Basic Divisions: Department of Contemporary History of Russia

 

Brief Description of Research Activities

The Trend was established in Perm State University at the end of the 1980s. The previous works by the researchers of the Faculty of History were mainly made within the study of the Perm Region History. The first works which studied the wider range of problems were the research works on Political History of Russia in the early XXth century, done by Igor K. Kiryanov and Michael N. Loukianov. The development of the scientific trend allowed studying regional problems o in the All-Russian context. At the turn of the XXth and XXIst centuries the range of scientific problems was expanded, i.e. social, political and intellectual history of the XIX-XXth centuries became the subject of multiple studies.  A great contribution into the development of the trend was made by the Doctoral Dissertations done by Michael N. Loukianov (2004), Galina A. Yankovskaya (2007), Igor K. Kiryanov (2009), and a series of Candidate Dissertations done by Post-graduate Students and Graduands.

 

During the development of the trend institutional and individual academic contacts were established with the leading Russian universities – Moscow State University, the Russian State University for the Humanities, Saint-Petersburg European University, Kazan State University, Saratov State University,  Tomsk State University, Chelyabinsk State University; with the foreign research centres – Oxford University (Great Britain), the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champagne (the USA), the University of Graz (Austria), the University of Ljubljana (Slovenia) and others.

 

The trend studies resulted in investigation of the new aspects of sociocultural and political processes in Russia in the XIX-ХХth centuries. Significant results were received in such areas of history knowledge, which were previously of rare interest, regarding the Russian past, as Everyday Life History, Parliamentary History, and Intellectual History. The substantially new results were received in the sphere of Sociocultural and Political History due to the use of methodological synthesis of traditional methods and historical research techniques with the discursive analysis statements, terms of probability theory and mathematical statistics, Oral History, Visual and Semiotic studies. The projects performed within the trend were supported by numerous grants of the leading Russian and foreign scientific foundations: Russian Foundation for the Humanities, OSI/Higher Education Support Programme, American Council of Learned Societies, Gerda Henkel Fund, German Historical Institute in Moscow and others.

 

The investigation results have great significance for solving difficult social and political problems of modern Russia, for example, for organisation and implementation of the Regional Target Programme of legal and political culture of the population of the Perm Region for 2003-2006, and the Regional Target Programme of political culture and civic education development of the population of the Perm Region for 2007-2011. Since 2006 in the schools of the Perm Region the parliamentary lessons have been organised, based on the principles and scientific results got by Igor K. Kiryanov in his researches. Teachers, who use such a methodology, have great influence on popularisation of history knowledge, professional development of teachers of History, organisation of the regional stage of the All-Russian History Olympiad among pupils, scientific consulting of the workers of regional archives and museums.

 

The teachers of the Department of Contemporary History read the following general and special courses to the students of the Faculty of History and Politology: History of Russia in the XXth century, Political Life of Russia, Culture Studies, History of Russian Culture, Historiography, Paleography. Since 2011 the department introduces the Master Programme in History “Russian Society in the Political and Cultural Context of the XX-XXIth centuries”, which is realised for the first time in the Perm Region.

 

Selected Publications Characterising Scientific Research Trend

1. Anthropology of the Soviet School: cultural universalia and provincial practices: collection of papers / editorial board M.V. Romashova [et al.]. – Perm: Perm State University, 2010. (In Russian)

2. Legislative Assembly of the Perm Region, 1994–2004: the history of representative bodies and institutions of the Kama Region / ed. by Igor K. Kiryanov. – Perm, 2004. (In Russian)

3. Kiryanov I.K. Russian Parliamentarians at the beginning of the XXth century: new politicians in the new political space. – Perm, 2006.(In Russian)

4. Kiryanov I.K, Loukianov M.N. The Parliament of the Autocratic Russia: the State Duma and its Deputies, 1906-1917. – Perm: Perm State University Press, 1995. (In Russian)

5. Loukianov M.N. Russian Conservatism and Reform, 1907-1914. - Stutgart: Ibidem, 2006. (In Russian)

6. Obukhov L.A. The Civil War in the Kama Region (May, 1918 – January, 1920). Perm: Agency “Style-MG”, 2008. (In Russian)

7. Yankovskaya G.A. Art, Money and Politics: An Artist in the  Epoch  of Late Stalinism. – Perm: Perm State University Press, 2007. (In Russian)

8. Belosludtseva V.V. Cultural Image and Way of life of  Entrepreneurs at the end of the XIXth-the early XXth century // Historical Herald of the Universities of Ljubljana and Perm. – 2008. – Part 2. – pp. 15–22. (In Russian)

9. Romashova M.V. “… single-sex education did not work out!? ...”: form Social History of the Soviet School // Historical Herald of the universities of Ljubljana and Perm. – 2007. – Vol. 1. – pp.  95–102. (In Russian)

10. Yankovskaya G.A. The Artist in the late Stalinist Era: everyday life and ideology // Words, Deeds and Values. The Intelligentsias in Russia and Poland during the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries / ed. by Fiona Bjorling & Alexander Pereswetoff-Morath. – Lund, 2005 (Slavica Lundensia. Vol. 22). – pp. 269–286. (In English)

11. Loukianov M.N. “Russia for Russians” or “Russia for Russian Subjects”? Conservatives and Nationality Question on the Eve of World War I // Russian Studies in History. – 2008. – Vol. 19. – № 4. – pp. 77–92. (In English)

12. Loukianov M.N. Conservatism in Russia // Supplement to the Modern Encyclopedia of Russian, Soviet, and Eurasian History. - Gulf Breeze, Fl: Academic International Press, 2006. – Vol. 6. – pp. 233–239. (In English)

13. Loukianov M.N. The Rise and Fall of All-Russian-National Union // Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History. – 2005. – Vol. 6. – № 1. – pp. 129–134. (In English)

14. Yankovskaya G.A. The Economic Dimension of Art in the Stalinist Era: Artisits’ Cooperatives in the Grip of Ideology and the Plan // The Slavic Review. – Vol. 65. – № 4 (Winter 2006). – pp. 769–791. (In English)