2024 Issue №1

Local conditional landholding, which bolstered the rule of the Teutonic Order in Prussia, involved the utilisation of land parcels with diverse landscape characteristics, spanning from well-cultivated arable lands to less fertile areas covered with woods and shrubs. To ensure the stable existence of households, the Prussians were granted rights to fish and build watermills on their plots, along with cultivating the land. These rights, explored in this study within the chronological framework of 1242—1370, were universally applicable. A total of 308 persons of different property status, duties and juridical status enjoyed these rights. Most of them, 213 individuals, were lieges obligated to serve in the military, pay taxes or do both. Another 95 persons were lokatoren required to organise settlements on the plots granted by the Order or the Church. The fishing right was regulated by permitting the use of tools (hooks, gigs, fishing rods, waders and nets, except the seine, termed collectively ‘small gears’), sometimes accompanied by leave to build a barrage across the river. The right to build a watermill applied to erecting a one- or two-wheeled structure, typically encompassed by a plot of land measuring 0.5 to 2 huffen and subject to taxation ranging from two to three marks.

Ahead of the 300th anniversary of the philosopher Immanuel Kant’s birth, efforts are underway to digitally reconstruct the long-lost historical landscape of Königsberg, the birthplace of the ‘Prussian sage’. This article aims to recreate the architectural appearance of Altstädtischer Markt — the market street in the Old Town (Altstadt), one of the city’s districts. Three-dimensional models of the 18th-century public and residential buildings were constructed using surviving images of the market street-square alongside photographs, literature and research works, local history evidence, individual housing plans, design details and other data. Restoring the volumetric and spatial composition and external appearance of the facades is complicated by the absence of historical sources dating back to the study period when the aesthetic of buildings was dominated by the style features of late Baroque, Rococo and early Classicism. Although the houses retained their Medieval layout, the appearance of the street-square changed. The facades, predominantly retaining their medieval fachwerk structure, embraced contemporary architectural trends. Along this vibrant shopping street, houses adorned with sculptural embellishments and architectural elements characteristic of the late sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries lined the thoroughfare. It was during these periods that the street acquired its unique face. The presented three-dimensional models demonstrate the diversity and variability of Königsberg’s centuries-old street.

This study is an attempt at a historiographical analysis of research works into the history of peasant horse breeding in the Russian Empire in the second half of the 19th — early 20th century. The work delineates historiographical periods, identifies the focal points covered in the literature and outlines avenues for future exploration. Monographs, dissertations and research articles reporting findings on peasant horse breeding served as sources of the study. Pre-Soviet, Soviet and modern historiographical periods are distinguished. Although the first works on the issue appeared in the pre-Soviet period, most were opinion pieces. In the Soviet period, the Marxist-Leninist ideology prompted historians to delve into the peasant economy. Yet, horse breeding by peasant farms was considered only in passing in works whose geographical scope extended to the entire territory of European Russia or groups of several regions. Modern historiography of the issue features studies emphasising the regional features of peasant horse breeding in provinces of the Russian Empire in the s period. However, the state of the peasant horse breeding economy in many provinces of Russia has received little scholarly attention in the country, alongside comparative analysis of peasant horse breeding across regions or exploration of how central departments, zemstvos and public organisations contributed to the modernisation of the industry.