Editor’s-in-chief foreword

Abstract

Dear readers, dear colleagues!

We are glad to introduce you the first issue of the new periodical of Yaroslav-the-Wise Novgorod State University. The scientific journal “Caurus” has been established by the Acting Rector Professor Yu. S. Borovikov’s order No. 2443 dated December 13, 2021 as a part of the NovSU development plan implementation. This includes the publication of world-class scientific periodicals, the formation of scientific and educational cooperation platforms, strengthening and optimizing the publication activity of NovSU academic and teaching staff.

The new journal, the first issue of which will be published in the early autumn of 2022, is called “Caurus”, which is a Latin word for “northwest wind”. Members of the publishing team have chosen this name assuming that it best reflects the geographic location and thematic aspects of the materials intended for publication, which will represent the achievements of domestic and foreign researchers in the field of studying the historical past of the Russian North-West and the states of the Baltic region. The chronological framework of publications is supposed to be limited to the thousand-year period of the “pre-industrial era” of the 8th – 18th centuries, when the prerequisites were formed and the foundation for a multifunctional model of modern Russian-West European relations was laid, which even then were distinguished by a complex set of attributes  that caused extremely ambiguous interpretations.

The concept of this magazine is based on the idea of ​​the Baltic region as a communicative zone, which for many centuries has been of exceptional importance for the formation of not only the local, but the entire European cultural and historical space. The scientific understanding of this process is often replaced by political mythology, generated by the stereotypes of public consciousness and producing them in even greater volumes. The discursiveness of this issue, as well as the diversity of the author’s intentions and interpretations, presupposes scrupulous research work and the acquisition of new knowledge in the mode of the greatest objectivity. The latter is hardly possible without recreating a large-scale panorama of international Baltic contacts – economic, political and legal, institutional, socio-cultural, intellectual, etc., thanks to which the mechanism of co-adaptation of Russian or Orthodox and Western or Catholic, and from the 16th century also Protestant “worlds”, was launched within the designated space and functioned very productively in various contexts of time.

In accordance with the profile of the edition being presented, the filling of the publishing “portfolio” will be carried out mainly through researching the relationship of the Russian North-West, its cities – Veliky Novgorod, Pskov, Polotsk, as well as state entities, with the Baltic countries, mainly with Livonia, which was located on the territory of modern Estonia and Latvia and was an important intermediary in the implementation of contacts between Rus’/Russia and Western Europe.

The editorial staff of the journal will focus on the history of the Hanseatic League and Russian-Hanseatic contacts, typological features of spiritual knightly orders and “order states” (Ordensstaaten) of the Baltic States (the states of the Livonian division of the Teutonic Order and the Order of Prussia); border incidents from the time of rearranging “offensive” borders; vicissitudes of interstate conflicts in the context of the “battle for the Baltic” (dominium maris Baltici) and methods of their resolution; diplomacy and treaty practice, which laid the foundation of international law.

Turning to the historical past of the states of the Baltic region, one cannot ignore the diversity of their administrative, legal and institutional models, which should be correlated with the Russian variants. In addition, the attention of the journal’s publishers will be focused on studying the “personal history” (prosopography), problematic moments of material history and socio-cultural traditions, intellectual history concerning the interaction of ethnic Russian/Russian and Western European societies in the field of education and culture. In addition to all of the above-mentioned, there will be studies of a historiographic and source study nature, data from modern archeology, numismatics and sphragistics.

The main part of the “Caurus” journal is devoted to the publication of scientific articles of individual or collective authorship in Russian, English and German with annotations in Russian and English, which will provide the journal with the opportunity to expand international cooperation and present the achievements of modern historiography in the development of the “Baltic” topics. When selecting materials, the editorial board stated the scientific novelty of the research, the relevance of the topics and issues raised, the originality of research methods and the introduction of new sources into academic circulation as the main criteria. All materials in the journal are published for the first time; re-edition of previously published texts, either in whole or in fragments, is not allowed. All articles will undergo a double anonymous review procedure, which is carried out by the members of editorial council and editorial board of the journal, as well as by the invited Russian and foreign experts. The studies based on archive materials or unusual interpretations of known sources presenting original methods and concepts are especially welcome.

The degree of success in constructing the image of the past to a large extent depends on the dynamics of expanding the source base of historical research, and therefore, in order to optimize the study of the “Baltic issue” at the present stage, the “Caurus” journal will gladly provide its pages for the publication of documentary monuments and the results of their research in a specially created section. Documents from foreign archives, which, as a rule, are not well known in our country, are planned to be published there in the bilingua mode, i.e. in the original language and translated into Russian, which is intended to help correct the transcribed texts and improve translations. All publications of sources will be accompanied by short source essays, which will allow you to get to know the sources and their main characteristics, accompanied by reference material placed in footnote references and/or in special appendices.

A special section of the journal will be dedicated to the chronicle of events related to the thematic and conceptual orientation of the journal – conferences, round tables, educational and cultural events, specialized sites and web resources. In the same section, it is planned to publish information about relevant events of the NovSU International Cooperation Department, the Department of World History and International Relations (DWHIR) and the Center for Cooperation with the Countries of Northern Europe and the Baltic States (the Baltic Center).

In addition, the journal will contain reviews of the most interesting contemporary research, including foreign ones, and annual bibliographic reviews.

The editors of the journal provide its release twice a year and grant readers with free access to the full texts of all articles on the official website of the publication  (https://journal-caurus.ru).

M. B. Bessudnova