Contenu du sommaire

Andrea Graziosi, "Visitors from other times" .foreign workers in the prewar piatiletki. The essay makes use of the accounts left by some of the approximately 70 to 80,000 foreign workers and specialists who during the 1920's and the 1930's lived and worked in Soviet Russia to look at Soviet industrial developments from a comparative perspective. It is divided into three sections: 1) a brief description of those workers1 personal backgrounds; 2) an analysis of their testimonies, focusing on the differences between Western and Soviet experiences; 3) a comparative discussion of Soviet industrialization. The questions of labor turnover, organization of production and industrial relationships are dealt with special attention.

Antoine Nivière, Onomatodox monks and Russian intelligentsia. The Onomatodox movement constitutes a trend of religious thought which, between 1907 and 1914, spread in Russia with, at its origin, the monasteries of Athos. It was forbidden by ecclesiastical authorities. The repression exercized against the Alhonite monks aroused a current of protest in public opinion. Intellectual circles actively participated in this dispute and gave moral support to the Onomatodox by philosophic, ethic, but also political interest. This study endeavors to explain the causes of the intervention of Christian intellectuals and the contradictions that occurred therein, replacing the debate within the ideological context of the time. It throws a light on the as yet little known page of the philosophical and religious Russian renaissance at the beginning of the twentieth century.

Daniial M. Mahomedov, Ancient religious beliefs of Didos. The Dido peoples, one of the ethnic groups of Daghestan, had adopted Islam rather late (eighteenth century). This confers a particular interest to these peoples among whom we find traces of former pre-monotheist beliefs. The information that we present herein has been obtained by numerous field studies. Archeological excavations of tombs allowed to discover beliefs in a life after death and yield information on funeral rites. The author reports on tales about the world of spirits, the cult of the mountains, of the white stone, of fire. He describes rites pertaining to fecundity and speaks of figurines representing animals and men.

Götz Hillig, Marianne Krûger-Potratz, The "second birth" of AS. Makarenko. Makarenko is world-famous as Soviet educationist: his Road to Life is undoubtedly among the most-read educational books. The historical context of his educational experiments and of his writings is less known, and almost unknown are the origins of the reception of his works in the educational field. When Makarenko died in 1939, he was mourned as a literary author. At that time (due to the politics of the Party, of which the 1931-1936 decrees are only tips of an iceberg) Soviet education appeared to be without pedagogues. The 1940 edition of the Education manual knows of only two names: Lenin and Stalin. How Galina Stakhievna Makarenko, as well as former co-workers and friends of Makarenko "s managed to give his work back to education is the topic of this paper.

Mihnea Berindei, Giustiniana Migliardi O'Riordan, Venice and the Golden Horde, end of thirteenth-beginning of fourteenth centuries. The publication for the first time of a document of the year 1324 bearing on a commercial transaction - the sale of a large quantity of tin - between two Venetian tradesmen in the Estates of Khan Özbeg, gives an opportunity to take up a question but little studied until now: that of commercial relations between Venice and the Golden Horde in the late 1200's and the first half of the fourteenth century. It thus appears that this venture is in no way exceptional but takes place within the framework of a period when economic relations were intensified in particular because of the development of civilization of the Golden Horde under the rule of Özbeg.

Georges Cioranesco, The activity of Demeter Cantemir during the Russian campaign in Persia (1722). Demeter Cantemir, ex -hospodar of Moldavia, accompanied Peter the Great during the Russian campaign in Persia, acting as the tsar's councellor in oriental affairs and as interpreter for Turkish and Persian. During this campaign, he composed several addresses destined to Persians, Turks and other peoples of Turkish origin established in Persia, informing them of the objectives of the action in which Russians were engaged. We have identified three proclamations due to Cantemir, all differing one from another. The manifesto of Astrakhan presents the campaign as a punitive expedition against Dâwûd-beg, chief of Lezghians; according to another manifesto the campaign seems to be directed against Mir Mahmûd, an Afghan chief revolted against the Shah Husain Suleiman; finally, a third manifesto, addressed to the inhabitants of Baku, invites them to place themselves under the Russian protection. The first two proclamations attained their aim, and contributed to persuade the local administration of Tarki, Axai and Derbent to surrender to the Russians whilst the third one did not have the same success with the inhabitants of Baku. The Caucasian campaign broadened out the scientific horizon of Cantemir: formerly an expert in turcology, he turned into a real Orientalist.