The study presents an analysis of the epistolary heritage of Dmitry Belyaev (1846–1901), the resident professor of Kazan Imperial University, classical philologist and byzantologist. These precious documents are currently kept in the personal fund of professor D. Korsakov – the addressee of D. Belyaev – in the National Museum of the Republic of Tatarstan. For the first time in Russian historiography, the identified and formed complex of the sources provides information on a number of events from the scientific biography of the scholar previously little-known and sometimes virtually unreported in science. The sources under consideration allow us to clarify the circumstances of the philologist’s personal life, to supplement his biography with qualitatively new characteristics. The above archival documents cast light on such an important event in the researcher’s life as moving to Kazan in 1877 to work at Imperial Kazan University, identify his circle of scientific communication, and also provide information about the activities and personalities of the Faculty of History and Philology in the 1880s–1890s. Along with that, it is possible to specify some of the peculiarities of the professor’s scientific work on Byzantine antiquities. The conducted research makes it accessible to rediscover the facts from the scholar’s biography previously forgotten in home historical science, to carry out a more definite and accurate historical and biographical reconstruction of the life and scientific heritage of Dmitry Belyaev.

The article analyzes the content of the letters from the friends and relatives of S.V. Kovalevskaya (F.V. Korvin-Krukovsky, S.I. Lamansky, Yu.V. Lermontova) to Saratov Governor A.I. Kosich (1891), kept in the State Archives of the Saratov Region. The materials from the archival correspondence add numerous details to the picture of the everyday reality for Sofya Kovalevskaya’s family and circle. The archival materials introduced into the scientific circulation for the first time are of interest in terms of their content, historical context, and the public and cultural figures mentioned.
In the center of the published epistolary sources are focused on the reaction of the friends and relatives of S.V. Kovalevskaya on her death and the question of the arrangement for her daughter’s future. Based on the materials of the correspondence, the authors of the article make an attempt to clarify the characteristics of the public sentiments in Sofya Kovalevskaya’s circle. Particular attention is paid to the role of A.I. Kosich in an attempt to attract the attention of the Russian public and the power elites to the task of returning the famous Russian woman mathematician to Russia, and after her death – to perpetuating her memory. Materials of the published correspondence allow accentuating the subject of patriotic moods in Sofya Kovalevskaya’s circle, as well as the commitment to the traditions of the Russian national consciousness and the interest in the ideas connected with the role of Orthodox-Slavic identity in the civilizational and historical choice of Russia.

The article deals with the case of the “counter-revolutionary group of churchmen, consisting of the monks, nuns and former people of the town of Yegoryevsk”, that began in April 1935. Among the defendants in the case were the monastics, the representatives of the white clergy from the temples in the town of Yegoryevsk and the surrounding area, as well as the laypeople who took an active church position. The formal charges brought against the members of the “counterrevolutionary group” were reduced to anti-Soviet agitation aimed at disrupting the events organized by the Soviet government, directed to spreading false rumors about its imminent downfall and to organizing a secret church. However, the archival documents indicate that the main purpose of the initiated case was an attack on the believers who did not accept the 1927 Declaration of Metropolitan Sergius of Nizhny Novgorod (Stragorodsky), the Deputy Patriarchal Locum Tenens, and who formed the groups of the True Orthodox Church and the non-commemorators. In the mid-1930s. those groups were mostly filled by the priests and clergymen returning from exile who were forced to settle outside the 100-kilometer zone from Moscow, in the towns such as Yegoryevsk, Pokrov, Alexandrov, etc. The material is based on the documents from the collections of the State Archives of the Russian Federation, the State Archives of the Smolensk Region and the Central State Archives of the Moscow Region.

The article mitropolitan the influence of changes in the region caused by the great geographical discoveries and of the development of capitalist relations during the late Middle Ages on the foreign trade relations of Azerbaijan, and, first of all, on the nature and scope of the Azerbaijan-Russia economic relations carried out through the Volga-Caspian transit trade route. The article shows that Russian Tsar Peter I, taking advantage of the new situation in the region due to the loss of the importance of the “Great Silk Road” and the deep decline of the Safavid state bigan strengthening Russia’s position in international trade, turning the Volga-Caspian trade route into the main artery of east-west trade, and most importantly, for establishing direct trade relations with India. In the article, while addressing that very topical issuesolving that issue which is quite relevant for Azerbaijani historiography, the author abandoned the traditional approaches left over from the Soviet era and tried to create an objective picture of Azerbaijan-Russia trade relations in the first half of the 18^th century based on reliable sources.

The article is about two works by Jacob von Rammingen on the registry – a structural unit within the administration at the court of the German territorial sovereigns in the 16^th century. Written by a contemporary and a participant in the reform of the management system, published in 1571, the treatises that reflect approaches to the storage and use of documents are a valuable source on the history of archival thought. The theoretical justification for the existence of the registry as a necessary element in the management system was a step towards the establishment of the archives as an independent institution. In the article, the treatises are considered in connection with the processes that took place in the management system of the German territorial states in the 16^th century that affected the organization of chanceries. Special attention in relation to the source is paid to the issues of authorship, target audience, terminology. As a result, Rammingen’s works are ultimately representative of the trends of his time: the emergence of the category of professional registrars with their corporate culture, reflect the isolation of the archive as an independent unit in the management system. The approaches to the documents laid down by Rammingen retained their practical relevance up to the 18^th century and are at the root of the origins of scientific archival science.

The article presents a historiographic analysis of the scientific works on the history of the development of archives in Kazakhstan. The paper highlights the most studied topics and the issues raised in the works of Kazakh researchers. The author notes that the problematics of the organization and history of archives administration in Kazakhstan is one of the central topics of the national archival science. That is evidenced by the studied works of both theoretical scholars and practicing archivists. After gaining independence, the republic started forming its own scientific base for studying archival issues, particular historical periods, during which the formation of the archival branch took place. Based on the extensive source material, relying on prior experience, modern researchers have created a historical retrospective of the emergence of archival science in the country. The relevance of the historiographic analysis of the study in the history and organization of archives administration in Kazakhstan is explained by the need to determine its main directions, analyze the approaches and views that have developed over the recent 30 years. At the same time, there still exist unaffected aspects of the history of the development of Kazakhstani archives. In working out the issue the historiographic analysis methods were used, including the comparative historical, chronological, and periodization methods. Monographs, scientific articles, textbooks and reviews on the history of the development of archives administration in Kazakhstan, published in the period from 1991 to 2021, were used as a source base.

The article analyzes the little-studied documents on the history of the Moscow Institute of Social Psychology, founded on the initiative of Veniamin Mikhailovich Khvostov (1868–1920), a professor of Moscow University, a neo-Kantian philosopher, a doctor of Roman law, a sociologist; the paper also discusses his role in the development of sociology, the most important direction in the field of social sciences. The article was written on the basis of the documents that were retained by his collaborators Leonty Alekseevich Byzov (1886–1942) and his wife, Natalia Nikolaevna Fadeeva-Byzova (1892–1985). Currently, the records are kept in the Archives of the European University in St. Petersburg. After having ostentatiously left Moscow University in 1911 (the “Kasso Case”), just like many of his colleagues had done, he taught at Moscow Women’s Higher Courses and at Shanyavsky Moscow People’s University. In May 1917, during the rule of the Provisional Government, V.M.Khvostov managed to create the Moscow Institute of Social Psychology as part of the future Institute of Sociology, the main task of which was to carry out research on social processes and gradually turn sociology into an independent scientific discipline. The Institute existed for five years only (1917–1922), and the last two years – without V.M. Khvostov, who passed away at the beginning of 1920. V.M. Khvostov realized that without sociology, the science of social processes, the sprouts of which had just begun to appear in Russia, not only the social sciences, but the entire scientific community of the early twentieth century would lose out. He hoped that with the coming to power of the Provisional Government, the social life in all its manifestations would become an important phenomenon, including scientific research, free from ideological dogmas. Instead in October 1917, the country plunged into a different reality – the revolution and the victory of the Bolsheviks who gradually destroyed all illusions about the freedom of scientific choice. And nevertheless, the Institute continued to carry out a tremendous amount of research concerning the socio-psychological processes and phenomena in public life. The scope of that work could be perceived through many hours of meetings, questionnaires and survey forms, abstracts and reports, scientific disputes, practical work with the representatives of various social groups. However, gradually, the conditions imposed by the Soviet government turned out to become such a powerful irritant for V.M. Khvostov that the dream of forming sociology as an independent scientific discipline appeared to be unrealizable. And yet, the documents on the activities of the Moscow Institute of Social Psychology are of great historical and scientific value, their study and publication can contribute to the adding of the new pages in the history of Russian and Soviet science at the beginning of the 20^th century.

The literature about V.N. Avtokratov evaluates his contribution to the theory of archival studies. It is noted that Avtokratov’s approach to the fund formation process as to a particular manifestation of a cause-and-effect relationship is the backbone element of the “general theory of archival studies”. The aim of the present research is to show the enormous positive impact of V.N. Avtokratov’s works on the development of source studies and on the formation of the Scientific and Pedagogical School of Source Studies within the framework of the Department of Source Studies of the Institute for History and Archives at the turn of the 20^th-21^st centuries. The articles published by Avtocratov in the 1960s – 1970s at that time already were conceptualized and perceived by the scientific community. The appearance at that time of a number of studies based on the analysis of inventories proves to be its striking confirmation. In subsequent years, the staff of the Department of Source Studies of the Institute for History and Archives of the Russian State University for the Humanities proclaimed a thesis about the reflection in the sources system of the past culture projection. The thesis was confirmed in historical and source studies. The efficacy of such an approach to sources has also been demonstrated. The works of that school researchers working within this school deal with the document complexes of various scales.

The article is about the 100^th anniversary of V.N. Avtokratov (1922–1992), a prominent theorist in the field of history and archival studies. The paper reveals his views on the issue of retaining the integrity for the “archival information environment”, set forth in the monograph “Theoretical Issues of National Archival Studies” – the work that was published after his death. Researching the level of the archival information environment and also of the funding according to the principles of historical or formally logical classification, V.N. Avtokratov investigated stages in the archival studies development within the context of the scientific knowledge theory. The article touches upon discussions on the issue within the scholarly community. The analysis of V.N. Avtokratov’s theoretical provisions on the historical principle of classification in archival studies as a determining condition for ensuring the scientific use of the information resource of the Archival Fund of the Russian Federation is correlated with the scientific knowledge theory of the great Russian thinker N.Yа. Danilevsky (1822–1885). Noting the high theoretical level of V.N. Avtokratov’s creative heritage, the author draws attention to the relevance and importance of the methodological approaches by V.N. Avtokratov with regard to the development of the theory and practice of archival science in today’s changed conditions.

The article presents the results of the exploratory study of the documents connected with the issues of overcoming the consequences of the 1957 radiation accident at the “Mayak” Production Association and the discharge of the radioactive waste into the Techa River from 1949 to 1956, these records are kept in the funds of the State Archives of the Ural region. The objective of the research is to analyze the specific measures taken to form and develop a radiation safety system in the Ural region. The paper describes the structure of the created repository database containing the related documents of the executive authorities of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation and the CPSU bodies (of the Kurgan, Chelyabinsk and Sverdlovsk regions). Based on the electronic copies of the selected documents, a database of the repository of those documents was formed. The search and selection of the records for the preparation of electronic versions was carried out according to the criteria of the document’s connection to the activities and elimination of the consequences of the accident at the “Mayak” PA and / or to the assessment of the socio-economic situation in the Kurgan, Chelyabinsk and Sverdlovsk regions. The created database of the document repository can be used to assess the effectiveness of the management decisions aimed at overcoming the consequences of radiation accidents.