The publication in "Library. Golden Shelf" consists of three parts: the article by Alexander Elert, Doctor of Science in History, an expert in decoding, translation and research of manuscripts of the 17-18th centuries; a fragment of "The Knights of the Taiga" (G. F. Мueller) published in Russian for the first time, and the article by Alexander Panfilov, Cand. Sc., "My Longing to Serve Society...".

My Longing TO SERVE SOCIETY
Gerhard Friedrich Mueller — a Man and Scholar

Alexander Panfilov

It is amazing how historical evaluations that are accepted in everyday thinking tend to stick to various real things – be they associated with an event or a bright personality. Yet this amazement is always mixed with bitterness because such evaluations ultimately distort real life, banishing what can properly be described as “alive.” This is always associated with ideology, since any ideology writes history according to itself. Meanwhile drops of water wear away a stone. A word repeated a thousand times becomes a stereotype. It is easier to deal with stereotypes – everything is arranged in orderly compartments, and all the blocks constitute a pleasant construction. It seems that nobody bothers that this construction is nothing more than a theoretical substitute for a living thing – the main aim is to preserve the semblance of logic. Real life is exchanged for a historical scheme which suits everybody. And the moments when you feel the unbearable falsity of these constructions, which look like physical murder of the real and living, … they are just moments, incomparable in their lastingness and “importance,” to hours, days and years of our inertial existence, which for us is inconceivable without convenient schemes and undoubted “laws.” All this is terrible…

More information on these and other subjects you can find in the printed version of our journal.