HISTORY OF AFRICA IN DOCUMENTS 1870-2000. In 3 volumes. Vol. 1: 1870-1918; Vol. 2: 1919-1960; Vol. 3: 1961-2000. Under the general editorship of A. B. Davidson, Moscow: Nauka Publ., 2005-2007. 499 p.; 719 p.; 420 p.

In the modern world of global news networks, domestic media paradoxically seem to have forgotten about the existence of the African continent. Even the notorious comparisons of our country with the Upper Volta can no longer be found, although sometimes you can find a comparison of Russia.-

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You can also compare your daily indicators with some African statistics. Meanwhile, in recent years, there has been a kind of "discovery of Africa" by our compatriots, who are striving to develop direct ties with African countries not so much in the arms trade, but in the sphere of small and medium-sized businesses, tourism and cultural exchange, and sometimes in the field of modern technologies. The Russian diaspora has significantly increased in African countries, whose representatives are not only well-versed in the current situation of different regions of the continent, but also actively interested in the long and recent past of the countries in which they live and successfully work. To a certain extent, this "spread of our world" compensates for a significant reduction in the number of embassies and official representative offices of Russian organizations in Africa.

However, it would be a stretch to assume that a decrease in the flow of official information and an increase in "unofficial" knowledge about the continent has made Africa closer and more understandable for Russians. All the more valuable a peer-reviewed publication becomes. A team of authors, mostly employees of the Center for African Studies at the Institute of General History of the Russian Academy of Sciences, began their journey to create a three-volume study of the history of the African continent through a document almost a quarter of a century ago. A complex, not fully established genre, designated by the strange term "scientific publication" for an academic publishing house, looks more like a standard compilation-more than six hundred documents are collected in three volumes on one and a half thousand pages. Such collections have been published before: for example, in the 1960s, on the wave of popularity of Africa, a two - volume book "The USSR and the countries of Africa 1946-1962 was published. Documents and materials" (Moscow, 1963). There are also numerous anthologies and reading books on the history of Asian and African countries, where African subjects are traditionally sparsely represented by traditional well-known texts. Fortunately, the situation is quite different in the case of a peer-reviewed three-volume book.

It is probably no coincidence that this study appeared right now. The time distance in relation to the events and phenomena of the continent's history helped to weed out random, often opportunistic estimates, smoothed out inflated expectations. At the same time, many new materials were brought to the surface, the existence of which previously could only be guessed - first of all, documents of national liberation movements and related topics. It is important to remember that in domestic conditions, some documents are not only miraculously found in various "special" folders, but also suddenly disappear again. The authors of the publication had already passed the school of searching and analyzing rare, low-circulation or even underground publications earlier, when they were preparing collections of documents " Comintern and Africa "(St. Petersburg: Aleteya, 2003) or " Russia and Africa. Documents and materials of the XVIII century-1960" (vol. 1, 2. Moscow: IVI RAS, 1999). The accumulated experience of the authors, coupled with erudition and excellent knowledge of domestic and foreign archives, made it possible to create a deep study, and not just another "scientific publication".

The structure of the three-volume book is set by the periodization of the rich history of the continent. As you know, it was largely a reflection of the processes that took place far beyond the borders of Africa. The clash of interests of the major colonial powers, world wars, social upheavals and economic crises in the mother countries, new political and ideological theories-all this was sometimes unexpectedly reflected in the destinies of African peoples.

The first volume takes us back to the period of formation and improvement of colonial administration on the African continent, from the preparation and implementation of the colonial division of Africa by the leading European powers in the last quarter of the XIX century to the summing up of the First World War. Documents for each of the numerous regions of the continent, in turn, are grouped by the authors ' problems: "The Expansion of British Rule in the Mezhozerye", "The peoples of German East Africa and their anti-colonial resistance", " Diamonds and Gold. The work of Africans in the mines. The emergence of cities". The attentive reader will see even in the titles of these (and many other) sections of the volume a kind of coordinate grid for understanding the multi-layered history of African colonial society.

The second volume is devoted to almost half a century of preparation for the decolonization of the continent. The materials are divided into much larger sections: "Africa in World War II", "The Cold War in Africa", "The USSR and Africa: Building ties" , etc. Documents represent points

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the views of very different people - Africans themselves, colonial administrators, travelers, diplomats-on what was happening. Although the second volume of the study is the largest, the authors wisely refused to illustrate events and processes in all the colonial possessions, focusing on the most significant regions. It is in this volume, perhaps, that the main thesis of the authors of the study is most confirmed - there should be no restrictions or standards on the use of a variety of materials in such works. Often, an official document, whether it is a police report from the Belgian Congo or a statistical report from the Gold Coast, begins to "work" in a new way, falling into a single row with the election leaflet or the lyrics of the chants of the participants of the anti-colonial uprising. Such kaleidoscopicity does not harm the seriousness of the study at all. It should be taken into account that many documentary evidence is not just put into circulation for the first time, but is very well translated (including from Hausa, Amharic, Swahili), commented on, and truly "discovered" in domestic and foreign archives.

Like any period approaching the present day, the postcolonial stage of the continent's development has become the most difficult for the authors in terms of material selection. The third volume tells about the " difficult construction of a new life in Tropical Africa "(the title of one of the three sections of the last volume), is full of official documents, texts of speeches and messages of statesmen. Apparently, the abundance of materials "overwhelmed" the authors. This flow is quite understandable, since in the period after the "Year of Africa" the number of African States has increased dramatically, and the tasks that they were called upon to solve have become fantastically more complex. The study formally ends in 2000, i.e. at the end of the last century. But the absence of historical distance, a kind of "time filter", is felt both in the selection of documents and in the composition of the volume. In comparison with previous periods, the history of African peoples is presented more formally, significantly fewer unexpected, non-standard documents. In this difficult case, the authors ' professionalism suggested a reasonable solution : the volume does not attempt to track all wars, coups, conferences or state visits. The selected documents speak more about the" cross-cutting " problems of independent Africa-whether it is trends in economic construction, the fight against the AIDS epidemic, or the growth of authoritarian tendencies in the formation of a new state. A very important issue of the period, as we know, was the completion of decolonization and the dismantling of apartheid in South Africa. These questions are addressed in the last section of the volume and in the study as a whole.

The cross - cutting theme of all three volumes is racial confrontation: its history, ideological roots, and modern interpretations. The interested reader can follow from a long list of documents what changes the mutual representations of black and white peoples have undergone. The range of these ideas is impressive: from the slogan of the pioneer of African nationalism E. Blyden "Africa for Africans" in the middle of the XIX century. to the paradoxical statement of the President of South Africa T. Mbeki about the "nation of blacks and whites", formed by the end of the XX century.

It would be good to add a thematic index to the chronological and nominal indexes for each volume, which could make the three-volume book even more functional. Among the few shortcomings, it should also be mentioned that not all published documents contain the original sources, this primarily concerns materials of pan-African significance. One can only regret that along with the unique texts, the three-volume book does not contain any "pictorial series", except for a few maps. But maybe it's the right thing to do. After all, the authors did not create a textbook, not a book for reading on the history of African countries, but a complete study of the history of Africa.

In today's conditions, the appearance of such a large-scale publication usually becomes possible for two reasons.

First, and this happens most often, there is a certain public order. It may be formed due to the recent ban on the topic, when the publication finally compensates for the accumulated reader curiosity. It is possible to artificially inflate some readers 'and public interests in order to "push" quite ordinary research, for which both serial publications, swashbuckling titles, and an "encyclopedic" approach are used ("All about Vikings", Slavery, cats...). As already noted, today's balance of supply and demand is practically impossible. excludes the appearance of serious research in the field of African studies.

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Fortunately, there is also a "second" option. In this case, the research appears largely due to the authors ' loyalty to their professional vocation, their confidence that a non-market approach will eventually be in demand. The reviewed three-volume book belongs to this type of publication. Only two of the three volumes received support from the Russian Foundation for Scientific Research (RGNF), and support that was not comparable to the complexity and scale of the work. Edition size (800 copies) it also does not leave any hopes for any commercial success or wide popularity. But now it is impossible to imagine studying the history of the continent, teaching relevant sections in universities and even in secondary schools without relying on the published three-volume book.

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