogo mira: voprosy teorii i metodologii’, Palantir, no. 80 (2020): 25–42.

The article (in Russian) deals with main questions of theory and methodology of Tolkien studies, including the object of research, the nature of (sub)creative legacy of J. R. R. Tolkien, world of Arda as a separate imaginative work, texts and pictures by Tolkien as primary sources, ‘external’ and ‘internal’ history of Arda, Tolkien studies as a field of interdisciplinary research etc. The text is revised and extended according to the results of its discussion at VesCon-2019 (Moscow annual Tolkien festival) and to the suggestions of the editorial board of Palantir. I’m grateful to everyone who took part in the discussion for their additional useful ideas, as well as to Arthoron who finally made me finish this (nine-years old!) work 😉

Text of the article

Archive of the journal (at the website of the Tolkien Society of Saint-Petersburg)

This work is important for me for personal reasons as well. While being a post-graduate, and for the first years after the end of my term, I had a terrible stage fright, and it was at Major Tolkien Seminar in Saint-Petersburg in 2010 where I made my first report on theory and methodology that I was surprised to feel the fright had disappeared 🙂

Geography of the South and East of Middle-Earth

Michael

Godkin D. (Arthoron), Mints M. (Amdir), ‘Geografiia Iuga i Vostoka Sredizem’ia’, Palantir, no. 74 (2017): 21–33.

The article (in Russian) is a revised version of a report Arthoron and I made at the Minor Tolkien Seminar in Saint-Petersburg in 2016.  We tried, using the small pieces of information from numerous sources, to reconstruct the map of the world of Middle-earth as a whole, to represent the Westlands on it in proper place and scale, as well as (as far as possible) other geographical objects ‘outside the map’ of the Westlands ever mentioned in original texts and maps by J. R. R. Tolkien.

Text of the article (PDF, 2.5 Mb)

Archive of the journal (at the website of the Tolkien Society of Saint-Petersburg)