DOI: 10.7256/2585-7797.2017.2.23513

Abstract: The second 2017 issue of Historical Information Science journal is characterized. The main sections of the issue are presented. These are “Databases and Data Retrieval Systems”, “Quantitative History”, “Digital Resources”, “Information Technologies in Archives and Museums”, “Information Technologies in Historical Education”. The basic content of the articles is analyzed. Emphasis is laid on the articles describing the use of geoinformation systems in historical studies. The authors of these articles emphasize the necessity to modernize opportunities of spatial historical processes dynamics analysis on the basis of GIS-technologies. In this respect, they suggest the use of available GIS-packages as well as their own software. The editorial board plans to publish at least two issues of the journal and focus on research in this domain in one of them. The second issue is likely to address the analysis of historical texts based on modern software application.

DOI: 10.7256/2585-7797.2017.2.23392

Abstract: The article analyses prosopographic database of political prisoners in the years of the Red Terror (1918–1922). The author addresses the problems of relational database creation on the basis of the Political Prisoners Aid Society “Moscow Political Red Cross” (MPRC). The source base of the database is census papers of political prisoners collected by the MPRC legal department stored in the Russian Federation State Archive, Fund Р-8419. Most of them are introduced into scientific turnover for the first time. Statistical analysis of the database as well as source study analysis of census papers has been carried out. The results of analysis of arrest dynamics and the reasons for arrests are discussed as well. It is demonstrated that arrest dynamics was logical as it reflected social and political process in the years understudy (military communism regime, suppression of peasants’ revolt and attempt to centralize and arrange punitive bodies’ activity). The analysis of arrest reasons showed that most of 1918–1922 political prisoners were charged with counterrevolution, participation in the White Movement, espionage and anti-Soviet agitation.

DOI: 10.7256/2585-7797.2017.2.22659

Abstract: The articledescribes the creation and functioning of the internet resource “Letopis of Moscow University” developed within the frames of Lomonosov Moscow State University’s official portal. This specific resource is a constantly updated database about Moscow University since the moment of its foundation up to the present day that grants direct access to its data. The author describes genealogy and the main stages the resource has gone through and characterizes its detail structure, key sections and projects carried out on the basis of the site, those in social networks included. When evaluating the resource interactivity level, the author gives examples when the site data were used in research papers, presents statistics and analyzes the most popular publications in “Moscow University Diary” that is a “daughter” project of the site in the biggest social networks. A number of methods were employed to write the article. These are general scientific methods (a historical method, a logical method, classification and systematization), historical methods (a chronological method and a systematic and structural method) and interdisciplinary methods (a statistical method and imagology methods). The research novelty is the summarized experience of Moscow University database creation on the basis of website. The author considers the form of hypertext data arrangement which meets principles of systematicity, multimedia character, transparency and interactivity to be in line with the task of creating databases with a constantly updated content. The resource is important as long as its scientific and educational tools are concerned as well as a project being an actor forming public discourse about Moscow University.  

DOI: 10.7256/2585-7797.2017.2.23103

Abstract: The article studies social characteristics of the repressed in Altai and Oyrotskaya Avtonomnaya Oblast from December 1934 to the Big Terror period in June 1937. The goal is to reconstruct the social portrait of the repressed, choose and analyze social and demographical marks influencing the sentence. The author analyses dynamics of repressions in two regions throughout the period understudy, finds similar and distinctive features in repressive politics. The sources of the study are the database of the International Memorial and investigative cases of the Altai Krai. To meet the goal the author has employed methods and technologies of database creation, statistical methods (a sample method, contingency tables), a general historical method (comparative-historical one). The analyses demonstrated similar features of the Altai repressive politics with that in Oyrotskaya Avtonomnaya Oblast. Repressive campaigns were similar in the whole, but had some regional peculiarities. National factor was dominating in Oyrotskaya Avtonomnaya Oblast both in respect to the natives (the Altaians, the Telengits) and “other nationalities” (the Russians). In general, the author notes similarity of reconstructed social portraits of the repressed in Altai and Oyrotskaya Avtonomnaya Oblast.

DOI: 10.7256/2585-7797.2017.2.23410

Abstract: The article studies the way quantitative methods are employed to handle a housing problem in Moscow in the late 19th early 20th centuries on the basis of 1882 census. The census collected a lot of data covering each part of the city. These are the number of dwellers in apartments with similar number of rooms, the number of apartments with different rooms, the number of stories in residential buildings, water supply and toilet rooms in apartments, the number of apartments used for industrial purposes, etc. The census data provide for classifying apartments as far as the number of room dwellers is concerned. To group the city parts with different share of dwellers per an apartment and a room cluster analysis has been employed. Census data provide for evaluating housing conditions by means of a precise parameter that is dwellers’ density in a room as well as correlating dwellers’ density, the number of stories and rooms and geographical location in a city with each other. Such data allow for comparing housing facilities in different city parts as well.

DOI: 10.7256/2585-7797.2017.2.23355

Abstract: The article studies historical mapping on the basis of modern geographic information technologies. Today, historians are used to maps demonstrating historical dynamics by means of static images. However, dynamic maps which are more in line with the nature of historical research are considered more promising. The article describes different modes of transmitting reconfiguration of vector objects over time both in the desktop version of GIS-project and web-GIS. The approach proposed resides on data on the time when each objet appears and disappears (lower date and upper date) as its attributes. Basic principles of dynamic historical mapping were put forward around 20 years ago in English historiography. However, that map has not been widely used and specific solutions of its creation have not been discussed either. Rampant development of web-GIS technologies let us address the problem again. The research novelty is in the view on a dynamic map as a basic solution to develop a general GIS-platform integrating historical geography research results obtained by different historians. It is the first address to technical issues of a dynamic map creation in Russian literature.

DOI: 10.7256/2585-7797.2017.2.23295

Abstract: The article studies a technique and technologies of dynamic historical GIS-projects development and the employment of spatiotemporal analysis to study historical processes. The study covers geoinformation systems, the use of cartographical method in history, electronic cartography, historical process modeling. The author pays special attention to a heuristic work with a historical GIS-map as well as regularities by searching for synchronized and consecutive alterations of attributive and metric data of map objects. The main method employed is a comparative one. The comparison is drawn between historical and mathematical GIS-projects. Historical geoinformation systems at hand have also been compared to analyze and search for more preferable variants. The research novelty is an attempt to set up basic principles of spatiotemporal analysis when working with historical GIS-projects. The author presents his own variant of a dynamic geoinformation system allowing for historical process modeling. The article concludes that historical geoinformation systems are a particular class of GIS-format projects demanding specific methodical and technological approach as well as development of specific functions for spatiotemporal analysis. .

DOI: 10.7256/2585-7797.2017.2.23083

Abstract: The article addresses logical and functional features of an applied geochronological tracking information technology. From the viewpoint of its applied aspect, this information technology is scientific methodological and program tools to automatize certain historical issues related to biographical and geographical data merge on the basis of geoinformation systems and corresponding geoinformation technologies. It is an example of a specific information technology developed to help historians employing geographical interpretation of their subject domain when solving research problems. The methodology bases on the object-oriented approach to modeling within GIS domains and ontologies widely used in modern programming and complex software systems development. The novelty of the solution proposed is the principles of biographical and geographical data integration for humanities. The article studies qualitatively new opportunities provided by such a GIS tool as software application of geochronological tracking which it acquires in the process of its development.

DOI: 10.7256/2585-7797.2017.2.21905

Abstract: The article studies the practice of foreign libraries and archives to regulate the readers’ use of various gadgets (digital cameras, pads, smart phones, portable scanners, etc.) to independently copy archival documents and pages from rare books. The author makes a review of the issue, classifies the approaches employed and analyzes the texts of regulatory documents. The research methodology is that of a system approach. The main methods are: - a historical and systematic method to analyze the problems set up in regulatory documents; - a historical and genetic method to compare the practice understudy with the legislature of other countries; - a historical and comparative method to study different approaches proposed in the documents; - a historical and typological method to study similar, specific and unique variants of problem solution. The main result of the study is the conclusion about various approaches practiced to handle the problem of independent copying. At the same time, the author is the first to have classified regulatory methods employed in libraries and archives and have demonstrated preferable solutions of the problem tried out in many countries.

DOI: 10.7256/2585-7797.2017.2.22915

Abstract: The article studies cultural and historical as well as social and psychological aspects of interaction between computerized and traditional forms of higher historical education. The following adversarial lines between traditions and innovations in education are analyzed: hypertext readers, audio slides and video lectures in contrast to “live” face-to-face lectures; step-by-step online training aids instead of taking notes and sitting for an exam at the end; stagewise formalized testing instead of single-stage oral exam; electronic mail instead of tutorial meetings; forum discussions instead of “offline” seminars; virtual simulators instead of laboratory work with real objects and texts; individual knowledge acquisition trajectory instead of general curriculum; automatically registered “success rating” and “scientific value” instead of informal opinion and expert reviews; necessity to analyze huge digitized datasets instead of descriptions and compilation of a relatively small amount of published data. The research methodology is the use of theories and analogies from history and culture of traditional societies and civilizations to understand instructor’s role in the situation of education technologization. The article is an experiment to revive epistolary dialogical genre in research articles. This text is an expert exchange of pro and contra arguments about traditional and innovative forms of work with information in the field of liberal education and especially historical one. The dialogue does not aim at its transformation into a “line” or a “dot”. Its aim is in contrast to hear what others say and compare their opinion with one’s own interpretation and perception of reality, to find new meanings and ways of their verbalization and “external presentation”. The main conclusions are ideas stating that any computer technology is a more convenient and efficient form of educational information that relates mainly to modern epoch in terms of its volume, speed and update availability rather than quality of education. This does not lead to the increased quality of education. The latter is merely in line with the communicative structure and dynamics of modern civilization. Full-time education based on a single curriculum in its traditional form with lectures and seminars is still irreplaceable and has a number of advantages over computer-based self-education. The study provides new arguments in favor of the central, irreplaceable and irretrievable role or face-to-face communication of instructors and students as well as emphasizes the lack of problems understudy related to online education efficiency criteria in comparison with live offline dialogue methods of the educational process. The research novelty is an original dialogical search of hidden and rarely mentioned advantages and disadvantages within the opposed innovative and traditional forms of higher historical education.