Saratov province

The article examines the changes in the national composition of Saratov province in the first half of the 1920s based on the materials of the All-Russian Census of 1920, the All-Union Urban Census of 1923 and the first All-Union Population Census of 1926. The factors influencing the evolution of the national structure of the region are being studied. The conclusion is made about the formation in the main features of the ethnic map of the Saratov region.

The published materials of the correspondence of the chairman of the Moscow Slavic Committee I. S. Aksakov and Saratov Governor M. N. Galkin-Vrasky chronologically refer to the prehistory and the beginning of the Russian-Turkish war of 1877–1878 and reveal a number of aspects of interaction between public organizations and the official authorities. An analysis of the content of the correspondence and its historical context reveals the importance of the social movement factor in the foreign policy activities of the Russian Empire.

The history of the peat industry both on the scale of Russia and in the regional framework of the Saratov province is a poorly studied topic. The article examines various aspects of the functioning of peat mining in Kuznetsk, Serdobsky, Petrovsky counties.

The article examines socio-cultural environment (or cultural community) of Saratov province district towns that had been founded as fortresses: Tsaritsin, Kamyshin and Petrovsk. Their social structure did not differ much from that of the other district towns of the province. Their socio-cultural environment was dominated by folk culture marked by legends, traditions and relics that kept the memories of the war-time past of the fortress-cities alive.

The article describes the reasons that determined the significant role of Russian ethnic culture in the urban socio-cultural environment of Saratov province. Its manifestations in various spheres of city life and, in particular, in the look of these cities are based on written sources. For most county-level cities its influence on the cultural process was dominant. In the main city of the province its features were evident in spiritual and ceremonial life of the general population.

Saratov province was one of more than 30 provinces in Russia, where since 1915 – early 1916 till 1923 there have been thousands of refugees from Belarus. Materials of the state archives of Saratov region helped to get a clear understanding about the scope, peculiarities and terms of assistance to refugees. Special attention is drawn to relationships between the local population and forced migrants.

The given article considers problems related to the lack of working hands in agricultural sector of Saratov province during World War I. The author concludes that general mobilization most of all effected landlords’ farms of the province. One of the ways to solve the problem of workforce shortage was the wide-spread use of prisoners of war and refugees.

The article is devoted to the participation of military volunteers from Saratov in the Serbian-Turkish war of 1876. The author analyzes the texts of the notes of the Saratov military volunteers published in the publication of the regional press “Saratov fact sheet”. The article reveals the socio-psychological and political motives of military volunteers, their perception of the situation in the Balkans and the evolution of their sentiments from the moment they were sent from Russia to their direct participation in the hostilities and return from the war.

The article analyzes the vicissitudes of revolutionary events in Russia through the prism of socio-cultural and socio-psychological dynamics of provincial society. The author’s research perspective is aimed at studying the mood of the soldiers ‘masses during the political crisis of 1917. The Author comes to the conclusion that the soldiers’ garrisons located in the largest cities of the country were mostly not ready to accept and support the democratic transformations of the new government.

Against the background of an acute shortage of educational literature in support of higher education in the 1920s, dozens of famous teachers of Saratov universities acted as authors of textbooks and manuals.