Publication «Archimandrite Antonin (Kapustin). Diary. Years 1851-1855» prepared by L.A. Gerd and K.A. Vach has been issued by the publishing house “Indrik”.
This published diary covers the first years of Antonin’s service in Athens and reflects such events as restoration of the Russian Holy Trinity church, Crimean War and foreign occupation of Athens, the author’s trips to Italy, Peloponnesus, central regions of Greece and to islands of the Archipelago.
The book includes introductory article, name and geographic indexes.
This publication has been issued with grant support from the Russian Foundation for Humanities (projects №11-61-00004, №15-61-01601).

The memoirs of N.N. Pokrovskii “Last at Mariinsky palace: the memoirs of the Minister for Foreign Affairs” edited by S.V. Kulikov and D.N. Shilov have been published in the “Russia in memoirs” book series.
The reader is presented the memoirs compiled not by a statesman but by a “scientist at power” who impartially verified party doctrines by historic experience. N.N. Pokrovskii (1865-1930) was described by his contemporaries as a man of outstanding intellectual, professional and moral qualities. Being lawyer by education and economist by vocation he used to work at different higher (Committee of ministers, Council of ministers, State Council) and central (Ministry of Finance, State Control, Ministry of Foreign Affairs) government institutions, and the pinnacle of his career was a position of the Minister for Foreign Affairs obtained in 1916. Detailed chronicle of the last year of the monarchy, especially of three final days, is supplemented by sharp reference about Nicholas II and members of the Romanovs kin, about tsar dignitaries such as prime minister and members of the Council of ministers, and finally about opposition figures. Pokrovskii was one of the last men to leave the residence of the government (Mariinsky palace) and then he wrote in his memoirs: “I’ve done everything I could…”

Dmitrii Bulanin publishing house issued a three-volume monograph by B.N. Mironov “The Russian Empire: from tradition to modern”.
This monograph is a complex systematic resumptive research on the social history of Russia from the end of the 17^th century till 1917. From the point of view of modernization a wide range of problems, such as colonization, expansion of territory and national issues; demography; social structure of society; urbanization and industrialization; evolution of different social groups; mentality of different classes and their cooperation and relations with the state authorities and monarchy, etc.
The book contains statistic appendix “Russia and the Great Powers in 19^th-20^th centuries”.
The monograph should be of interest for historians, sociologists, economists, political scientists, journalists and everyone interested in the Russian history.

This publication is financially supported by the Federal agency on Press and Mass Communications of the Russian Federation in the frame of Federal purposeful program “The culture of Russia (2012-2018)”

Nestor-Istoria publishing house printed issue 1 (17) of the Transactions of Saint Petersburg Institute of History of the RAS “Monasteries and archbishops’ courts in the documents of 16^th-18^th centuries”.
Issue 1 (17) of the Transactions is dedicated to the history of the Orthodox church of 16^th-18^th centuries and includes the works of institute scholars. The articles of this collection are based mostly on the documents from the church archive funds stored at Scientific and historical archive of SPbIH of the RAS and include publications of the studied sources. In this issue the problems of relations between the Church and the State, everyday monastic and secular life and archbishops’ and monastic archives are scrutinized.

This book could be interesting for historians, scholars and everyone interested in the past of our homeland.

Dear friends!

Administration of Saint Petersburg Institute of History of the RAS cordially congratulates you upon approaching New Year and Christmas! We hope coming year to be productive and won’t be overshadowed by new reforms although such behavior is typical for Red Monkey (symbol of 2016). We really count on your help and support that you provided during this arduous 2015. We would like to wish you success and prosperity, to both you and your relatives to stay self and sound and finally to be optimistic what can guarantee you all listed above! Be healthy, wealthy and wise!

International scientific conference “Historical memory of Russia and the Decembrists. 1825-2015” timed to 190-year anniversary of the uprising which took place in the Senate square on December 14, 1825 has become the only remarkable international scientific forum on issues concerning the history of the Decembrist movement. Its organizers struggled to attract to participation all well-known specialists in social and political history of the 19^th-century Russia, problems of historical memory, leading scholars in the sphere of source studies, historiography and biographic studies. Total number of conferees counts to more than 80 researchers from different regions of Russia (Moscow, St. Petersburg, Arkhangelsk, Tver, Saratov, Yekaterinburg, Ufa, Novosibirsk, Irkutsk, etc.) and foreign countries (Georgia, Ukraine, Germany and Japan).

The conference went on for three days: on December 14 its sessions took place at the State Museum of the History of St. Petersburg at the Peter and Paul Fortress, on December 15 the meetings were held at the Institute of History of Saint Petersburg State University and on December 16 it was housed by Saint Petersburg Institute of History of the RAS.

Apart from plenary and closing meetings the conference had eight workshops where the following problems were discussed: power, society and historical memory; historical memory and memory of the location; importance of museums, archives and private collections for preservation of the historical memory; historical perception, historical memory and the document; new approaches to the phenomenon of the Decembrist movement and traditions and innovations in Decembrist historiography and biographic studies of this historical period. Totally 67 papers and reports have been delivered.

The main feature of this scientific forum was that attention of scholars was focused not only on the history of the Decembrists and methods of its study but also on wide historical background of this period,  a range of discussed issues included problems of historical memory, contemporary historical perception, special aspects of biographic studies, source studies and historiography. The conference was carried out according to high scientific standards, and it showed to the participants the actual tendencies and new courses of research and contributed to enlivening of scientific connections and cooperation between scholars.

On December 16, 2015 the exhibition “These deeds won’t pass away…” On 190-year anniversary of the Decembrist uprising” has been opened at the Reading hall of Scientific and historical archive of SPbIH of the RAS. The first visitors have been participants and guests of the International scientific conference “Historical memory” of Russia and the Decembrists. 1825-2015”.

Three sections of the exhibition contain documents on the history of the revolt in the Senate square and on the tragic destiny of the Decembrists and members of their families.

Manuscripts (letters, notes, etc.) and other materials from personal fund of Vassily Petrovich Ivashev (1797-1841), who was the member of “The union of welfare” and then of “The Southern society”, form the central section. Although V.P. Ivashev didn’t participate in the revolt itself being in long-term furlough at his parents’ estate in Simbirsk region, after his return in January 1826 he was arrested, kept in Peter and Paul Fortress and then he was sentenced to 20-year penal servitude.

The exhibition also includes materials on different aspects of the study of the Decembrists movement history. Among them there is a lithogranewspaperph of A.I. Herzen’s letter to Alexander II on the third edition of court historiograph M.A. Korf’s book “Emperor’s Nicholas I accession to the throne” published in “Kolokol” in 1857, then hand-written copies of Decembrists’ wives’ letters sent from Siberia, press-cuttings from newspaper and journal articles on the first jubilees of the Decembrist uprising kept in the collection of famous genealogist A.A. Sivers (1866-1954) and some other documents and materials are presented for the visitors.

The exhibition has been organized by researchers of Scientific and historical archive Cand. of Sc. in History M.E. Proskuryakova, Cand. of Sc. in History T.A. Bazarova in cooperation with Cand. of Sc. in History E.I. Nosova.