As bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church, metropolitan eparchs had to travel to distant parishes that were under their supervision. The author studied reports published in archival diocesan bulletins to identify the tasks they faced during their official visits and how they resolved them. The eparchs checked the condition of parish churches, revised clerical documents, and talked to parish clergy suspected of inappropriate lifestyle. Siberian dioceses had their regional specifics, and the eparchs had to supervise the church development in colonized areas, counteract schismatic sectarianism, and encourage missionary activities among the indigenous population. However, the most important task was to assess the religious and moral state of parishioners and to support them. To obtain an objective picture, the eparchs visited remote, sparsely populated villages. According to their early reports, most parishioners treated the faith and the church with due respect. At the turn of the XIX–XX centuries, however, some parishioners were reported to skip confession. In small villages, both children and adults could not recite a simple prayer and failed to name the most basic canons of Christian Orthodoxy. In some villages, people showed complete indifference to the arrival of the eparch and demonstrated various vices. To exert moral influence on the parishioners, the eparchs held church services, distributed religious paraphernalia and literature, organized sermons, gave edifying and enlightening speeches, etc. 

The Ural-Kuznetsk industrial complex received an additional development impulse during the Great Patriotic War, which, in its turn, triggered a fundamental technical reconstruction and electrification of the railway transport in the Urals and Siberia. The General Plan for the Electrification of Railways (February 3, 1956), adopted by the Council of Ministers of the USSR, presupposed a gradual electrification of the entire main line, from the center of the country through the Urals and Siberia to the Far East. It was the first comprehensive reform of the entire national transport system. The article describes the economic efficiency of transport services of the largest industrial complex in Western Siberia. Despite the radical technical reconstruction of the transport links in the Urals and Siberia, the economic efficiency of the modernization processes on the Sverdlovsk Railway declined as the transportation between the Urals and Siberia intensified in the 1950s–1980s. While determining the role of electrification in the transport modernization in the Urals and Siberia, the author revealed the factors that inhibited the modernization processes and summarized the economic results for the industrial development in these regions. The modernization of railway transport was identified as a fundamental technical and economic renewal of railway transport based on electrification, diesel locomotive traction, and the construction of new lines. The railway electrification in the Urals and Siberia became the basis for scientific and technical progress in the local transport systems and resulted in a threefold increase in their efficiency, intensifying the freight transportation between the largest economic regions. However, the systematic reduction of state investment in the railway industry and inadequate economic distribution of labor forces reduced the economic efficiency of transport, gradually turning it into a lagging sector of the state economy. 

Kuzbass was one of the main Russia’s industrial centers during World War II. The local coal industry had to be totally restructured, but the role of the Soviet Party leadership in that process remains understudied. The article traces the evolution of the views of domestic historians on the role of the party and Soviet leadership in the restructuring of the Kuznetsk coal industry during the Great Patriotic War. By applying the periodization, problem-chronological, and comparative-historical methods to reliable historiographic sources, the author revealed the influence of the public administration on the local coal mining and periodized the organizational changes in the Kuzbass coal mining during the war. The pre-war studies focused on the peripheral location and were primarily of a statistical nature: in the 1920–1930s, Kuzbass was far from being a major coal mining center. The 1940s saw an increase in publications about Kuzbass due to its significance for the Soviet rear. However, these works were mostly applied research because the country needed to mobilize its entire resource base, and all coal mining studies had a practical aim. In the 1950s, the number of publications declined only to go up in the 1960s, when the emphasis shifted to the importance of political governance in the region during the war. In the postSoviet and modern period, the study of military mining restructuration became more popular, many authors turning to the role of political power in the matter. Today, as new archival materials become more available, the problem acquires new aspects. The following issues, however, still remain beyond the scope of scientific interest: the state management of the Kuzbass coal industry during the Great Patriotic War, the interaction between the regional and central government bodies, the logistical support for mines, the restructuring of miming management, etc. 

In Soviet Russia, collecting was institutionalized as an intellectual and leisure hobby in 1922. It was free of the material practices and meanings that linked it with the bourgeoisie and pursued a purely pragmatic goal of state budget replenishment. The utopian idealism filled this hobby with special values and meanings, turning it into an instrument of socialization. In fact, it had an obvious economic component as a source of state budget replenishment and an investment tool. The evolution of the institute of Soviet popular collecting started in the 1920s and continued through the mid-1930s, from the establishment of the All-Russian Philatelic Society in 1922 to its abolition in 1934. The article introduces a reconstruction of the economic meanings and practices behind the Soviet philately as it sought to get rid of all material value connotations. The author applied the approach formulated by K. Mannheim in his Ideology and Utopia to periodicals and archival materials from the State Archives of the Russian Federation. Even children’s stories about philately revealed certain economic markers that contradicted the official ideological guidelines popularized by the Soviet Collector magazine (1922-1932). The institutional language of the magazine reflected its status as an ideological agent. The derogatory meanings and practices of bourgeois philately implicitly permeated Soviet collecting, starting from its institutionalization and extrapolating these practices and narratives into the future. 

The Communist Party remains one of the leading political powers in the Russian Federation. However, it went through a major ideological evolution in 1993–2022. The article introduces a comprehensive historical analysis of the 30 years of post-Soviet Communist ideology in Russia reflected in the views of Communist leaders on the main doctrinal issues in the changing historical context. The author combined historical-genetic and comparative methods to trace the stages of these ideological changes as a historical sequence, as well as to link them with the political transformations. The comparative method made it possible to see the differences between the ideological and political contexts in the 1990s and 2020s. The Communist Party of the Russian Federation appeared during a deep crisis of Communist ideology. As a result, the party became as a synthetic entity that combined traditional communist values with elements of national patriotic discourse. In the 1990s, it emerged as the leading opposition to Yeltsin’s regime. At the turn of the 1990s–2000s, its ideology shifted from classical Marxism-Leninism to a synthesis of leftist and patriotic ideas, i.e., from internationalism to statehood, from atheism to recognition of traditional religions, etc. In the 2000s, the Communist Party integrated the regime of managed democracy as a systemic opposition. The 2010s–2020s saw a further erosion of the communist identity: as the national-patriotic and conservative tendencies kept increasing, the party abandoned any attempts to change the socio-economic system. Currently, the Communist Party is going through a contradiction between radical rhetoric and conformist practice. Historically, the Communist movement always found it very difficult to adapt to market economy and political pluralism. 

Although historical education is now a national priority, the regional experience of its development on the island of Sakhalin remains understudied. The Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk State Institute of Teachers’ Training was the first higher education institution on Sakhalin. Eventually, it became the Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk State Pedagogical Institute, which, in its turn, was transformed into the Sakhalin State University. The article traces its experience in training history teachers. Based on the concept of modernization as part of higher education reforms, the author analyzed regulatory legal acts and documents stored in regional, departmental, industrial, and personal archives. The research yielded a periodization of the 75-year history of historical and pedagogical education in the Sakhalin Region, based on modernization processes, social transformations, and state reforms in the field of higher education. The peculiarities, problems, and prospects for the historical and pedagogical education in the Sakhalin Region depend on its status as a sparsely populated frontier territory of resource nature. These factors triggered a strong outmigration in the early 1990s. The recent reforms of the higher education system also caused major damage to the local university and historical faculty members. However, the growing prestige of historical and pedagogical education may yet improve the state of affairs for the local academia and school teachers. 

The article traces the history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Russian Far East to identify its role in the local social, cultural, and religious landscape in 1990s–2004. Based on an extensive source base, the authors distinguished two periods of Mormon preaching in the region: from the earliest religious associations in the largest Far-Eastern cities to the adoption of the Federal Law On Freedom of Conscience and Religious Associations, and from the peak of followers to 2004. The Mormons moved from north to south, i.e., to the urban centers of the Far-Eastern frontier. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints became an important factor in the local sociocultural environment due to its democratic nature, charity activities, and the ascetic life of its missionaries. In addition, the Church authorities were always eager to cooperate with the local and central governments. 

The Allied occupation of Germany after World War II remains a popular research topic. In the democratization of German society, the crucial role belonged to youth policy. The article describes youth organizations organized by the Soviet military administration in the Soviet occupation zone of Germany. The authors applied systemic, historical, analytical, and comparative methods to archival documents in order to identify the strategies that the Soviet military administration used to build a system of youth organizations in post-war Germany. Youth work was a challenge for the occupation authorities. On March 7, 1946, the Soviet military administration created the Free German Youth as an anti-fascist organization that united young people from all social strata. The Free German Youth was responsible for the democratic denazification of young Germans and facilitated the economic recovery of the country. It fell under the influence of the Socialist United Party of Germany (1946) and excluded representatives of other parties from its leadership. As a result, the Free German Youth became an agent of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany. 

Capitalism first emerged in the Middle Ages against the backdrop of social and cultural innovations that may change the traditional concept of the Middle Ages as a period of pure feudalism. These innovations were global in nature and reflected the mutual influence of Western and Eastern civilizations. They also manifested a certain continuity with Classical European culture and society. The article introduces the term of Early Modernity to describe these phenomena and trends. The historiographic analysis focused on foreign and domestic studies published in 1970–2024. The ideas, institutions, and practices of early modernity found their reflection in the theories of transitional society, modernization, and proto-industrialization, as well as in the studies that covered the trade revolution of XII–XIII centuries. The new temporality and space arrangement of the global Middle Ages appeared in the images of a single Afro-Eurasia and the Post-Classical Period. As the status of medieval technologies, knowledge systems, and ideas about the world increased, it yielded the concept of global technological and cultural rise in the XI–XIII centuries. Such expanded interpretation of the Middle Ages and genesis of capitalism caused a critical reaction from medievalists. While acknowledging the shortcomings of the standard approach to Western European feudalism, they stick to the key criteria in defining the classical Middle Ages and the feudal revolution. However, macrohistorical studies seriously consider the world-system perspective and the context of global history. 

A Nosa Terra was the major newspaper and the ideological mouthpiece of Galician political, cultural, and ethnic nationalism in the mid-1910s and 1920s. The principles of interdisciplinary historiography made it possible to analyze Galician nationalism as a social, intellectual, political, or cultural phenomenon, i.e., the history of Galician nationalistic ideology as a factor in the local intellectual history. Galician nationalists had a great impact on the subsequent period radicalization of nationalism. The article covers the following issues: 1) the main points in the history of nationalism from mid-1910s through 1920s, 2) the role of intellectuals in the development and transformation of Galician nationalism, 3) the political program proposed by nationalist activists, 4) the ideological concepts and constructs coined by nationalist intellectuals for the development of Galician ethnicity, language, and culture, 5) the role of nationalistic ideological concepts in the general history of Galician nationalism. The ideological activities of Galician nationalists in the mid-1910s–1920s became an important stage in the intellectual history of nationalism in Galicia, predetermining its future development to the moment when Spanish Francoism marginalized all regional nationalisms, including Galician. 

The article contains a systematic in-depth examination of key approaches to the concept of Vikings in historical science with a focus on its origin and evolution. Scandinavian historical studies and linguistics know the etymological, historical, and cultural approaches to Vikings as a term and a concept. The historicalgenetic, comparative-historical, and content-analytical research methods made it possible to reveal its etymology and diachronic concept signs. Both foreign and domestic historiography, as well as Scandinavian and Icelandic historical sources, prove that the etymological approach alone cannot provide a full understanding of this concept because it had a different semantics in the Viking age. Only in sagas did it acquire its key features of seafarers, looters, gangs, etc. These features correspond to the historical approach to the concept. The Scandinavian nationbuilding process in the 19th century blurred the line between the historical and cultural approaches: the term Vikings started to be applied to all peoples of Scandinavian origin engaged in trade, colonization, and looting. Today, most researchers use it as an umbrella term for all Scandinavians of the VIII–XI centuries. 

After a 14-year gap, the UK’s Labor government needs to re-establish its post-Brexit ties with the European Union. The author seeks to interpret the early steps made by Prime Minister Keir Starmer in this direction, as well as to understand the internal and external factors that affect the current British foreign policy. To improve its relations with Brussels, the British government intends to reset them, which implies close cooperation in some areas. The article outlines the priority tasks, red lines, and unresolved issues for each side. Relying on the principles of historicism and objectivism, the author used the comparative-historical and problem-chronological methods to explain particular events, actions, meetings, and agreements as part of the reset. The Global Britain strategy depends on global political processes, with a number of objective and subjective factors contributing to the rapprochement of the two sides. For the United Kingdom, the reset of its relations with the European Union is currently more important than improving its special relationship with the United States. 

Ukraine’s post-Soviet foreign policy in the Caspian region is reflected in doctrines, bilateral and multilateral agreements, and statutory documents, as well as in the actual steps performed by the country in this direction in 1991–2024. The article describes various aspects of the Caspian vector, e.g., regional priorities, local and international institutions, and areas of interaction (energy, logistics, etc.). The authors combined the principles of historicism and objectivity with the middle range theory and Stephen Krasner’s regime theory to conduct a comparative historical and chronological study of political documents and actual results. Ukraine could have become a link between the entire Caspian region or some of its states and the rest of the world, thus catalyzing the development of a prosperous Black Sea-Caspian region. However, it either missed these opportunities or failed to implement them. The reasons included poorly strategized foreign policy, when the country dispersed its limited resources on a multi-vector course, replacing its actual interests with abstract slogans about the European choice while choosing political conjuncture over long-term prospects. 

Amid the ongoing qualitative transformation of the international system, the leaders of the European Union go beyond day-to-day political agenda, attempting to describe the emerging global geopolitical landscape. The article explores the vision of the contemporary world order and the EU’s role in it as released by its officials. The analysis of the EU’s official discourse provides insight into the ideas that shape Brussels’ policy of adaptation to the changing environment, and allows to identify the theory that best explains the EU’s foreign policy trajectory. Methodologically the article is based on statements made by senior EU officials in 2023-2024, e.g., High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell, President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, etc. In describing the world as multipolar, EU leaders attend to different aspects of today's multipolarity. The analysis shows that systemic geopolitical pressure exerts significant impact on the EU’s foreign policy and positioning, therefore purely endogenous approaches are insufficient for a comprehensive study of the Union’s actorness. The discourse combines elements of realist and normative logics. On the one hand, Brussels address the balance of power and various dimensions of security. On the other hand, it projects common values, multilateralism, and partnership. Debates about the EU’s actorness seem more fruitful if they imply convergence of different theories: deep understanding of global dynamic and intra-European specifics, as well as normative and strategic behavioral logics. 

The article traces the development of indexes in the socio-economic and political spheres since 1995, i.e., Human Development Index, Index of Economic Freedom, Democracy Index, and Doing Business Index. The indexes are means of soft power that shape the image of states by determining their resourcefulness. The authors focused on the earliest foreign resource potential ratings, their transformation over time, and relevance for Russian policy. The methods of problem-historical approach, comparative analysis, synthesis, and qualitative content analysis revealed the level of political and economic freedom as the major idea behind the index system and the agencies that develop them. However, the commitment of these agencies to the dominant neoliberal paradigm makes them biased, manifesting itself both in the rating results and its criteria. The Western economic metrics seem to rely on the doubtful libertarian thesis about the correlation between democracy and economic well-being. Their methodology is inaccurate and unobjective, which leads to lobbying or data manipulation caused by affiliation or direct dependence on particular beneficiaries.