Contenu du sommaire

Joseph Waller, The birth of the golden rouble. Recognizing the necessity of attracting foreign capital and of liquidating the inflation — after-effect of war with Turkey — Reutern and his successors at the Ministry of Finance undertook the stabilization of the rouble. With this object in view, the Imperial Bank was reorganized in 1894 and order was introduced in matters of public indebtedness, by a series of reconversion loans. On the other hand, the birth of the golden rouble in 1897 implied an increase of the national stock of gold. This last object was attained by the centralization of gold originating from foreign loans, the custom duties payable in gold and the encouragement of national industry. France's influence is more or less connected with the decision to adopt bi-metallism, whereas the interest of cereal exporters contributed to establish the rouble parity at a low level. The First World War shattered this financial structure: on the eve of the revolution, the rouble has lost three quarters of its value.

Derek W. Spring, Russian imperialism in Asia in 1914. In the decade before 1914 the preferred policy of the Russian government was to maintain its interests in the bordering independent countries in Asia, by indirect means rather than by annexation, political action or further economic involvement by the state. This policy gave increased importance to the development of Russian trade and private enterprise in these countries as a foundation for the protection of Russian political and strategic interests. By 1914 however there was widespread consciousness in Russian government and commercial circles that this policy was failing. The weakness of the foundations of the Russian commercial effort and the prospective loss of geographical advantages, particularly in the Middle East with the advance of the Baghdad Railway, thus faced the Russian government with a dilemma. It became necessary to accept the equalising of conditions of trade and limitations of Russian investment possibilities, with a consequent loss of economic and ultimately political influence. Or political action must be taken, falling short of unproductive annexation, but reserving by artificial means Russian predominance in those areas of political and strategic importance. Government policy was tending towards this latter solution by 1914 in Turkish Armenia, Persia, Mongolia and northern Manchuria in particular.

Marie-Claude Maurel, Women in the Soviet rural society. In spite of their numerical superiority and their active participation in the social production, several elements contribute to put women of the Soviet Union in a situation of comparative material and cultural inferiority, especially in the countryside. The majority are often poorly qualified and are therefore consigned to domains of poorly paid manual labour, with no great prestige, whereas access to responsible positions, especially in agriculture seems rather narrow. The professional promotion of women is hindered by the numerous functions which are incumbent to them within the family group. The material subjection of women is all the heavier as the tasks traditionally assigned to them — besides the domestic ones and the educative responsibilities — comprise also the maintenance of the auxiliary economy. In spite of the real change in social relations, many facts go to prove the inertia of traditional attitudes towards women.

Eleonora Nadel-Golobič, Armenians and Jews in medieval Lvov. Their role in oriental trade, 1400-1600. The oriental trade of Lvov in the discussed period was connected with Moldavia and Crimea until the end of the fifteenth century and with the Ottoman Empire in the sixteenth century. In the fifteenth century and earlier Lvov's oriental trade was of a transit character, however beginning with the sixteenth century a part of the Far Eastern or Persian goods and a considerable part of local Balkan products were sold on the local market. Lvov's oriental trade was dominated by two ethnic minorities: Armenians and Jews, while the role of other traders was less significant. Both Armenian and Jewish minorities were readily accepted by the Polish kings (Lvov was a Crown city) since they had at their disposal not only the necessary capital and international contacts, but also trading experience. In the earlier stage of this period the Jews of Red Russia and Lvov's Jews as well were engaged in local trade (which included also the articles from Orient), while the Armenians operated on an international scale. Jewish participation in international trade is attested only in the second half of the sixteenth century.

Mihnea Berindei, Gilles Veinstein, The Ottomans in Southern Crimea and in the region of the Azov sea during the first half of the sixteenth century. The annexation by the Ottomans of the Southern Crimea and of the Azov sea, which had started in 1475, resulted in the constitution of the livâ' of Kefe. The study of the two census registrations carried out in this province in 1516-1519 and in 1542 respectively, gives a precise picture of the region during the first half of the sixteenth century. It is only in the Southwestern Crimea — which preserves its secular characteristics of an agricultural country with mainly a Christian-Orthodox population — that Turkish possessions form a continuous chain of cities and rural sites with villages. In contrast to this area — incidentally a stagnant one — on the rest of the coast, the Ottoman possessions were limited to mere enclaved territories and bridge-heads (Kefe, Kerš, Taman, Azaq, Qopa, Temruq). Here, further to fisheries, especially in the region of Azaq, Turkish targets are mainly military and commercial: the capital of the province, Kefe, is according to the Ottoman pattern, at once a city, a fortress and a harbour of primary importance. Here, the population develops by the immigration from neighbouring countries and its Muslim character is intensified, even though Armenians still constitute (as in the past) the most numerous community of Kefe. Here, finally, the Porte grants its utmost care to the manpower and war material (artillery included) of the garrison — a subject on which our sources are exceptionally precise. Another contrast appears clearly from the comparison of the two successive budgets of the province, details of which are made fully available for our analysis by the census: in the second of these budgets there is a sharp fall in the state revenues derived from trade. The explanation of this brutal recession might be looked for in the diplomatic break between the khanate of Crimea and Muscovy, as well as in the development of the Polish-Moldavian trade route. These two major factors, which occurred between the two registration periods, have had a significant impact upon the commercial exchange between Moscow and Southern Crimea. The prosperity of this trade at the end of the fifteenth and at the beginning of the sixteenth centuries, together with a peaceful political situation, created the most auspicious conditions for the first decades of the Turkish domination in the area.

Daniel Beauvois, The "Asiatic system" of Jean Potocki: oriental dreams in the Empires of Alexander I and of Napoleon, 1806-1808. The published texts define the policy that Jean Potocki, one of the rare Polish experts on Asia at the beginning of the nineteenth century, wanted Russia to adopt in 1806. Member of the fruitless expedition of Count I. A. Golovkin in China, he drew the lesson from the errors committed. The "Asiatic system" is a real work on colonialism, in five short memoirs, advising on the policy to be followed in connection with Trans-Caucasia, Iran, India and China. The system — premature in 1806 as far as Russians were concerned — aroused the interest of Napoleon's agents during the optimistic period which followed the treaty of Tilsitt: the French Embassy of St. Petersburg sent its summary to Paris in 1808.