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Many Permian-Triassic dolerite samples from the Siberian Trap Large Igneous Province exposed to conventional stepwise thermal demagnetization at 250-450 ºC display mid-temperature remanence (MTC) directed opposite to the high-temperature NRM component. Alternating field (A.C.) demagnetization fails to isolate the antipodal component, but it appears during continuous thermal demagnetization, though in a different temperature range. Laboratory experiments and simulations prove that MTC remanence is an artifact resulting from magnetic memory of self-reversing titanomagnetite grains oxidized at low temperature. This effect can interfere with stepwise thermal cleaning and be responsible for misleading patterns of paleomagnetic directions. Given that oxidized titanomagnetite grains are widespread in volcanic rocks, we suggest to identify true paleodirections by combined continuous and stepwise thermal demagnetization. The extension of our model to the case of NRM2 overprint directed at some angle to partially reversed primary NRM1 component accounts for the difference between the results of stepwise and continuous thermal demagnetization observed in samples of the Steens Mountain basalt (USA).

The article deals with a study of the fractal properties of geophysical-data arrays obtained by areal geophysical works over hierarchically organized geologic systems. It is shown by the example of magnetic-survey data in the Pechenga ore region that two-dimensional wavelet analysis is a useful tool for investigating the fractal properties of geophysical-data arrays. The application of wavelet analysis allows detecting the hierarchical structure of organization of the whole ore region, estimating the degree of the system inhomogeneity, and concluding about the local properties of a geologic system, for example, the ore potential of separate sites.

The article’s objective is to provide an analysis of changing views of American and Canadian historians on reasons and consequences of the Alaska Treaty signed in 1867. In the study the author analyzes relevant papers on the topic published in USA and Canada in the late XIX - early XXI centuries; identified basic concepts proposed by the historians; determined their contribution to the problem elaboration. It is established that since the late XIX century American and Canadian researchers paid special attention to the factor of amicable relations between the United States and Russia facilitating a positive outcome of negotiations and permitting Russia to achieve the stated objective (works by H. Bancroft, F.A. Golder, T. Bailey, S. Tompkins, D.H. Miller, R.J. Jensen et al.). Despite the widespread perception that the 1867 Treaty provided greater benefit to Russia, some researchers (V.J. Farrar, R. Luthin et al.) persisted that even if Alaska’s purchase was not economically justified, the bargain was in line with the military-strategic interests of the United States. In the postwar period, in the context of Cold War Western scholars paid greater attention to the policy of colonial expansionism pursued both by Russia and USA in the North Pacific Region (C. Manning, C. Hulley et al). In the 1960s-1970s historians of the so-called “revisionist” school (H. Kushner and others) argued that the sale of Alaska occurred not because of friendship, but intense competition and struggle for markets (therefore, the territory cession looked like a win to one side, and like a loss - to another). They were opposed by those researchers who believed that Russia was guided not by economic considerations, but by political ones, so both countries benefited from this treaty in one or another way. The recent studies have revived the idea of struggle between the colonial powers while emphasizing the international implications of the 1867 Treaty (I. Vinkovetsky, L. Farrow). The author comes to a conclusion that American and Canadian historiography evaluated the 1867 Treaty based on general understanding of Russian-American relations interpreted either in terms of cooperation or rivalry.

The article objective is to identify main problems related to the specifics of state management of the Russian Arctic in the 1920s. The research is necessary for revealing historical experience of the Russian Arctic and the Northern Sea Route development. The central place in formulating research tasks belongs to the analysis of mobilization methods used by the Soviet leadership to solve both economic and geopolitical tasks in the Russian Arctic zone. The article notes that the 1920s became the period of forming the centralized state administration in the USSR. The paper problematic field includes studying the essence of mobilization methods of the Russian Arctic administration and forming the system of national economic planning in the country including the Arctic territories. The author pays much attention to the continuity of the Russian state policy in the Arctic as a significant territory for effective national development. The article focuses on the events of the Soviet period initial stage, when Russia’s Arctic strategy already identified some prospects for the Russian North development. To solve this task, plans were outlined to develop transport communications, to build ports and industrial enterprises, as well as settlements. This task difficult for solving in high latitudes in the Soviet state administration was intended to be implemented step-by-step at first in the framework of activities of the Northern Sea Route Committee, organized according to the Soviet principles, and then of JSC “Komseverput” operating under the state patronage. The research concluded that using mobilization methods based on the centralized state administration in the USSR in the 1920s prepared a breakthrough development of the Arctic and the Northern Sea Route in subsequent years.

The article studies the activity of Vladimir Petrovich Larionov (1938-2004), an outstanding scientist and organizer of science. Academician V.P. Larionov is well known for his studies in the field of materials science and structural strength at low temperatures. His elaborations are the basis of the Russian Arctic technological development. V.P. Larionov was born in the small Yakut village, graduated from school with a gold medal. In 1956 he entered Bauman Moscow Higher Technical School. In 1962 after graduating the young specialist was hired at the Yakut subsidiary of the Siberian Branch of Academy of Science of USSR. His studies were in demand for implementation of the state program «Northern technology». Academician N.V. Chersky composed a set of measures to develop physical-technical fields of science in Yakutia. He was supported by Academician M.A. Lavrentiev, the chairman of the Siberian Branch of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. V.P. Larionov was one of the first who started studying northern materials science and creating technologies for processing structural materials. In 1968 V.P. Larionov was encharged to organize and lead a welding laboratory in the Department of cold resistance of machines and metal structures in the Yakut subsidiary. In 1970 the Institute of Physical-Technical Problems of the North was established based on the Department. Its main scientific subject was the problem of studying material cold resistance and developing recommendations for equipment production for the North. V.P. Larionov defended his candidate and doctoral dissertations, became the country’s leading specialist in the Arctic technology development. In 1986 V.P. Larionov was elected Director of the Institute of Physical -Technical Problems of the North. Scientific potential of the Institution and the Yakutsk Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences as a whole has grown under his guidance. V.P. Larionov contributed significantly to creation of the northern construction materials and processing technologies. His research results have become a fundamental scientific basis for a modern technological complex, which produces materials and equipment for the Arctic zone of the country.

The article considers the early Siberian literature in the context of popular religious consciousness of Siberians in the XVII-XVIII centuries, which is characterized as popular Orthodoxy with magical practices and beliefs as essential elements. The author focuses on demonological motifs reflecting primarily the phenomenon of possession (demoniac possession, hand-wringing, hiccup). The study showed that these motifs were widely represented in the miracles from the “Tale of the Abalak Icon of the Mother of God”, they can be found in the “Tale of Appearance of Nicholas of Myra” and “Life of Simeon of Verkhoturye”. Literary materials are compared with documentary sources - judicial and investigative materials related to sorcery and spell cases. The author considers bookish demonology of the early Siberian literature as a certain interpretative and polemical strategy aimed against popular magic which was viewed by the ecclesiastic and state law as spiritual crime. The article shows that the literary and church discourse existed along with practice of civilian investigations. The latter actively involved not only the state investigative and administrative bodies but also local population. The religious preaching expressed in written monuments was set by the church against the state prosecution. In so doing, the church combined issues of spiritual enlightenment with urgent tasks of establishing the cult of holy icons and sanctuaries, which was an important part of policy pursued by the Tobolsk Archpriest’s House. The author comes to conclusion that despite different linguistic strategies and mechanisms of struggle against popular magic, representatives of various layers of the Siberian society belonged to the same popular and religious culture, of which magical beliefs were an integral part. The author interprets the phenomenon of posession as a symbolic code which determined the everyday behavior and way of thinking of Siberians irrespective of their social status.

Siberian chronicle is the largest cultural monument of book culture of the late XVII century and an important source of siberian History. The historic plot is composed of information and tidings about towns and “ostrogs” foundation, administration, diplomatic missions, appointments of governors and archbishops, deacons and scriveners. It is mixed with real life events, which creates a history of colonized Siberian land. The object of this investigation are three editions of the Siberian chronicle: «Kniga zapisnaya» (1687), Golovin’s edition (1689) and Naryshkin’s edition (1694). The subject is human commonness reflected in the Siberian chronicle of XVII century. The article objective is to define the significance of daily routine component in the Siberian chronicle’s narration. Systematizing main daily human practices reflecting Siberian life details and realities allows viewing a person in the «spirit of the age» context, defining forms of the historical-cultural community existence in the 17th century. Household news in the Siberian chronicle can constitute an independent chronicle story or be interspersed with an official message. «Kniga zapisnaya» is of the greatest interest concerning persons’ everyday life: a story of the governor’s absurd death in Nizhny Tagil, reports on deaths of some individuals, fortunes and misfortunes in trading and geological investigations, etc., which reflect a whole world of various daily routines at vast areas. A separate section consists of events that occurred in Siberia for the first time, such as advent of boyars, appointment of archpriests, sanctifying Siberian archimandrites with white monkshoods, opening taverns, introduction of copper money, investigating corruption. Curious and usually dramatic are stories about fires, fates of some governors and their families, exiles, human conflicts. These articles, in terms of everyday life’s chronicles, are interesting because of routine’s details, dramatic narration reflecting the author’s personality and his empathy with tragic events. Golovin’s edition is of the most interest because of stories about building activity in Siberia: restoration of burned temples, building prisons and bridges, and relationships between local population and China. Conflicts with Bashkirs and Kirghizs, plunder and ravage at Siberian borders are full of different vivid details of people’s life. In Naryshkin’s edition a lot of information is curtailed, motives of daily routine are reduced, the focus is on official reports on governance in Siberia. This trend continues in the XVIII century edition (Schlözer’s and Academic ones). The textual analysis allows determining features of chroniclers’ work in the late XVII century.

The tale of the Journey of Ioann Novgorodsky to Jerusalem is one of the most interesting literary monuments of Ancient Russia, which connects traditions of writing and oral lore, and shows events connected with Novgorod history. It reflects famous legends and fabulous motives. The plot about a devil who is sealed in a vessel by the sign of cross and performs human will take an important place in compositional structure and is well known in the world literature. There are many manuscripts from different times which present the tale both as a part of Life of Ioann Novgorodsky and out of this context as an individual work. The author introduces into scientific circulation a manuscript of the tale which is included in the Old Believers collection of the mid-XIX century from the Collection of Manuscripts and Early Printed Books of the Institute of History of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences №17/76. This manuscript represents a stage of the monument writing tradition, which was apparently developed in two ways: as a part of Live of Ioann of Novgorod and as an individual work, which had been written before it was attached to Live of Sanctifier. A new manuscript scroll of the tale has a number of textual differences versus earlier published manuscripts. It contains some mistakes, gaps and wrong interpretations. The manuscript contains some insertions as well. One of them is a large addition at the end of the text, which is derived from Life of Ioann of Novgorod. According to comparative study of involved texts, presence of this fragment brings together the tale manuscript №17/76 with a manuscript of the XVI century published in Great Menaion Reader. However, they also have some different interpretations. Despite the fact that this manuscript has later origin, results of its analysis are important for studying the tale’s literary history, for deeper understanding a character of the text motion and evolution during its handwritten life.

The article’s objective is to reveal the share of spiritual-moral literature in reading of inhabitants of Tomsk province under conditions of modernizing the Siberian society. The research methodological basis is the theory of the traditional society modernization. Data systematized and summarized by the author from the numerous reports of libraries in Tomsk province on book circulation in the catalog divisions make it possible to determine the place of spiritual-moral literature in reading of residents; to trace the modernization processes entering the Siberian hinterland, and to reveal the secularization of reading during the period under review. They show that spiritual-moral literature maintained its presence in reading of provincial inhabitants, but it was uneven and determined by the person’s education, age, occupation, place of residence. The most widely spiritual-moral literature reading was distributed among the rural population, mainly peasants, and representatives of the older generation. It was increasingly replaced by fiction, special literature, periodicals among urban residents and youth. Spiritual-moral literature dominated in peasantry home libraries along with representatives of other classes in the province peasants went to libraries mainly to get fiction. Public readings were carried out on a broad program. Books on art, Russian history, hygiene, natural science, ethnography, and other topics besides texts of spiritual-moral content were read in their course. Revealed data make it possible to clarify and supply the regional and all-Russian picture of reading in the late imperial period, its dynamic development under conditions of modernization.

The article is devoted to the evolution of eschatological ideas of Old Believers of the Fedoseev’s denomination in the context of the Enlightenment concepts. It seems appropriate to use the concept of textual communities proposed by B. Strok to study the identity of traditional communities, such as Old Believers. The applied sources provide an opportunity to correlate the practice of oral controversies used by Fedoseevtsy and their statutory works where eschatological teaching is presented. The paper explores the content and context of a work reflecting a polemic between representatives of sensible understanding (by Popovtsy) and Antichrist spiritual understanding (by Fedoseevtsy). It should be noted that rational arguments proposed by Fedoseevtsy were characterized by their opponents as being similar to the Protestant doctrine, not the Orthodox tradition. Analysis of the statutory work recognized as authoritative one by all Fedoeevtsy has shown that the instructors warned their followers against unnecessary speculation about the essence of Antichrist and relied primarily on the interpretation of the Holy Gospel and the Church Fathers. Thus, the arguments inherent for oral practice are more rational and freer than those used for textual monuments preserving more conservative and traditional features, which continued the traditions of Ancient Russia scribes. The correlation of statutory works content and the position expressed by the representatives of Fedoseevtsy in disputes with opponents, on the one hand, showed differences in “text” representations and the actual religious experience, and on the other hand, it led to the conclusion that rational arguments included in eschatological constructions did not deny, but enriched their teachings about the “last days” in accordance with the Enlightenment spirit.