Maxim Bulanenko, Institute of History, Archaeology and Ethnology of the Peoples of the Far East, FEB RAS, Vladivostok, Russia. E-mail: bulanenko@ihaefe.ru.
In today’s world nobody doubts the relevance of science, but almost as strong is the conviction that it is not a proper task of science to search for and communicate the relevance of the objects of its study to the society. Meanwhile, the idea that the goal of science consists solely in describing and explaining facts but not in exploring their relevance has become widespread only recently. This idea does not cohere well with the nature of science as the choice of subjects of research, their classification and the establishment of connections between them is determined by the objective relevance these subjects have in the eyes of the researcher. Moreover, the denial of the existence of objective values deprives science itself of its value. Thus, science as a human activity ceases to be comprehensible that cannot satisfy the humanities. The acceptance of these scientific standards also has other unaccept able consequences for the social sciences and humanities because they use intentional explanations where the reason is stated as an intention to realise a state of affairs that the actor considers positively valuable. However, the social sciences and humanities cannot consistently adhere to the position of value relativism because there are serious objections against it, which confirm the existence of objective values. Besides, the field of objective values is as much a subject of research as any other, therefore the recognition of the objective values by scientists does not inevitably lead to bias, ideologization or totalitarianism. A man and society need guiding models to live not only well but also correctly, and only historical science has an inexhaustible supply of such models. At the same time, its methodological rigour will help to focus on relevant points and to avoid distortions and arbitrariness in evaluation.
Keywords: philosophy of science, social sciences, humanities, historical sci ence, naturalism, relativism, theoretic realism, value realism, moral choice.

Natalia Tanshina, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, Moscow Pedagogical State University, Moscow, Russia. E-mail: nata.tanshina@mail.ru.
The paper is devoted to the study of processes occurring in Russian and world historical science against the backdrop of dramatic geopo litical shifts and transformation of the system of international rela tions. The historical community faces a number of serious questions: is a historian an ideologist and, moreover, a “fighter on the ideological front”? Can a researcher be engaged in pure science and not react to political processes taking place in the country and in the world? Can a historian be free from the society which he lives in? The paper raises questions about the researcher’s responsibility since the interpretation, evaluation and “reformatting” of the past start to have a direct impact on the present and construct the future. The paper emphasizes that history is doomed to be rewritten without any negative connotation as new sources, approaches and methods force us to constantly turn to seemingly studied topics. However, we often witness the rewriting of history for the sake of political expediency when researchers simply fulfill a political order or are politically biased authors. The study notes that sometimes professional historians turn into propagandists; more over, they are engaged in the outright falsification of history, become the authors of pseudo-historical documents, and follow opportunistic tendencies to the detriment of historical truth. The paper also raises issues related to the teaching of history.
Keywords: historical science, ideology, responsibility of the historian, propaganda, historical memory, falsification of history.

Yuliya Kovalevskaya, Institute of History, Archaeology and Ethnology of the Peo ples of the Far East, FEB RAS, Vladivostok, Russia. E-mail: tupa67@mail.ru.
The paper examines the influence of the dominant ideological context on historical science basing on the studies of the Institute of His tory, Archaeology and Ethnography of the Peoples of the Far East of the Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, which were published between 1972 and 2015. The research topics on national history in the late Soviet period reflects an undeniable connection with the official state ideology and the “party line”, which was predetermined by the nature of the Soviet system. The overwhelming majority of can didate and doctoral dissertations on national history were devoted to the Soviet era, more than a third of them were defended in “History of the CPSU”. During the Perestroika and the post-Soviet period in Russia by 1991, three competing types of political discourse — social demo cratic, neoliberal and nationalist — and the associated types of legitima tion of power appeared and then successively changed. At the same time, there was no officially dominant ideology, and history as a science developed relatively freely. However, the change in the power discourse was reflected in the topics of dissertations and publications published at the institute between 1990 and the 2000s: the growth of attention of historians to the problems of the imperial period, previously closed topics (such as political repressions, the history of the White movement and Russian emigration, bourgeois political parties, etc.), “newfangled” research trends (gender studies, the middle class, everyday life, security, megaprojects, etc.). However, the dependence on the political situation no longer had the same scale as during the Soviet period.
Keywords: Perestroika, 1990s, political discourse, historical discourse, publications on national history, Institute of History, Archaeology and Ethnography of the Peoples of the Far East of the Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (FEB RAS)

Anatoly Kuznetsov, Far Eastern Federal University, Vladivostok, Russia. E-mail: kuznetsov.2012@mail.ru.
The paper analyzes contemporary issues related to the concept of “nationalism”. This concept is considered as a variant of the ideology that originated in England and then was adopted in France and other countries. To understand the nature of nationalism, the key issue is the interpretation of the controversial concept of “nation”, which has been and is still of fundamental importance. The author shares L. Greenfeld's point of view that this concept, due to its integra tion potential, was used to resolve crises by the authorities. At the same time, the literature unreasonably asserts the very early appear ance of national identity on the basis of which nations are formed. Having considered the Russian tradition of interpreting the concept of “nation”, the author noted its consonance with another concept — “ethnic community”, which caused confusion when using the appro priate terminology. Considering the importance of ethnic associations in the countries of the world majority, it is proposed to take into account their specifics (unlike nations), which is manifested in the fact that the idea of the nation was created and promoted by the ruling elites in relation to European realities. However, ethnic communities were formed at the pre-state stage of development, and some of them still exist today. No wonder that ethnic separatism is often considered as one of the nontraditional security threats. Today, the crisis of the idea of the nation is manifested in the fact that such states as Russia and China are forced to position themselves as nations consisting of other nations rather than as nation-states.
Keywords: ideology, nationalism, nation, state, ethnic community.

Vitaliy Boldyrev, Institute of History, Archeology and Ethnology of the Peoples of the Far East, FEB RAS, Vladivostok, Russia. E-mail: boldyrev89@list.ru.
The paper identifies the problem of decolonization of the science of inter national relations (IR). Its colonization was furthered by overwhelming American leadership after the end of the Cold War. Using attractiveness of the “triumph”, relying on visible omnipotence and objectivity of quan titative methods and grand theories, the USA proliferated its influence in the science of international relations in the whole world. At the same time, it would be a simplification to speak of the absolute supremacy of the American mainstream. In Western Europe, Great Britain and even in the USA there are oppositional trends developed by historians and political scientists. The most solid alternative to the American science of international relations was developed in the Soviet Union. In the USSR the research was developed in four directions: grand theory, system modeling, applied country studies and analytical techniques. Despite significant success, it was constantly held back due to strong ideological pressure. Consequently, after the collapse of the USSR it took a lot of time to comprehend theories and methodologies previously inaccessible to researchers that contributed to the transformation of thinking and its colonization. At the same time, despite a huge amount of Western, first of all, American ideas, the Soviet heritage demonstrated relative stability in the science of international relations, although in some cases American colleagues intercepted the initiative, narrowed the gap or forestalled Russian researchers. In order to build a more solid founda tion for the national science of international relations, it is proposed to rethink the socialist scientific heritage more deeply, to adapt certain Western studies, to treat methodology development as a methodological design and to create new educational courses for universities and post graduate studies.
Keywords: international relations, foreign policy, decolonization, theory, methodology, history, USA, Great Britain, Soviet Union, Russia.

Dmitrii Likharev, Far Eastern Federal University, Vladivostok, Russia. E-mail: liharev.dv@dvfu.ru
The paper analyses the life and scientific legacy of Stephen Wentworth Roskill (1903—1982), one of the most prominent naval historians of the twentieth century. The author tries to answer the question why S.W. Roskill joined the navy, while family traditions and upbringing didn’t predetermine such choice. Roskill’s career is divided into three main periods: the naval service, his work on the official history of the British navy’s participation during the Second World War and his academic career after 1961. One of the most important episodes in Roskill’s aca demic career was when he defended his point of view on the key events of the Second World War against the pressure of the top navy leaders and high-ranking politicians, first of all, Winston Churchill. Among these events are the Norwegian Campaign in April 1940, the sinking of the battleship “Prince of Wales” and the battlecruiser “Repulse” in December 1941, the destruction of the Convoy PQ-17 and the Dieppe Raid in August 1942. The main collision concerns divergences between Roskill’s views and those of Winston Churchill in his work “The Second World War”. The paper presents a comparative analysis of the pecu liarities of the scientific study of “official historians” and university professors, shows the reasons for competition between researchers for exclusive scientific information.
Keywords: S.W. Roskill, naval history, the Second World War, Win ston S. Churchill, historiography.

Sergey Vradiy, Institute of History, Archaeology and Ethnology of the Peoples of the Far East, FEB RAS, Vladivostok, Russia. E-mail: vradis@yandex.ru.
The author examines the biographical materials devoted to the out standing statesman of Qing China Lin Zexu (1785—1850) for character izing the sources of studying historical memory, that forms the basis of public consciousness. The aim is to reconstruct the formation of Lin Zexu’s image in Chinese historiography and to trace its evolution in the context of the historical epoch. The name of Lin Zexu, who sup ported the strict prohibition of the opium trade and resolutely opposed foreign expansion, is highly respected in China. He was regarded as the foremost authority in Qing China, under Nationalist rule and nowadays. If initially, Qing historiographers wanted to present a model of a devoted statesman to future generations of officials, the next stage was the formation of the image of a patriot, a defender of national interests. Further emphasis is placed on Lin’s desire to expand China’s perception of the world, to use “the achievements of Western science” for practical purposes of the country’s defense, which is in line with cur rent government policy. Based on the analysis of biographical materials about Lin Zexu, the author describes peculiarities of the biographical genre of traditional Chinese historiography: relative brevity, a compli mentary style of narration and a predetermined character. The created portrait of Lin Zexu was intended to reflect the typological characteris tics of a person falling under a certain category of the biography.
Keywords: historical memory, Lin Zexu (1785—1850), biography, tradi tional Chinese historiography.

Vitaly Elizariev, Russian Geographical Society, Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, Russia. E-mail: vn_sakh@mail.ru.
More than 380 years separate us from the historical exploits of the Rus sian explorers of the seventeenth century I.Yu. Moskvitin and V.D. Poyarkov. They were the first to pave the way for travelling along the Sea of Okhotsk and the great Amur River. At the same time, both these campaigns are related to each other by similar tasks of national importance aimed at searching for precious metals, deposits of silver ores necessary for Russia. Tomkaney, the Tungus Prince of the Lalagir clan became the main source of the information that served as the basis for the formation, preparation and dispatch of detachments of Rus sian Cossacks to unexplored places, to the Amur River and its upper reaches. However, the goals of both expeditions were not achieved due to the unforeseen difficulties. The Muscovites stopped the move ment and returned to their winter quarters because of the escape of the guide and the accumulation of significant forces of foreigners on the islands at the mouth of the Amur River. V.D. Poyarkov’s detach ment faced tragic events, significant human losses, refusal to perform the assigned task and returned to Yakutsk using I.Yu. Moskvitin’s route. The author offers his version justifying the reasons of unsuccessful searches and tragic events of both expeditions by the deliberate actions of the Tungus shaman Tomkaney and princes of other foreign clans against the expansion of the Moscow government during the conquest of Siberia in the seventeenth century.
Keywords: Tomkaney, V.D. Poyarkov, I.Yu. Moskvitin, Amur River, Zeya River, Lavkay, silver, silver ore.

Aleksandr Zhadan, Vladivostok Branch of the Far-Eastern Legal Institute of the Min istry of Internal Affairs of Russia, Vladivostok, Russia. Е-mail: awzhadan252@mail.ru.
The paper is devoted to the analysis of working and living conditions of the employees of the territorial bodies of the NKVD of the Far East during wartime between 1941 and 1945. The efficiency of staff, the moral and psychological state and discipline of personnel, the effec tiveness of solving official tasks directly depended on the solution of issues of food, clothing, housing, medical and other types of provi sion. That determines the relevance of this study within the history of the internal affairs bodies. This publication is based on the docu mentation of the central apparatus of the NKVD of the USSR and the NKVD departments of the Primorye and Khabarovsk regions from the State Archive of the Russian Federation, regional and departmental archives. The author relied on the principles of historicism, objectivity and consistency, as well as the methods of social history. The results of the study showed that during this period the material and technical supply of the internal affairs bodies deteriorated significantly and led to the austerity measures and maximum use of self-sufficiency mecha nisms. Significant efforts of the leadership and party organizations of the Far Eastern NKVD bodies were aimed at maintaining acceptable working conditions, providing the personnel with food, fuel, medicines, and solving other everyday problems of employees. On the whole, the complex of undertaken measures allowed to preserve the efficiency of police groups and ensure the solution of problems of crime control and maintaining public order.
Keywords: Great Patriotic War, NKVD bodies, Far East, working condi tions, material security, living conditions.

Song Linlin, Institute of Northeast Asian Studies, Heilongjiang Provincial Academy of Social Sciences, Harbin, China. Email: songlinlin713@163.com
Digital economy represents the future development direction of the world, and the advent of the digital era is largely related to the development of this field. China and Russia have strengthened their in-depth cooperation in digital economy in the context of advancing their comprehensive strategic partnership. In this paper the author analyzes the level of development and international competitiveness of digital economies of China and Russia based on the comparison of relevant indicators. The study underlines five aspects for comparing the development indicators: the size of digital economy, the construction of digital infrastructure, digital global governance, global competitive ness of digital economy enterprises, and information and communica tion technologies. Considerable attention is paid to the deep integration of digital economies with real industries of the two countries that has given a new impetus to the intensive China-Russia practical coopera tion. It is concluded that China and Russia should explore the possibility of establishing a digital free trade zone, creating cross-border “smart city clusters”, innovative cooperation in digital technology, which will boost innovative interaction in digital economy and open the digital era of cross-border interconnectivity between China and Russia.
Keywords: China and Russia, digital economy, digital trade, industrial convergence.