Editorial

This issue of our journal is devoted to general historical topics. It traditionally presents materials on Russian and world history. Perhaps, our readers noticed from the previous issue that we slightly changed the layout of the magazine, making it, in our opinion, lighter and more elegant. At the same time, the originally adopted style, which is a replica of the Suvorin edition, is naturally preserved.

The issue opens with the work of A.V. Ganin, dedicated to the dramatic relationship of one of the prominent military specialists of the Red Army, the former tsarist general A.M. Zayonchkovsky, with the Soviet government in 1919-1921, when he was forced to cooperate with the Cheka after his contacts with the anti-Bolshevik underground were exposed. The publication is based on declassified archival materials introduced into scientific circulation for the first time. The next material in the section is the article by M.M. Yakushev is devoted to a topic that is usually of interest not only to professional historians – the activities of the special services. It reveals some aspects of the activities of Russian diplomatic representatives in the Ottoman Empire and secret agents who served the interests of Russia in 1721-1751. The work of A.A. Malenkova highlights the topic of Chinese migration to the Soviet Union in the 1920-1930s. The article uses documents from the collection of the famous Soviet poetess and journalist Maria Shkapskaya. The essay by Shkapskaya, “Water and Wind,” is especially interesting for its description of the Chinese world on the territory of the young Soviet state, as well as for the peculiarities of the integration of Chinese migrants into Soviet society. The section is completed by a source study by V.V. Khutaryov-Garnishevsky, dedicated to the problem of the authenticity of the diaries of Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich. The author carried out a textual and historical-comparative analysis, using materials from a graphological examination. The fact is that during the study of the diaries, edits and additions made in a handwriting different from the authors were discovered.

The “General History” section this time has a cultural bias to some extent, which certainly expands the subject of our journal. It is opened by an article by D.A. Zaichenko. The topic of the study was the creative activity of representatives of the Jewish community of Mantua at the Renaissance court of the marquises and dukes of Gonzaga. The work of Leone de Sommo, a poet, playwright and musician, who made a significant contribution to the formation and development of the European theater of that time, is examined in detail. The article by M.I. Yakushev tells an almost detective story about how a French artist of the 17th century. Guillaume Joseph Grelot dared to enter the Hagia Sophia mosque in Constantinople, despite the strict ban on visiting by representatives of other faiths. There he made a series of drawings, some-thing that no one in the world had managed to do before him. The topic of the “Opium Wars” appears on the pages of our publication for the first time thanks to the article by A.Yu. Petrov, which provides a general overview of the international situation that developed around China during the period under study, analyzes the negotiations between Great Britain, China, the USA and Russia and reveals the features of these negotiations. Of great interest are the memoirs of contemporaries of those events, including rare documents of Saint Guria, who headed the Orthodox Spiritual Mission in the Qing Empire. The “Messages” section is represented by the publication by L.Kh. Muromtseva about a major figure of the Soviet era, A.G. Zverev, People’s Commissar, (Minister) of Finance of the USSR, who made a great contribution to the creation of a highly effective financial and economic system of the country.

The editorial board of the journal, according to tradition, thanks our respected authors for the materials they have provided. We are preparing the next issue of the “Historical Reporter” and are waiting for new materials, both from our regular authors and from those who would like to join them.

A.E. Titkov Editor-in-Chief of the Journal “Historical Reporter”..