Contents

BORDERLANDS

A LIVE BORDER:
COSSACK MANEUVERS IN THE CONTEXT OF COLONIZATION
(THE LATE SIXTEENTH TO THE EARLY SEVENTEENTH CENTURY)

Andrei V. Golovnev
¹⁾ Institute of History and Archeology,
Russian Academy of Sciences (Ural Branch)

²⁾ Belgorod National Research University

The Cossacks personified a “live border” in the southern Russian periphery (ukraina), one that maneuvered between the Muscovite state, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Crimean Khanate, and the Nogai Horde. In the Field (Pole), where free and servant (sluzhilye) Cossacks came into contact, Russian military colonization moved south along Tatar routes (sakma) as part of an “expansion of defense” waged by Cossack bands, cordons, and fortresses. In the Time of Troubles in the early seventeenth century, Cossacks turned their expansion back toward Moscow, and the “live border” struck the capital. By sponsoring and supporting false tsars, Cossacks both disrupted and compelled the Muscovite state from 1605 to 1611. They played a key role in Mikhail Romanov’s election, though a remarkable status reversal immediately occurred as a result: by swearing an oath to Romanov, the free Cossacks found themselves in the tsar’s service.

TURKISH PRISONERS OF WAR IN THE BELGOROD PROVINCE
DURING THE RUSSIAN-TURKISH WAR OF 1768-74

Vitalii V. Poznakhirev
Smolny Institute, Russian Academy of Education (St. Petersburg)

This article examines the role of the Belgorod Province in the evacuation and internment of enemy POWs during the Russian-Turkish War of 1768–74. The author quantifies the number of the POWs, indicates their quartering sites and placement difficulties; examines financial, material, and other questions regarding their provision, and explores their daily lived experience. He concludes that the Belgorod Province authorities made a significant contribution to the improvement of both the process and legislative framework for the naturalization of former Turkish prisoners in Russia.

CHALLENGES OF INTERNATIONAL TRANSFORMATIONS

‘GOOD’ BATTLES AND ‘BAD’ BATTLES:
A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF WESTERN MEDIA COVERAGE
OF THE BATTLES OF MOSUL AND ALEPPO

Gregory Simons
¹⁾ Uppsala University

²⁾ Swedish Defence University

The author examines the coverage of two simultaneously occurring battles, Mosul and Aleppo, in the Western media. Although both battles are intended to be key moments in defeating terrorist organisations, there is a stark contrast in the Western media`s framing of these events. In order to analyse the vast gaps in the coverage of these battles, the lens of news management, which is a means to influence public perception and opinion, is employed to view these two distinct events in Iraq and Syria. The author concludes that news management is applied to the information flows in these events in order to shape public opinion and perception of the battles Mosul and Aleppo—one ‘good’ and the other ‘bad.’

TRANSITIONAL EPOCHS

PRESERVATION OF ICON-PAINTING HERITAGE IN RUSSIA
(based on Yaroslavl regional materials)

Evgeniya I. Petrova
Yaroslavl Demidov State University

The interaction of government bodies and the Russian Orthodox Church on the question of returning some buildings and other property to the Church became part of state cultural policy in the post-Soviet period. This article investigates the process of returning religious artifacts to the Yaroslavl eparchy in the 1990s–2000s. During this period one of the biggest problems connected with the transfer of property to the Church was the ambivalent stance of regional state officials, which provoked conflict between museums and the Church over the ownership of icons. In Yaroslavl region, only toward the end of the 2000s did a relatively quiet and peaceful relationship between representatives of the Yaroslavl eparchy and regional museums begin. Mutual recognition of the necessity for a competent approach to preservation remains an ongoing process.

OUR PARTNERS

CZECH JOURNAL OF CONTEMPORARY HISTORY

Victoria V. Vasilenko
Belgorod National Research University

The author offers an overview of the Czech Journal of Contemporary History, an English language journal of the Institute for Contemporary History of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic launched in 2013.

NEW BOOKS

This section includes short description of new books by Vladimir A. Shapovalov, Landed Gentry in European Part of Russia, 1850s to 1880s (Based on the Central Black Soil Provinces Materials) (Belgorod, 2014), Emily B. Baran, Dissent on the Margins: How Soviet Jehovah's Witnesses Defied Communism and Lived to Preach About It (New York, 2014), and Andrei V. Golovnev, Phenomenon of Colonization (Ekaterinburg, 2015).

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