Bulletin of the Kostroma state University
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The article examines the process of the origin and development of pawnshop activity in the Russian state in the pre-revolutionary and Soviet periods. Special attention is paid to improving the conditions for granting loans to the population secured by property. The authors investigated the normative legal acts regulating the activities of pawnshops. It is noted that the creation of pawnshops was due to the need to rid the population of usurious oppression and the search for new sources of replenishment of the state treasury. The analysis of the sources of legal regulation shows that in the pre-revolutionary period there was a gradual transfer of the work of pawnshops from the public sphere to the private – the organisational and legal forms of pawnshops were improved, the system of control over their activities changed. The chronological framework of the study also includes the Soviet stage of the formation of pawnshop activity, which is poorly studied. After the temporary cessation of pawnshops, the process of its revival began within the framework of a new economic policy in order to improve consumer services for the population. The authors reveal the contribution of pawnshops to the preservation of citizens' property during the Axis-Soviet War. The analysis of the history of pawnshop activity allowed us to conclude about the social role of pawnshops and their importance for maintaining the financial situation of the population, which indicates the need for the development of pawnshop activity at the present stage.

By the end of 1916, the food issue had been escalating in the Russian Empire. The Russian government faced the need to supply not only the army, but also the provinces with consuming bread, and the civilians were hostages of the transport crisis. The fixed prices for bread introduced in September 1916 led to the restriction of market trade. An important step in the state regulation of the bread market was the unfolding of bread. The article provides an analysis of food policy before the introduction of the unfolding. The food distribution of the tsarist government was an attempt to mobilise grain resources for the needs of the army and the civilians. The peculiarity of the reform was the combination of the principle of duty and payment of the product at a fixed price. The expansion is considered both from the all-Russia positions, taking into account the experience of grain-producing provinces, and in terms of Kostroma Province, which had lack of developed agriculture. The article pays special attention to the measures of local authorities. The governor, the zemstvo, the volost peasant gatherings were not ready to complete the tasks in full. The article concludes that the food distribution in the bread-consuming province, experiencing a crisis of planned supply, could not end successfully.

The article considers the work of the Chinese poet Hai Zi (mostly based on works not translated into Russian) as a characteristic example of the spiritual and artistic influence of Sergei Yesenin's work on modern Chinese poetry. The poetic dialogue of Hai Zi and S. Yesenin is considered from the point of view of tanatological poetics, which allows us to present their work as a single meta text, developing various variations of tanatopoetics in order to achieve absolute self-identification by synthesising “self” – death – art. The category of death is considered as the integral basis of the work of S. Yesenin and Hai Zi, which ultimately leads to the realisation of their personal attitude to death as the ontological, epistemological and axiological basis of life and creative work. The article justifies that the “romance with death” of S. Yesenin and Hai Zi is a manifestation of their life-building strategy, consonances in motif and figuration are revealed in the aspect of tanatological poetics, taking into account the different nature of those motifs: the spontaneous-organic feeling of death in S. Yesenin and the tanatological ideology of Hai Zi, based on the synthesis of Western philosophy, Confucianism, Taoism. Particular attention is paid to the consideration of S.Yesenin's poem “The Black Man” and the poem “Spring. Ten Hai Zi” as works that expose the key settings of the poets' tanatological discourse, as well as an analysis of Hai Zi's poem "Life Was Interrupted" as prisms for the reinterpretation of S. Yesenin's life and work within the framework of the tanatological paradigm of "Chinese Yesenin" and the most important act of semiotisation of life and creative work of the Chinese youth, when suicide is positioned as the final statement.

Applying the historical-genetic method, the author attempts to summarise the history data of organisational development of various military units and institutions being stationed in the territory of camp of Military Institute (railway troops and military communications) throughout the chronological period of its existence. The article analyses changes in the development of architecture of the Camp depending on historical conditions. The experience of the development of the training base for different branches of service is investigated. The role and significance of the Camp in the local history and history of the training of military personnel is determined. It is concluded that the events of the World War II served as the main factor in the reconstruction of the infrastructure of the Camp and giving it a modern look, and also that caused its transfer to the jurisdiction of the Railway troops, which has not invalidated to this day.

The article examines the contents’ peculiarity of the play “Late Love” in accord with its author’s artistic intentions. For the first time hand-written materials (rough copies and the play’s draft) have been taken into account and brought into academic use; the chirographs make it possible to bring to light the main points of the play and its vital problems. Special attention is paid to still greater importance the author was lending to the love story while working at the play; it helps to reveal the meaning of the play’s title. It is noted that for the first time Alexander Ostrovsky had shown a highly moral heroine who committed crime for the sake of the man she loved. In this connection, a few opinions of some critics are cited who gave negative estimation to the play. Analysing the play’s artistic merits the authors of the article take notice of the fact that the action is concentrated in time and space. The Shablovs’ house where lawyers, a tradesman, a landlady, and a clerk make their appearance, reflects to a certain extent the social strata of the post-reformed Russia and the tendencies typical of that world. The study of the initial draft made it clear that Alexander Ostrovsky thought over at first the play’s “scenario”, the number of personages, determined their characters and their role in the action’s development. The dramatic action and the happy end draw the spectators to the conclusion that a human’s salvation from its moral ruin is love, personal ability to repent and to realise its responsibility for the people close to it and for the world as a whole.

The article deals with the topical issue of highlighting the complex direction of prosecutorial activity – the protection by the prosecutor in court of public interest in the use and protection of specially protected natural territories based on the scope of legal relations and the purpose of the activity. Taking into account the available theoretical approaches, the author proves that three criteria are basis for the allocation: 1) the complex nature of the legal regulation of the sphere of use and protection of specially protected natural territories; 2) the need to adopt a set of means of prosecutorial activity for violations of the regime of use and protection of specially protected natural territories in court; 3) the unity of the factual circumstances to be established in criminal, civil, arbitration, administrative cases, cases of administrative offences on the facts of violation of the regime of use and protection of specially protected natural territories, which in turn allows, firstly, the collected evidence to be used in criminal, civil, arbitration, administrative proceedings, in proceedings on administrative offences (respectively, unified approaches to collecting and fixing evidentiary information are required), secondly, the prejudice of judicial decisions. The allocation of an integrated direction makes it possible to improve the quality of the organisation and implementation of judicial protection of public interest in the use and protection of specially protected natural territories.

The article examines the controversy that arose in the public space of the Russian Empire after the publication in Russian of two resonant works of fiction – “A Gauntlet” by Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson and “One for Many” by Betty Kris – and gave impetus to the development of ethical views broadcast by their authors. In these books, translated into Russian with a difference of almost ten years, practically identical innovative and, one might say, sensational ideas for their time are expressed – Svava and Vera, the main heroines of the works, advocate the abolition of “unjust dual morality” and expect from a man the same premarital “purity”, the preservation of which was traditionally required exclusively from a woman within the framework of the patriarchal paradigm of marriage and family relations. The call for the abolition of double standards, expressed by B.Bjørnson and B.Kris (and embodied, which is important, precisely through the women, the heroines of their works), was directly related to the women’s movement developing during this period. There were incomparably more opponents of the ideas broadcast by the authors, who continued to adhere to the traditional view of sexual morality and the position of women in society, than its supporters. However, the very fact that such a discussion appeared in the public field and the fact that a number of representatives of the medical community, public figures, writers and journalists supported these ideas, speaks of the changes that have already begun to take place in the public consciousness.

The purpose of this article was to identify how intertextuality in the novel “Small Island” (2004) by the British writer Andrea Levy (1956–2019) contributes to the representation of postcolonial issues. To solve the research problems, we applied cultural-historical, comparative, biographical methods of literary analysis. The article considers how to appeal to the poem “Daffodils” by William Wordsworth allows the contemporary writer to criticise the anglicised system and the content of education in the colonies, which becomes the conductor of the dominant, Western discourse. The reference to “Gone with the Wind” helps Levy demonstrate how the stereotyping of images of blacks in cultural texts is pointedly acutely perceived by her dark-skinned heroine. An appeal to the poem “The Charge of the Light Brigade” by the Lord Tennyson and, through it, to Rudyard Kipling's poem “The Last of the Light Brigade”, to the speech of Winston Churchill, serves in “Small Island” to recall the undeservedly, according to Levy, forgotten contribution of the indigenous inhabitants of the colonies to the protection of British territory in World War II and the post-war reconstruction of the country.

This article examines the role of Marcus Wallenberg Jr., a prominent financier and industrialist, one of the leaders of the financial and industrial group of the Wallenberg family, in the foreign policy of Sweden on the eve of and during World War II. Having concentrated in his hands the main threads of influence on the industry and the financial sphere of the kingdom, Marcus Wallenberg was unofficially involved in the development of the foreign policy of the kingdom, which sought to be out of direct involvement in the war. The article examines various contacts with representatives of the opposing sides, carries out with the active participation of this banker and industrialist, both as part of official delegations and as individuals – the main focus is on establishing interaction between the USSR and Finland in 1943-1944, as well as cooperation with the Allies – Britain and the United States. The article also analyses the non-institutionalised regular contacts of Marcus Wallenberg Jr. with the political leadership of Sweden during 1938-1945, including the difficulties faced by the financial and industrial group under his control in the period immediately after the end of World War II.

The comedy “Rich Brides” by Alexander Ostrovsky and the novel “The Idiot” by Fyodor Dostoevsky are close in staging the main plot move – the fate of a woman who sinned due to life circumstances. The main characters of both works fell victims to wealthy patrons who were going to marry them off. They have different personalities, and the heroine of “Rich Brides” Valentina Belyosova, unlike Fyodor Dostoevsky's heroine Nastasya Barashkova, at first glance seems frivolous, but the women, being accused of immorality, transformed, as female pride and a desire to defend themselves awakened in them. Impressed by Yuriy Tsyplunov's bitter emotional accusations, Valentina Belyosova is imbued with respect for him and even confesses her love. The characters in “Rich Brides” are melodramatic and comic with unexpected turns of events. Alexander Ostrovsky does not parody or imitate the author of the novel “The Idiot”, but the metamorphosis that occurred in the feelings and behaviour of Valentina Belyosova (partly in Yuriy Tsyplunov) testifies to the playwright's ability to portray complex characters, which brings his talent closer to Fyodor Dostoevsky's ability to artistically represent the dialectic of personality.