“Istoricheskaya illustratsiya” publ. issued a new book “The Grand Ducal Residences of the Russian Empire in 1826-1917: construction economy. Study and documents”. Compiled by A.A. Efimov. ISBN 978-5-89566-225-0 

The Ministry of the Imperial Court from the very moment of its creation in 1826 and up to 1917 led an active architectural and construction activity, one of the main directions of which was the creation of ensembles of grand-ducal residences, which simultaneously performed the basic function of a dwelling and a representative one of a residence.

This book examines and publishes documents reflecting certain aspects of the participation of the august customers in the administration and financing of the palace construction. Financial reports and related materials for the construction of the Mikhailovskaya Dacha and the Vladimir Palace in St. Petersburg reveal changes in the significance of the material contribution of the Grand Dukes. The correspondence on the appointment of remuneration, incentives and official awards to the people who contributed to palace creation presents the different approaches of the august customers to these issues. Documents on the problem of the Grand Dukes Vladimir and Alexei Alexandrovich receiving reimbursement of the costs incurred by them for the construction and arrangement of residences from the budget of the Ministry of the Imperial Court got a special part in the book. The set of letters from the architect N.P. Krasnov, who managed the construction of the Kharaks residence, addressed to its owner, Grand Duke Georgii Mikhailovich, completes the publication. They reveal the interaction between the direct supervisor of the work and the august customer on numerous issues related to the creation and arrangement of both palace buildings and the entire estate as a whole.

The publication aims at both specialists in the field of history, history of architecture, art history, and a wide range of readers.

The publication whas been composed and published with the financial support from the grant of the President of the Russian Federation for state support of young russian scientists – candidates of sciences № MК-175.2019.6

The report of the Director of St. Petersburg Institute of History of the Russian Academy of Sciences A.V. Sirenov, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, at the Scientific Session “Humanities in the Age of Digitalization” of the General Meeting of the Department of Historical and Philological Sciences of the Russian Academy of Sciences on April 15, 2021

Alexey Vladimirovich spoke about the results of the first stage of the project “The history of the writing of the European civilization.” The project was based on the idea of ​​Academician N.P. Likhachev about the possibility of studying the tradition and history of writing on the basis of a representative collection of genuine manuscripts in different languages, different peoples, and historical periods.

At the first stage, preparations were made for the digitization of documents, since successful digitalization requires not only special equipment but also the preliminary restoration of some manuscripts because some of them are simply impossible to unfold or scroll to scan with a non-contact scanner.

Alexey Vladimirovich also drew attention to the fact that during the implementation of the project, a specially developed Internet portal “History of Writing” will gradually be filled, which will allow researchers to work with digital copies of documents and use an extensive search database based on the described documents.

Several academic institutes of St. Petersburg are taking part in this project, which, as part of a consortium, became winners in the competition for a grant from the Ministry of Education and Science for 2020–2022. These are the Library of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Archive of the Russian Academy of Sciences (St. Petersburg Branch), the Institute of Russian Literature of the RAS (Pushkin House), and St. Petersburg Institute of History of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

On April 7, 2021 in the Novgorod Museum-Reserve All-Russian project «Alexander Nevsky: The Great Northern Route», timed to 800-year anniversary of this statesman, general and saint.

At 10:30 in the Conference-Hall of the Museum of Fine Arts of Novgorod Museum-Reserve International scientific conference «Alexander Nevsky – warrior and politician». Scientific curator of the conference is the director of Saint Petersburg Institute of History of the RAS Aleksey Sirenov.

Dear colleagues!

St. Petersburg Institute of History of the Russian Academy of Sciences invites you to take part in the meeting of the seminar “RUSSIA IN THE MODERN ERA (18th – early 20th centuries): the State and the Society”.

Within the framework of thesession, the report of Cand. Sc. T.V. Kostina (St. Petersburg Institute of History of the Russian Academy of Sciences) “Teaching Sciences in Russian Universities of the 18th century. not “only in Latin and Russian”.

The meeting is chaired by: Ph.D. T.A. Bazarova

The meeting will take place on March 25, 2021 at 17.00 in the format of a Zoom conference. You can connect: https://zoom.us/j/94325235381?pwd=YW5DdUNFNWd4WHRibStoOUFwcy9wZz09
Conference ID: 943 2523 5381 Access code: 047447

To mark the 160th anniversary of the abolition of serfdom in Russia, a virtual exhibition of one document from the collection of the Archives of the St. Petersburg Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences opens, and presents the album “Deputies of the provincial noble committees on the peasant issue of the second invitation to Petersburg in 1860”. (The highest announcement of the Manifesto took place in St. Petersburg on March 17, 1861).

The unique exhibit presented at the exhibition illustrates one of the most important stages in the preparation of the peasant reform – the activities of the provincial noble committees on peasant affairs: this is from the collection of the Minins family, the album “Deputies of the provincial noble committees on the peasant business of the second invitation to St. Petersburg in 1860”. The album contains photographs of representatives of the provinces and regions of the Russian Empire who were members of the provincial committees for peasant affairs and who went to St. Petersburg in 1860 to work on draft documents on the abolition of serfdom.

Dear colleagues!

St. Petersburg Institute of History of the Russian Academy of Sciences
and St. Petersburg Branch of the Archaeographic Commission of the Russian Academy of Sciences invites you to take part in the Readings in memory of academician N.P. Likhachev.
The readings will take place on April 14, 2021, begin at the Smolensk Orthodox Cemetery at 10.30 and continue at the House of N.P. Likhachev (7, Petrozavodskaya Street) at 14.00.
It will be possible to participate in the scientific meeting online. The link to the conference in Zoom will be published additionally.
Meeting program.

On March 9, 2021 an expanded memorial session of the Academic Council of St. Petersburg Institute of History of the Russian Academy of Sciences was held, timed to the 90th anniversary of birth of Doctor of History, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Boris Vasilievich Ananich.