Annual Program of the journal “Novoe Proshloe / The New Past” 2019

Annual Program of the journal “Novoe Proshloe / The New Past” 2019

A Hero of our Time (1/2019)
Issue’s Executive Editors: Olga Dzhumailo, Andrey Korenevskiy

The issue is dedicated to the historical and sociocultural transformations of the concept "the hero of his / our time". The literary allusion referring to the novel M.Yu. Lermontov allows to articulate the problem of a hero and his era, generation, and milieu (or time, environment, a group that chose this or that personality as their "hero") in the full variety of semantic nuances - from the literal understanding of a hero as a headman, a leader, “a ruler of thoughts”, an extraordinary charismatic person capable of "infecting" others with conviction in the rightness of his cause and leading them - to a "reduced" - ironic, sarcastic or even outrageous, "trickster" interpretation of this image. It is intended to pay special attention to the problem of dialectical interdependence of two sides in the controversial tandem of the hero and his time, environment, historical context: not only an outstanding person does personify the era or even really influences the vector of historical development, but also time, society, mass media, groups and parties create their heroes.

A Map of Homeland (2/2019)
Issue’s Executive Editors: Aleksey Konev, Amiran Urushadze

In the materials of this issue we plan to discuss the spatial dimension of Russian history. The literary allusion refers to the book of Peter Weil, which is woven from the texts of various genres, united by the theme of the multifacetedness of the national geographical space and the dissimilarity of sociocultural landscapes. Following Fernand Braudel, who reflected in his book "What is France?" over the problem of French diversity, we will try to present a voluminous reflection on the heterogeneity of the Russian spatial and institutional structure. Of particular interest is the consideration of various mechanisms for combining dissimilar political and cultural elements in the general field of a "big society". We are also interested in the contradictory processes of acquisition and loss of identity, its paradoxes in the situation of close interaction of various cultural practices and imperatives of behavior. In this issue we are waiting for papers about borders / borderlands, outskirts, imaginary geography and images of various regions, the relationship and interaction of landscapes: physical, geographical, cultural, religious, etc.

The Roads We Take (3/2019)
Issue’s Executive Editors: Radmila Airiyan, Maria Ponomareva

The thematic issue is devoted to the problem of a choice of alternative ways in development made by a society during the crisis periods of the history that defined the "moment of truth": tolerance and openness against conflict and egocentric aspirations. We are supposed to discuss the subjects related both to the determinism of combining one's own interests with universal values and randomness of the chosen way.
We look forward to a number of papers on socio-political and socio-cultural manifestations of key events in the world history. The problems of civilizational choice, the role of individual in history, and structural changes in society are of interest. Although we propose to pay attention to such "points of no return" in history as the Revolution of 1789 in France and the Revolution of 1917 in Russia, disintegration of colonial empires, etc., a special interest for us is the "global 1989", the anniversary of events would be necessary to note specifically. It was a year of at least two epochal events that sent history to a new course - the "velvet revolutions" in Europe and the First Congress of People's Deputies of the USSR. Both of them, probably forever, have changed the map of Europe. We expect them to fill the main part of the journal issue.

Steppe Knights (4/2019)
Issue’s Executive Editors: Eugine Vdovchenkov, Dmitry Sen’

The issue is dedicated to the history of paramilitary communities of Antiquity, the Middle Ages and the New Times, who lived in the steppe landscapes of Eurasia. Among them - ancient and medieval nomads, Cossacks, Uskoks, Grenzers and many others, whose status and position were largely determined by their connections to contact (border) zones. We suppose to discuss the scientific classification of these communities, identification of common and special, historical continuity between them, their role in the political, social and cultural spaces of Eurasia.
We expect papers on social forms of paramilitary communities in historical retrospectivity (squads, men's associations, Cossack troops, etc.), as well as military and political aspects of their functioning. It is also planned to pay attention to sources of formation and features of reproduction of paramilitary communities, their traditional occupations and symbols of military culture, military equipment and technologies, violence and practices of its cultivation / control.