The article researches the process of historical memory formation and the role of museum spaces in it. The authors consider the use of letters from the front as the means of commemoration. The issues of commemoration and re-commemoration, museum reflection and its influence on historical memory are studied. Special attention is paid to museumification of front letters and memoires of war workers. The authors consider the new possibilities of using them in museum displays using multimedia technologies, emphasizing the higher accessibility of the letters’ content in multimedia. The research novelty consists in the cross-disciplinary view of a historical source through the prism of museum space. The authors show the properties and possibilities of narrative sources which are now available due to modern technologies. The unpublished ego-documents (private letters and memoires) from museum funds were studied and described. The research topicality is due to identification of the influence of written museum exhibits on the formation and socialization of historical memory. It is proved that the personal materials in a museum display using modern technical opportunities enhance the informative effect, stimulating commemoration and facilitating the formation of historical memory. The article employs the experience of fund, exhibition and excursion work of the Museum of the history of Gorky railroad development.

The article deals with the religious culture of the peasants of the Nizhny Novgorod province in the XVIII—XIX centuries. Particular attention is paid to the analysis of the materials of the investigations in cases of “divination”. Definitions of the concepts “magic deeds”, “folk Orthodoxy”, “folk religiosity” are given. The gender and age composition of those accused of divination is characterized. It is proved that both men and women were engaged in magical practices. Most of the defendants were over 34 years old. A classification of the “magic” deeds of the Nizhny Novgorod province is proposed. The subject of litigation was healing practices (quackery), the use of conspiracies to resolve vital situations (search for loss, a fair decision, etc.), obtaining predictions (fortunetellers and hysterical women), the use of objects and special spells for one's own benefit, as well as found cases related to social behavior — flight, desertion, attempts to get rid of the owner or the coming punishment. The conclusion is made about the prevalence of “magic” practices related to the health of a person or livestock. The author's reconstruction of the circumstances of life that led the accused to the investigation is presented.

No abstract

O estudo é realizado no âmbito da tendência em desenvolvimento na ciência histórica russa — a história da vida cotidiana. Particular atenção é dada ao estudo de várias formas organizacionais de vida da comunidade estudantil soviética em uma cidade provinciana, como Gorky naquela época, durante um período difícil e intenso na política interna e externa da história da URSS. Os autores utilizam o método local de pesquisa histórica, mostrando a história do país pelo prisma da história de um determinado locus. Materiais da imprensa periódica dedicados à vida estudantil e aos problemas mais preocupantes dos alunos estão envolvidos no estudo. A novidade do artigo está na introdução de diversas fontes inéditas que lançam luz sobre alguns aspectos da vida da comunidade estudantil, aliando o método local com a história do cotidiano.

The question of the use of the official labor biography in the 30—40s of the twentieth century as a means of instilling a sacred attitude to work in a Soviet person, a method of non-material stimulation of the production process is considered. The relevance of the study is due to the interest in biography in the context of the history of labor, in the authors’ appeal to the problem of forming a new attitude to work during the period of industrialization and the years of the Great Patriotic War. Attention is paid to the role of periodicals. The results of a comparative analysis of the official and real biography, recovered from the materials of the personal file, are presented. The question is raised about the tasks of the official biography of the Hero of Socialist Labor in this period. The novelty of the research is seen in the attraction of unpublished data from the production archive of the Gorky Railway, in the reconstruction of real biographical data. The authors compare the official and real biographies. The possibility of using heroic biography as a method of non-material stimulation of labor has been proved. The author’s reconstruction of the biography of Ivan Georgievich Makarov — Hero of Socialist Labor is presented. The experience of analytical research of documentary historical sources and their comparison with the narrative tradition is described.