DOI: 10.7256/2454-0609.2023.1.39839

Abstract: The article presents an analysis of historiography devoted to the biography of J. Broeckell, an engineer who in 1697 supervised the construction of the first shipping canal, which was supposed to connect the Volga and the Don through their tributaries Kamyshinka and Ilovlya. The analysis showed that despite the fact that in the XVIII-XX centuries many sources containing reliable information about the activities of J. Broeckell in Russia were introduced into scientific circulation, the authors of works on the history of the construction of the Volga-Don Canal were based mainly not on these sources, but on the book by Englishman John Perry "The State Russia under the present tsar", who led the construction work on Kamyshinka in 1698-1702. In the course of the research, it was possible to establish the main biographical information about Johann Broeckell before his arrival in Russia, to clarify the circumstances of his admission to the tsarist service. Analysis of a wide range of published and archival data allowed us to prove that in 1696 J. Broeckell took part in the Azov campaign, was engaged in the construction of earthworks after the capture of the city by Russian troops. In 1697, under his leadership the canal between the tributaries of the Volga and Don Kamyshinka and Ilovlya was begun to built. At the beginning of 1698, apparently realizing that he would not be able to successfully complete the construction of the canal, J. Broeckell left Russia. At the end of 1698, he was captured by Russian troops while trying to transfer to the service of the Turks.

DOI: 10.7256/2454-0609.2017.1.20874

Abstract: The research subject is the activity of the Russian government agencies on the central and regional levels in 1700-1760s in collecting information necessary for the study of the state’s territories in earth science and historic-cultural spheres, with the help of preparing and sending out particular surveys, as well as the result of this work – reports, answers to the surveys, books written on their basis. During this period scholars began a complex scientific study of Russian territories, with regard to which the named series of questions allows to trace how the development of the new methods of scientific mastering of the territory occurred, how the scientific study of these territories was tied to the actual government policy on the military-political and economic reclamation of the country’s regions. The research was conducted on the basis of the principles of historicism and objectivity with the application of the textual criticism and historic-comparative methods, and the method of systematic analysis. As a result of the conducted research it has been established that in 1700-1710s the collection and comprehension of the information regarding the geography, history, ethnography of Russian regions was carried out in the extreme conditions of constant military operations and implementation of vast government reforms. After the end of the Northern War, which chronologically coincides with the passage of the Tsaritsynskaya Watch Line that reduced the military pressure in the Lower Volga region, as one of the main means to collect information for the study of the region came to be used the distribution of surveys, the answers to which were prepared by the local clerks. The organization of surveys at this time, was primarily connected with the activity of several outstanding scholars, who realized the necessity of composing a general historical and geographical description on the Russian Empire – I. K. Kirillov, V. N. Tatishev, M. V. Lomonosov and G. F. Miller, and was not part of the constantly conducted government policy. Surveying allowed to accumulate information on the Russian regions, including on the Lower Volga region, in the Academy of Sciences and the Senate, but this method of collecting empirical material had a whole series of shortcomings, which under the existing conditions could not be overcome.

DOI: 10.7256/2409-868X.2016.5.20687

Abstract: The subject of this research is the historical essays of the early XVIII century, in which along with other issued, were examined the problems of history of the Lower Volga Region (diaries of Peter the Great’s travels, “Short History of the Great Northern War”, “Core of the Russian History”, as well as works of the foreigners who traveled or served in Russia – Bell, Perry, Strahlenberg, de Bruijn). The work defines the circles of the questions on the Lower Volga Region history, which presented the interest for these authors, as well as characterizes their contribution into the study of regional history. The conducted research demonstrated that in the early XVIII century, the issues associated with the history, modern status and prospects of development of the Lower Volga Region were analyzed, as well as materials on this topic were created. These essays differed from the previously existed traditions of description of history in their approaches towards understanding of the past, form, and methods of the work with the source. These compositions comprised the foundation for the main directions of further study of the history of Lower Volga Region during the XVIII-XIX centuries: Examination of events of the regional history in the context of history of the Russian State; Study of the historical problematic within the works dedicated to the comprehensive research of territory of the Russian Empire in geographic, economic, and ethnographic regard.