This weekly feature is a place to discuss new developments in fields of history and archaeology. This can be newly discovered documents and archaeological sites, recent publications, documents that have just become publicly available through digitization or the opening of archives, and new theories and interpretations.
A recent court ruling has announced that people should be permitted to photograph and make copies in Russian archives, free of charge. This is potentially a very exciting development, as it is currently incredibly complex and wildly expensive to order copies of archival documents. Apparently the Ministry of Culture will be appealing, but it seems like things are changing. Photography was just allowed in the major research library in Moscow (the Leninka) at the beginning of the year. It seems like research could be movie back in the direction of the early 1990s, a period of unheard-of openness that those of us too young to have experienced it can only dream of. This could usher in new types of research, so let's keep our diners crossed, I say!
Check out the new US National Archives LGBT history blog!