At the awarding ceremony, which took place as part of the 9th Volga Wave International Book Fair-Festival, there were announced the winners of the 2022 Best Books annual regional contest. This list includes four books of SSU researchers.
In the Best Book on the History of the Fatherland and Local History nomination, one of the became Associate Professor of the Department of Russian History and Archaeology, SSU, Victor Totfalushin with his scientific publication Saratov Region during the Crimean War (Saratov University Press). The book highlights the impact of the Crimean War on the social everyday life of Saratov Region, examines how the local people resisted the enemy. The author tried to determine the level of social tension in the region.
The textbook I Am Not Laughing – I Am Scared (Saratov University Publishing House) was recognised as the best in the Popular Scientific Publication nomination. Its author is Professor of the Department of Russian Language, Speech Communication, and Russian as a Foreign Language Olga Myaksheva.
The monography reveals how children master their native language and speech. The “object” of scientific observations are three children, and the subject is their speech development, taking into account age, gender, individual, and mental differences. Being a specialist in studying the systemic properties of language and stylistic features of speech communication, the author analyses the “material signs” of children's speech formation and explains the specifics of these “signs”.
The prize-winner in the Best Textbook special competitive nomination was the textbook Saratov Region in the Soviet Era (Saratov University Press). The authors of the book are professors of the Institute of History and International Relations Yurii Golub, Aleksei Gumenyuk, and Victor Danilov. The book is dedicated to the history of Saratov Region in the Soviet period. Chronologically, it describes the time from 1917 to 1991, which included large-scale processes that took place in the country, which radically changed the region.
The publication studies the period of the Civil War, large-scale famine, an attempt to slowly “grow” into socialism, forced industrialisation and mass collectivisation, the Great Patriotic War, post-war reconstruction, derogation and reforms of the 1950s and 1960s, the stability of “developed socialism” and, finally, perestroika, which led to the collapse of the Soviet system.
The Best Book Design nomination was awarded to the book Saratov Region in the Era of Peter the Great by Professor, Chair of the Department of Russian History and Archaeology, SSU, Sergei Mezin (Volga LLC), devoted to the anniversary dates – the 350th anniversary of the birth of Emperor Peter the Great and the 300th anniversary of his visit to Saratov.
The book is about the history of Saratov, which during the reign of Peter the Great became the largest commercial and industrial city on the Volga, as well as about the emperor's travels along the Volga in 1695 and 1722. Some chapters are devoted to Tsaritsyn, Petrovsk, Dmitriyevsk (Kamyshin). While working on the book, the author used new archival materials and a wide range of local history sources.
This year, 59 book publications from 18 participants have taken part in the contest, including 6 book authors, 12 publishing houses and publishing organisations of the region.
