This article examines information derived from the 11th-century Chinese historical chronicle “Zizhi Tongjian” (資治通鑑) concerning a Xianbei (proto-Mongolian) polity known as Tuyuhun, which existed from the early 4th century until 663 in the northeastern region of Tibet near Lake Kukunor (Qinghai). This work enhances the author’s monograph titled “History of Tuyuhun (Kukunor Xianbei’s Tuyuhun)”, published in 2023. It provides valuable supplementary details to dynastic histories, providing unique data and, most importantly, numerous dates pertaining to Tuyuhun’s history that are omitted in other sources. The analysis of this data facilitates corrections to specific episodes within Tuyuhun’s historical narrative and allows for a significant extension of its chronological framework.

This article is part of a series exploring the role of the rulers of the Liao Empire (907–1125) in its history. It concentrates on the reign of the seventh Liao emperor, Emperor Xingzong (1031–1055). Using medieval Khitan and Chinese historical texts, the article reconstructs his life and political career. Special focus is given to the empire’s foreign policy under Xingzong, particularly Khitan-Chinese and Khitan-Tangut relations, as well as to domestic reforms. The examination of these sources shows that, despite East Asia’s volatile geopolitical climate marked by the rise of the Song Empire and the emergence of Western Xia under Tangut rule, the emperor managed to adopt a balanced policy and maintain the empire’s state-building efforts.

The research employs a comparative study methodology to explore ideas of war and weaponry depicted in Altai historical legends. It defines key military concepts within folklore tradition and interprets Altai terms for weapons by utilizing data from weapon science and written sources. The author provides evidence of the widespread availability of various calibers of firearms among the Altaians, including after the fall of the Dzungarian state. Furthermore, the article describes the practice of shooting duels. Through a comprehensive analysis of folklore, historical records, and geological data, the study clarifies the locations and methods related to gunpowder production. Additionally, a new hypothesis regarding the origin of the legend of the “impenetrable armor” is proposed, along with an examination of various fortifications adapted to mountainous terrain. The study also examines different fortifications designed for mountainous regions. Lastly, the study identifies parallels in the status of military personnel in both modern Altai and medieval Tibetan traditions.

The article examines the destruction of the German Embassy building, a notably conspicuous yet understudied episode of urban violence at the outset of the First World War. It reconstructs the sequence of events and analyzes the rhetoric employed by various contemporary actors to interpret and assess the incident. The findings demonstrate that significant risks constrained attempts to manipulate patriotic discourse, as authorities recognized that patriotic outrage could not be entirely controlled. Within the complex context of the nascent global conflict, protest could evolve into expressions of loyalty, while displays of loyalty had the potential to transform into destructive acts of aggression.

This paper reconstructs the personal strategy of Nikolai Petrovich Petrov’s struggle to restore his voting rights, which he was deprived of in 1926 due to his pre-revolutionary service in police and penal institutions. Through the case study, the article analyzes the emotional perception of socio-legal discrimination experienced by a “lishenets” (a disenfranchised individual). The research concludes that Petrov not only did not deny his past activities — which served as the basis for his disenfranchisement — but sought to reinterpret them within the context of advocating for the interests of the working people. In an effort to demonstrate loyalty and facilitate the restoration of his rights, Petrov employed political mimicry strategies: he referenced authoritative figures, utilized propaganda terminology, and integrated his biography into the broader narrative of post-revolutionary societal transformation. A significant aspect of Petrov’s argumentation involves appealing to the sentiments of the electoral commission members and critiquing the bureaucratic apparatus.

This article presents three previously unpublished letters sent by V. N. Kuznetsov to the party leadership between November and December 1930. V. N. Kuznetsov, the former Second Secretary of the Siberian Krai Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks), had been stripped of his post and recalled to Moscow in August 1930 for his alleged involvement in a conspiracy against R. I. Eikhe. Through these letters, he desperately sought to distance himself from emerging accusations — specifically, his suspected ties to the “Syrtsov — Lominadze Right-Left Bloc” — in a bid to regain the trust of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party. By pairing these documents with a comprehensive reconstruction of V. N. Kuznetsov’s biography, this article offers a compelling case study of the possibilities and stark limitations of personal political survival amid the curtailing of intra-party democracy and the intensification of state control.

This paper for the first time introduces Leonid Brezhnev’s analytical memorandum on the problems of rural schools, sent to the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in April 1973. It demonstrates that Brezhnev’s school education policy differed significantly from Khrushchev’s reforms. Khrushchev attempted to address social inequality between the city and the countryside, including the quality of school education, through the “proletarianization of students” and the narrowing of educational mobility channels for high school graduates. Unlike Khrushchev, Brezhnev implemented a different approach, which envisioned a significant qualitative improvement in rural schooling by accelerating the construction of schools and boarding schools, providing school buses, and addressing the everyday needs of rural teachers.

This review examines the monograph authored by Elena Gavrilovna Kostrikova, Doctor of Historical Sciences, within the broader scholarly discourse on 20th-century Russian political history. It considers the study’s scope, sources, methodology, and key insights and conclusions. The review finds that E. G. Kostrikova convincingly clarifies the main narratives regarding military and diplomatic censorship, the Petrograd Telegraph Agency (PTA), and Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs information activities during 1914–1917, primarily relying on official administrative records. The author lays a solid groundwork for future research into the roles of the PTA and Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as well as their impact on Russia and Europe’s information landscape. However, the monograph’s title seems to exaggerate the breadth of themes covered, as it does not adequately examine whether the Russian government followed a consistent “information policy” or merely operated through disparate, loosely connected functions like censorship and “public briefing”. This fundamental question remains insufficiently addressed within the volume.

This review highlights the scholarly strengths of the monograph, emphasizing the contributors’ dedicated exploration of the mechanisms behind constructing historical knowledge. It acknowledges the innovative inclusion of fiction and cinematography alongside traditional academic texts, as well as the formulation of a novel interpretative framework for the historiographical developments of the 1920s and the expansion of the historical source base. Concurrently, the review critically examines certain limitations of the publication, including an underdeveloped foundational methodology, insufficient substantiation for some conclusions, and inconsistencies in the analytical paradigms employed by the contributors and their approaches to addressing the research problems. Nonetheless, the review concludes that this volume constitutes a significant contribution to the study of Soviet historiography and advances the field beyond reductive or oversimplified perspectives.