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About Journal


"Novoe Proshloe/The New Past" (NP) is an interdisciplinary peer-reviewed scientific journal that publishes articles in Russian and English on history, cultural anthropology, philology and related fields of social and humanitarian knowledge, without regional and chronological limitations.

The journal is a platform for critical discussion of theoretical and empirical problems, as well as for analysis of modern methodological and methodical approaches to understanding the phenomenon of the past.

On the pages of the journal are published materials - articles, reviews and overviews, and sources, where the past is viewed as a subject of constant processing within the framework of academic and non-academic practices. Of particular interest, there are factors and mechanisms of "the past construction", as well as the context of this process. “Novoe Proshloe/The New Past” focuses on the social, cultural, cognitive, political and technological processes that influence the way individual and group consciousness reflex the past. The analysis of professional and non-professional historical consciousness in this sense is of equal value.

Although the epistemological and empirical significance of historical consciousness has been repeatedly emphasized in humanitarian studies on individual and group identity, as well as cultural, political and social groups at different levels, there is still a significant gap in theoretical reflection on historical consciousness and historical memory. In this regard, more attention is paid to the methodological and theoretical issues of understanding the phenomenon of the past on the tranches of the journal.

We strive to be interesting to our readers, staying within the framework of academic discourse. One of the immutable rules of еру journal is the actualization of research problems through recognizable and metaphorical titles of great books. The selection criterion for us is, on the one hand, the aphoristic and symbolic richness of the verbal image, on the other, the ideological depth and cultural-historical significance of the literary work itself, through the motives and images of which we problematize the theme of the issue. At the same time, it is not strongly required that these texts are to be “fine literature”: we proceed from the fact that high literary merits can be inherent not only in fiction, and not only novels excite the minds of many generations.

The Editorial Board accepts papers for publication in the following areas of research:
- Phenomenon of the past and identity;
- academic practices of representation of the past;
- mass historical representations in different epochs;
- symbols of the past and their role in the functioning of historical consciousness;
- historiographical schools and trends, and their characteristics;
- historical memory and historical oblivion, factors of their formation;
- politics of memory, tools and mechanisms for managing the past;
- collective trauma and its role in the reflection on the past;
- documents and archives, techniques of working with them;
- biographies and shaping of historical consciousness.

The journal publishes reviews and overviews devoted to various problems in Humanities. Copies of books for reviews are to be sent to the address:
Russian Federation, Rostov-on-Don, 344006
105/42 Bolshaya Sadovaya Street
"Novoe Proshloe/The New Past" Editorial Board
Institute of History and International Relations.

The scientific journal "Novoe Proshloe/The New Past" has been published since 2016. The founder and publisher of the journal is "Southern Federal University" (Legal address of the publisher: 344006, Russia, Rostov region, Rostov-on-Don, Bolshaya Sadovaya street, 105/42, http://sfedu.ru).

The frequency of the publication is four times a year in the form of thematic issues. The annual program for the next calendar year is published starting from the second issue of the current year.

The scientific journal “Novoe Proshloe/The New Past”:

The annual programme of the NP/NP for 2024
is looking as follows:

"Essays on the Bursa" (1/2024). The issue’s topic is reminiscent of the mid-19th century bestseller, which shocked the public with descriptions of the morals in the theological school, where cramming, poverty, hunger, beatings and harassment of students by cruel teachers and older comrades were widespread. The story set the framework for the perception of spiritual education and the daily life of students of theological schools and seminaries for many years, becoming a paradigmatic text not only for secular readers, who unconditionally accepted all the horrors of the church school, but also for the priests themselves, who subsequently wrote their memoirs about the years of youth with patterns of N.G. Pomyalovsky. Based on the “Essays on the Bursa”, we suggest turning to the history of religious education in the Russian Empire, focusing not on the content of a series of educational reforms or the content of curricula, but on its anthropological dimension: everyday life, social practices, interpersonal relationships, norms and their violations, specific culture of a closed educational institution. Within the framework, we expect to have a discussion about the influence of literary bestsellers, such as “Essays on the Bursa”, on contemporaries, including government officials who make political decisions under their influence, as well as historians who fall under the charm of a literary text.

"Flight" (2/2024). The title is derived from the play by M.A. Bulgakov with the same name. Written during the period of global upheaval in Russian society, the play reflects the large-scale exodus of a part of the Russian intelligentsia, their feelings and experiences after the defeat in the Civil War. M.A. Bulgakov, characterizing the state of the first wave emigrants of the 20th century, writes: “... they sank like lead in great waters ...”. He raises questions about each individual person’s understanding of himself, his role and his place in the present and future of the country and the world during historical cataclysms and severe trials. The latter, like “great waters,” absorbed those who deliberately deprived themselves of their homeland, but could not be happy outside of Russia. The main idea of the issue are problems of emigration as a historical phenomenon: conditions, effects and consequences of rejection or adaptation, the interpenetration of cultures and traditions of “newcomers” and a society foreign to them. The allusions evoked by the title of the play allow us to turn to the study of the phenomenon of emigration in a general civilizational context, as a reflection of crisis periods in world history. We are interested in the human dimension of ongoing transformations in society in the context of interdisciplinary analysis. We are interested in the methodology for studying this topic and the main approaches that have developed in modern historiography. We expect from the authors materials devoted to resettlement and migration in general, the processes of adaptation of emigrants, the history of individual destinies, emigrant everyday life, the transformation of views in the “friend or foe” system, the concept of social justice in the context of global outcomes. We would be grateful for articles aimed at studying various aspects of mass exoduses in history, their causes and consequences for states and societies at different stages of history, and connections with world processes.

"First Man in Rome" (3/2024). The issue explores the problem of political leadership in historical retrospect. As the literary basis for the theme of the issue, we chose the title of the novel by Colleen McCullough - the first of her famous epic cycle “Lords of the World,” covering the era of civil wars and the transformation of the Roman Republic into an empire. Describing the rise to power of two charismatic antagonists Sulla and Marius, the author examines in detail and flawlessly - both from a historical and psychological point of view - the nature of a person in power, no matter what ideology - aristocratic or democratic - he adopts. At the same time, McCullough shows that regardless of what the personal political views and moral imperatives of a particular leader are, the result will be the same: the personality of the political leader “dissolves” in power and becomes its hostage. In this literary (as well as historical) plot we see a metaphor for the problem of political leadership in Russian and world history. In this context, the representation of the leader’s image in the public space seems relevant. Centennial anniversary of the death of the leader of the world proletariat V.I. Lenin provides an opportunity to understand the problem mentioned above.

"Geography" (4/2024). Understanding oneself in space is one of the basic human needs, without which the existence of homo sapiens is unthinkable. Space is one of the universal sociocultural codes. Society perceives territoriality and extension through the prism of its culture, therefore geography in its historical dimension is not only and not so much a physical phenomenon as a cultural and historical one. This issue marks the 2000th anniversary of the completion of Strabo's Geographica. His work has become an encyclopedia orbis terrarum of the ancient world. 24 AD - This is the estimated year of Strabo’s death and the year of completion of his work, which became widely known quite late. The most famous ancient treatise on geology is a reason for discussing the image of space in culture. The ways of perceiving the circle of the earth in different cultures, its organization and structuring differ very strikingly. The way sacred geography intersects with real geography makes it possible to comprehend not only the territorial organization of a particular society. Reflecting ideas about cosmic order, society, the sacred and the profane, one’s own and the other’s, the center and the periphery, power and anarchy, the “sphere of responsibility” of the muse Urania finds itself in close proximity to the domain of Clio. The idea of cultural geography in its historical and anthropological aspect is relevant not only for the Ancient and Medieval worlds, but also for modern and modern societies. The issue is dedicated to images of the world, ideas of space and sacred geography. We invite authors who would like to write about history through the suggested angle. Among the problems discussed are the idea of the center of the world, the sacred direction, the connection of social order with the cosmos. It is also proposed to comprehend the place in the literary tradition, historical memory and collective consciousness of such a genre as travelogue and reflection in it on the development of someone else's space, knowledge of someone else's as self-creation and knowledge of oneself. It is proposed to pay special attention to the map as a way of understanding and transforming reality.

Each of special topics will cover no less 25% of the volume. Editorial Board hope on these topics as perspective for the journal progress. The journal enlargement is thought as mutual development together with our authors.

The main journal topics are (No)Doubt, Main Issue, Theory and Methodology, Articles, Discussions, Sources, Academic Chronicle.