2021 Issue №2

The key aspect of incorporation of Prussians, who inhabited the South-East of Baltic region, into the social system of the State of Teutonic Order in the second half of the XIIIth—XIVth centuries was the distribution among them of land estates in exchange of military service and/or taxes. The military duties of Prussians involving defense of lands and participating in the campaigns against political rivals of Order raised the issue of the composition of their weapons which indicated either preserving or changing their current life-style, an important part of which were military affairs. This issue dates back to 1255—1370 and studied on the acts, chronicles and hagiography of wi­der period of the XIth—XVth centuries. The methodology relies on typo­lo­gi­cal and comparative-historical analysis which defines the kinds and types of Prus­sian weapons and their subsequent comparison. The research established links between the arsenal of Prussian lieges and politics of the Order and church, who sought to unify both defensive and offensive weapons of Prussian by involving it in the terms «light weapons» and «service by armour» that were regulated by the norms of Kulm charter. This unification identified the functions of Prussians in the Order’s army (defense of borders, reconnais­san­ce, etc.) and became one of the basis aspects of their incorporation in the new social system.

Based on memoirs of the outstanding Russian helminthologist Kons­tan­tin Skryabin (1878—1972), the article reconstructs the circumstances of his stay in Königsberg in 1912—1913. The research introduces the archive docu­ments that reflect the attempts of the Soviet officials to commemorate Skryabin in Kaliningrad in 1956—1957 and gives recommendations for preserving the me­mory of Skryabin in the contemporary Kaliningrad region. The author ana­ly­ses a curious statement in historiography concerning the issue of the estab­lishment of a plate in memory of Skryabin.

Ignacy Jan Paderewski was born in the Russian Empire, for many years he was working for the glory of the world-famous composer and pianist, and during the World War I he suddenly plunged headlong into politics, becoming one of the “founding fathers” of the Polish state, which revived in 1918. The article attempts to  identify Paderewski's views on the borders and foreign policy of Poland, to assess his contribution to the process of restoring its independence. The views and activities of Paderewski are studied in published political manifestos, diplomatic correspondence, publicist articles written by Paderewski, as well as his public speeches and interviews and memoirs. The study identified and analyzed Paderewski's concept of the principles and form of independent Poland state structure, which, in his opinion, should be recreated within the borders before the first partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1772. This concept was used as the basis for an unprecedented campaign that he launched in the war years in North America and Europe. After his homeland gained independence with the support of the United States, Paderewski became Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Poland and devoted all his efforts to promoting his idea of creating a "Greater Poland" at the Paris Peace Conference and the League of Nations. After his plan had failed, like all other projects of the Polish great power, he resigned, gave up big politics and left Poland. However, his name will forever remain in the memory of the Polish state rebirth.

Having analyzed the unpublished archival materials (minutes of general collective farm meetings, meetings of the collective farm board, meetings of members of the Communist Party), the article examines the reasons for the lack of motivation and low productivity of peasant labor in the collective farms. The study of rural everyday life is carried out within the framework of a micro-historical approach on the example of the collective farm "Bolshevik" of the Pravdinsky district of the Kaliningrad region in 1946—1956. The issues of management, accounting and promotion of collective farm labor, the relationship between the board, foremen and ordinary collective farmers, the problem of compliance with labor regulations and discipline, the reasons and ways of avoiding farmers from working in agricultural artel are in the focus of the research. The collective farm system is concluded to be inefficient as it  forced the peasants to resort to such survival strategies, which provided for the search for additional earnings and obtaining means of subsistence outside the collective farm.