2022 Issue №4

The focus of the article, written within the framework of the imagological approach, is the reconstruction of the image of Russia in France during the years of the Restoration. The article is based on the analysis of the views of the famous French diplomat and politician Abbé D. de Pradt (1759–1837). The relationship between the image of Russia in France and the current political situation is revealed by the example of the journalistic works of Abbé de Pradt. The article sees Russophobia as a mechanism for solving French problems. It is also concluded that the image of Russia created in the West was, on the one hand, very stable and based on ingrained stereotypes of perception. On the other hand, this image depended on the political situation. The image of Russia created by Abbé de Pradt turned out to be very elastic, mobile, dependent on the political conjuncture. Abbé de Pradt never had any sympathy for Russia and created openly anti — Russian pamphlets. However, at the time when France was looking for an ally and saw Russia as such, rational Pradt diametrically changed his own position. At the same time, the optics of superiority, characteristic of post-­Napoleonic France, and the view of Russia as a power was never strong as it looked, remained an invariable feature of his works.

The article analyses cultural life and leisure activities in the Kaliningrad region during the Soviet period. The concepts of “leisure”, “free time” at different times were different in contents. On the one hand, leisure was understood as time when people recharged after hard work, and on the other hand, it meant their spiritual development. On the basis of archival and published sources, as well as interviews with immigrants, the author attempts at reconstructing the idea of leisure time activities of Kaliningrad residents on the new Soviet territory. The study also analyzed the instruments of state control which were applied to this important part of human life. In particular, the measures of the state, aimed at ensuring that the majority of free time people spent centrally, are considered. Leisure time for the Kaliningrad residents in the 1940s is considered to have been primarily a way to arrange their personal life. In the 1950s and 1960s, as the general level of well-being of the population increased, there was a demand both for the diversity of the repertoire of artistic works and for the material arrangements of leisure facilities. The 1970s—1980s were a time when leisure time was clearly influenced by foreign culture, the most active interest in which was shown by young people. Here the region was characterized by the presence of more sailors who brought home elements of this culture in the form of records, tape recorders, and other household items from their overseas voyages.

The article identifies and examines a number of trends in the development of healthcare system in the Kaliningrad region in the second half of the 1960s and the first half of the 1980s in comparison with the national tendencies. The processes of this time, unlike the years of early development of Kaliningrad healthcare, are poorly studied. The main sources are the documents of the Health Department of the Kaliningrad region, Oblispolkom (Regional Executive Committee) and the Bureau of Medical Statistics from the respective funds of the State Archive of the Kaliningrad Oblast. Further development of the health infrastructure, the reduction of infant and maternal mortality, the success in developing the ambulance system, a significant increase in the number of doctors and paramedics, and the expansion of access to basic healthcare for citizens are the features of the period under review. However, not all staff problems had been solved. The weak point of the regional healthcare was oncological and dental care, the need for which was constantly increasing. There were difficulties with implementing construction plans for new objects of public health services, some of which had turned into real long-term projects. The lack of financing made it impossible to solve a number of problems related to the obsolescence of equipment and medical technology. Despite successes in the control of infectious diseases, there was a high incidence of dysentery and other intestinal infections in the region. The 1970s saw further development of the system of sanitary education, which reached a large proportion of the population of the region. However, the sources do not allow to assess the efficiency of this measure. Processes that were taking place in Kaliningrad regional healthcare system were typical for the country as a whole, showing slow increase in the manifestations of a systemic crisis. The peculiarities of the region, which mitigated this tendency, included high indicators of provision of medical workers in the region, a closer connection between rural and urban healthcare and a younger average age of the population.

The Königsberg Fort № 5 “Friedrich Wilhelm III”, built in the second half of the 19th century was never used in military operations before the Second World War. But during the storm of Königsberg by the Soviet troops in April, 1945, it had been exposed to the attacks of all kinds of forces of the 3rd Belorussian front for four days and was surrendered by the German command. Later fifteen men were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union for the fort storming. The article is based on the unpublished documents dating from 1970—1980s from the archives of the Kaliningrad Regional Museum of History and Art which are related to the events of the East Prussian invasion. The author studies the process of including the former German fortress in the historical memory of the Soviet Kaliningrad inhabitants. The article identifies the reasons for the museumisation of the fortress among other fortification structures and its formation as a place of memory. Two concept plans of turning the fort into a memorial are described and analyzed in detail: projects by sculptors from the Moscow organization Rosmonumentyskusstvo and by workers of the Regional Museum of History and Art. The conclusion is made about the principles of reconstruction and the limits of what is admissible in the process of adjusting the German monuments to the objectives of the memory policy aimed at filling the historic landscape of the city with the Soviet attributes. The conclusion substantiates the key role of the memorial opened at Fort № 5 as a mediator (media) between the past of the region and the inhabitants of the region to promote the historical narrative about the storming of Königsberg by the Red Army as the central event of the East Prussian operation of 1945.