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The article is devoted to comprehending institutional transformations of publishing business: changing the institutions, their structure, competitiveness, main trends in modernization process in the 1990s - early XXI century. Applying the formal-logical and comparative-historical methods has contributed to revealing the causal chains in studying the problems of book industry institutional changes in the Siberian-Far Eastern region in relation to the logic and specificity of the publishing business modernization in Russia at the turn of the XX-XXI centuries. Transformation of the domestic publishing and book disseminating system promoted the emergence of fundamentally new independent publishing and bookselling organizations. The state monopoly on production and distribution of printed materials had been destroyed by the beginning of the new century, and non-governmental structures formed the basis for institutional innovations in the publishing and bookselling system of the country and the region. The publishing business transformed from a monopolistic industry to a competitive one with a wide variety of forms of publishing and bookselling industries during two post-Soviet decades. While the production part of the modern publishing business has adapted to the market conditions, it cannot be said about the book distribution. The main problem of the post-Soviet book market has been a systemic crisis of book trade in the country, destabilization of an already imperfect institutional system of book distribution. The contemporary institutional structure of publishing business demonstrates the tendencies of differentiation, optimization and constant variability in addition to quantitative and qualitative modifications. Not only the conditions, boundaries and extent of the publishing and distribution activities have been modified, but also the subject structure of publishing and bookselling business, saturation of the publishing space. In general, institutional changes in the publishing and bookselling system have become an integral part of the ongoing modernization process of the Russian publishing business.

The article analyzes the current state, main trends and peculiarities of the book publishing industry and trade in the Russian Far East in the late XX - early XXI centuries. The author pays much attention to the activities of publishing houses of higher schools while studying the book market structure. Analyzing the role of university publishing houses in the Far Eastern book market structure, the author emphasizes the State nature of the book publishing activities carried out by the editorial departments of higher schools; presents data on the amount of titles and number of printed copies of books issued by the higher institutions in the Far Eastern region, data on the book production of the regional publishing houses (percentage wise, considering the amount of titles and number of printed copies), as well as circulation data for the regions within the Russian Far East including average numbers of book copies (in 2005, as compared with 1985). The article conducts a comparative study on the Russian Far-East publishing industry activities in 1985-2005; reveals the reasons for decreasing numbers of book copies and growing numbers of book and brochure titles released in the Far Eastern Federal District including those issued by the editorial houses of higher schools as well as the Far Eastern and Yakutsk Publishing Houses. Special attention has been paid to the Khabarovsk Krai possessing the largest book-selling network «Mirs» in the Far East. The author examines the book industry of the city of Khabarovsk in 1999-2002 as well as the book trade in the region during the 1950s -1990s compared to the present time; studies the book trade activities of the Khabarovsk company «Mirs» (including the trade margin, assortment of books in shops, number of book-selling enterprises, company actions, etc.); presents the statistical data on the book trade activity in the Khabarovsk and Primorsky Krais, in particular, on the number of bookstores in the subjects of the Far Eastern region. The author specifies the main trends in business activities of the book-selling enterprises in the region and analyzes peculiarities of cooperation between the bookstores and publishing houses in the Russian Far East.

Since the beginning of the XXI century the literature on the local history has been released by the publishing houses, museums, archives, libraries, public organizations and individuals, as well as organizations whose activities are not directly connected with area studies. However, the majority of their publishing projects remain practically unknown outside the territory. Only exclusively published photo albums and illustrated editions can compete with book production from other regions. The bulk of local history literature in the region is formed by collections of articles and documents, sketches, monographs, bibliographic and reference books, and periodicals. They represent the history of certain cities and settlements; various ethnographic materials and historical sources; articles raising the problems of economy, culture and ecology in the region or describing the lives and activities of the famous fellow-countrymen; reports of archeologists and reviews. Quite often preparation of the publishing project is carried out by the combined efforts of several organizations. In the 1990s the traditional “Notes” and “Proceedings” issued by the regional museums were supplemented by the new magazines and the almanacs published by archives, administrative agencies, public organizations and individuals. Informatization of publishing activities of the archives, museums and libraries is reflected in editions posted on Websites or released compact disks. One of the library activity directions is creation of various databases devoted to local lore study. Along with catalogs, recommendatory indices, virtual exhibitions and information materials these databases contain electronic versions of some printed editions making these regional publications available to a wider range of readers.

The article is devoted to investigation of an understudied phenomenon - the establishment of Orthodox publishing in Siberia and the Far East. The author considers the concept of «Orthodox book», the emergence of regulatory base and organizational structures of the church book publishing management, its publishing policy. The term «Orthodox book» refers not only to publications issued by the Orthodox Church publishing houses, but also to a wide range of scientific, local historical, and other literature of Orthodox content produced by secular publishers. In order to eliminate spontaneous processes occurring in the Orthodox book publishing the Publishing Council of the Russian Orthodox Church was established. It was supposed to carry out peer review of all publications meant for distribution through the book trade system; the range of tasks for eparchial, parish and monastic publishers was outlined. It is concluded that creation of the accounting system of the Orthodox book production remains one of the unsolved problems which determined the actual source base of the present study. National bibliographiс indices issued by the Russian Book Chamber do not reflect a significant part of the Orthodox publications, due to the fact that the publishing houses do not observe the law on a legal deposit. The Synodal Library of the Moscow Patriarchate named after Alexy II, for its part, tried to oblige the dioceses to send samples of published book production to it. As a result, the Synodal Library, despite some significant gaps, has the most complete collection of Orthodox book production published throughout Russia. Therefore, its fonds can be considered as one of the most important sources for studying the Orthodox publishing in the country. A promising direction of research is dealing with the regional book chambers existing in Siberia and the Far East, as well as with fonds of diocesan libraries and archives.

The modern historiographic situation is characterized by poliparadigmality and multiconceptuality. The objective of this paper is to summarize the views on the historical development of Russia in the XX century expressed in line with the modernization paradigm based on the analysis of articles from “The Ural Historical Herald”. The author identifies three research perspectives: theoretical and methodological, historiographical, and specifically historical. The key issues examined by researchers of the Ural historical school are the following: the essence of the Russian version of modernization in the XX century, features and characteristics of “imperial” and “Soviet” modernization models, role of diffusions in history, the industrialization phenomenon in Russia and the Urals, the Ural-Kuznetsk Combine history, the agrarian transition concept, history of Yamal, etc. For the first time in a historiography based on the synthesis of civilization and modernization theoretical approaches the researchers solved the key problem of determining the cultural-civilization specifics of Russian modernization, showed the country’s place in the global process of civilization and modernization dynamics, analyzed main factors and mechanisms of internal and external impulses determining social-cultural, institutional-political, and social-economic development of Russia. The mechanisms of modernization processes have been considered at the civilization, national, regional, and local levels. The authors paid attention to the interaction between the macro, meso- and micro-processes in forming the Russian model of modernization, described the diffusive technologies that influenced the reception of social institutions and cultural values in the Urals.

The principal goal of this article is to analyze historic developments that are related to the period of insurrections of various Tatar ethnic groups against the Russian authorities. These ethnic groups inhabited the forest-steppe and steppe lands of Western Siberia at the end of the 1620s - the beginning of the 1630s. The paper focuses on the events that took place in the first third of the XVII century, including the insurrections of several Tatar ethnic groups against the Russian authorities in the territory of Western Siberia. In regard to these events the author considers participation of Kuchum Khan’s descendants, who aspired to restore the Tatar Khanate of Sibir, as well as participation of the Teleuts and several groups of the Oirats, whose rulers supported the insurgents but pursued their own ends, such as submission of the Siberian Tatars to their military-political influence. The author also considers the Russian warriors participation in the hostilities along with the service class Tatars who acted as a part of the Russian troops sent against the rebels and their allies among the Turkic and Mongolian nomads. According to the data from the Russian Siberian historical sources, the considerable proportion of Siberian Tatar inhabitants did not crave for escape following the insurgents to the Kazakh steppes and were loyal to the Russian authorities in Western Siberia despite the the insurgents’ agitation. The legatees of Kuchum Khan, who led the rebellious Siberian Tatars, aspired to resettle the separate groups of Siberian Tatars to the steppes, rather far away from the Russian lands, and rely on the assistance of the Oirat State. They transferred to the Oirat rulers the right to raise taxes from the rebellious Siberian Tatars, that provoked the great resentment among the Tatar population. Such policy alienated some ethnic groups of Siberian Tatars from the advocates of the Sibirian Khanate’s insurrection. The Russian authorities in Western Siberia sent the military groups of Russians and the service class Tatars to defend the Tatar population from the assaults of insurgents and Oirats. The Russian voivodes aspired to achieve peaceful relations with the Oirats by the diplomatic negotiations. Such policy was successful and resulted in the fact that a considerable proportion of insurgent Tatar inhabitants ceased to support the Siberian Tatar princes Ablaikerim and Devlet-Giray and returned to the Russians. At the beginning of the 1630s the number of insurgents appreciably decreased. Thanks to the efficient policy, the Russian authorities succeeded to enlist the considerable proportion of the Siberian Tatar population and retain Siberian lands as a part of the Russian state.

The article deals with the history of Old-Belief - one of the most significant but little studied problems in Russian history. Researchers studying the Old Believers pay special attention to the so-called «golden age» of their history. It began after the Supreme Decree of 1905 granting religious freedoms for Old Believers and ended after the 1918 Decree of the Council of Peoples Commissars separating the church from the state. Within a short period of time Old Believers built their own temples, published periodicals, developed the system of church forums, strengthened inter-church relations. Besides, a number of autonomous communities and establishments that met essential problems of Old Believers were established. First of all, the Old Believers developed their own educational system. The Moscow Old Believers community of the Rogozhsky cemetery especially succeeded in all these initiatives. The Rogozhsky community’s activities in the sphere of education was the result of its alternative view on learning and its role in a religious society. Besides, the creation of the Old Believers specialized schools was carried out without support of the state, only at the expenses of internal material and human resources of the Community. These factors heighten the interest and relevance of the proposed article. The objective of the paper is to reconstruct and analyze the Old Believers’ educational system of the Rogozhsky cemetery, the process of specialized schools establishment and functioning; to identify principles of activity, historical and statistical results as well as historical and organizational problems that emerged in 1905-1907. This article describes the process and challenges of creating the Old Believers’ elementary schools and the Town school at the Rogozhsky cemetery. The author involved and systematized all available sources of research both published and unpublished. Namely, three archival fonds, all Old Believers’ periodicals published in 1905-1918, modern monographs and studies on the topic were analyzed. The topic has been covered at length, based on the available sources and materials.

One of the first attempts to weaken the land hunger of peasants was organizing a long-term loan for land acquisition. For this purpose the Peasant Land Bank was established in the Russian Empire. It was engaged in issuing loans for land purchase, land management activity, estates purchase and sale, charities. All these activities allowed it to become one of the Russian autocracy’s main tools of agrarian policy in late XIX - early XX centuries. The experience of bank involvement in the agrarian problem solution was unparalleled in the world practice. The author analyzes the level of knowledge about this problem in the Belarusian and foreign historiography. Thus, specifics of the Peasant Land Bank activities in the agrarian sector of Belarusian lands remain one of the understudied problems. Currently there is a need for revision of established approaches to studying the Peasant Land Bank activity formulated in the Soviet historical science. The Peasant Land Bank played the leading role in spreading the individual land property of peasants. The state mortgage had a positive impact on the growth of peasant land ownership, which contributed to capitalism development and elimination of feudal vestiges in the agriculture of the Russian Empire.

The article examines the scientific works on the municipal government participation in the social and political process of Siberia in 1905-1917. Contemporary researchers express different views on the subject: liberal authors underline an active political position of municipal departments, conservatives defend the class-corporate nature of self-government. There were two periods marked by the growing politicization of city councils and caused by the first Russian revolution (195-1907) and the First World War (1914-1917) respectively. For a long time both Russian and Western historians have approached this issue from a strict ideological standpoint. At the present stage of historiography development there is an opportunity to conduct an objective study due to the methodological pluralism and declassification of archival collections. According to the majority of historians, the old traditions of municipal self-government are reproduced in the modern context: some elements of the modern municipal government resemble those from the pre-Soviet model of self-government. Previously the city councils functioned under the strict control of provincial administration. Currently there is also a tendency of incorporating the local authorities into the state hierarchy. The First Russian revolution “pushed” local governments to more active political actions. Dumas acted as coordinators of public organizations. They started to participate in solution of problems, which were in the public authority competence. They got involved in solving the problems that had been placed under the jurisdiction of state authorities. This in turn helped to raise the level of civil consciousness and legal culture of population in many Siberian cities. The author concludes that the problem diversity requires expanding the field of study in terms of its chronological and thematic frameworks. The analysis shows that researchers mostly focused on a limited number of Siberian cities, so the data dynamics cannot be observed. The history of municipal governments and city councils participation in the political life of Siberia is investigated selectively (mainly in large cities). Municipalities’ political activity requires a detailed, interdisciplinary, comparative and comprehensive study.

The article attempts to provide comprehensive analysis of the demographic situation in the cities of Western Siberia such as Omsk, Tomsk, Barnaul and Novonikolaevsk under conditions of the First World War. Special attention is paid to the analysis of population size, nuptiality, birth-rate, mortality, as well as age and sex composition. The conclusion is made that there was no uniform trend of population growth or decline in the large cities of Western Siberia during the war. The pre-war dominance of males no longer existed. It was replaced either by smoothing the numerical difference between sexes, or by skewing toward females. A significant reduction in the nuptiality among the citizens due to males being off at the front caused a drop in the birth-rate, while deterioration of the epidemiological situation in the cities led to mortality growth. The number of the elderly and children increased due to the influx of refugees.