The Biographical Method as a Methodological Tradition in Russia: A Review of Projects and Publications

The biographical method in sociology and related disciplines is considered to be firmly rooted in the Western tradition of the first half of the twentieth century (the Chicago School, as well as the Polish memory contests started by F. Znaniecki), while the Russian experience remains largely neglected and unnoticed. The article presents an analytic review of six themes/stages of this movement and their contemporary reception: (1) the N. Rybnikov Institute of Biography, (2) Historical Commissions and Societies, such as Istpart, and others, (3) the Communist Academy, (4) monographic studies and the Central Bureau of Local History, (5) the History of the Civil War and the History of Factories and Plants, Cabinets of Recordings and Memoirs, and (6) the Commission on the History of the Great Patriotic War. All of these initiatives are known to researchers, but so far, they have been studied within the narrow confines of separate disciplines, and almost without regard to the biographical method. A detailed account of these themes in the biographical method context provides us with new optics allowing to reveal the general effects of biographization as the self-reflection of modern society, either with scholarly participation or without it. The review takes into account historical realities and is placed within an interdisciplinary field. The internal continuity is traced in all analyzed projects. Their common features include the articulation of social relevance, the temporal regime, and the organizational specificity of work and its methodological characteristics. The latter are given a detailed account in terms of their relevance to the methodological precepts of contemporary humanities and social sciences.

1989: A (Non-)Turning Point for the Polish-German Schoolbook Commission?

Historical commissions and dialogues of historians have been created in order to foster rapprochement, if not reconciliation. The principle is to create a dialogue about history, and, in a spirit of “reconstructive ethics,” (Ferry) to listen to the other’s viewpoints and therefore to put these visions into perspective. That is exactly what the Polish-German Textbook Commission, created in 1972, has been trying to do after WWII, while the 1970’s constituted a period of growth for such bilateral commissions. The task for the Textbook commission was especially complicated, while the two countries still belonged to two different blocs during the Cold War. It however reached its peak in the 1970’s-1980’s, when the commission was one of the only Polish-German, East-West platform for dialogue. Despite the 1989 revolution, the commission still exists today. But how have the 1989 events affected the commission’s work? Have they been a turning- point toward a completely new reality? My hypothesis is twofold: 1989 implicated few little changes on the short-run, but brought some deeper ones on the long-run. The structure of this article will follow this reasoning. First, I will present the limited changes on the short-run. Second, I will explain the bigger changes that could emerge after 1989. This article is based on data collected for my PhD, especially interviews, archives, participant observations, discourses, the media.

Preservation without Representation: Making CLG Programs Vehicles for Inclusive Leadership, Historic Preservation, and Engagement

This article examines public historic preservation agencies’ ability to support social inclusion aims within the context of the Certified Local Government (CLG) program. Though administered by the Texas Historical Commission, Texas’ State CLG program is federally-funded and makes available special access to technical assistance, grants, and loans to qualifying communities contingent on compliance. Program surveys the state staff administered to city and county historical commissions with the CLG designation indicate challenges around diversifying their leadership and identifying training opportunities. This article reviews those surveys to detect insights into how the state CLG program can create spaces in which local commissions can increase their “representativeness” through changes in assessment and training content. Specifically, I analyze two government assessment tools used to evaluate local CLGs’ ability to meet federal and state training and participation expectations. I compare these survey results to self-assessment activities and questionnaires collected during a pilot training on implicit bias, outreach, and cultural resource surveying I conducted with multiple CLGs in Gonzales, Texas. Findings suggest more creatively designed training and capacity building is necessary around inclusion, identifying structural barriers to participation, and foundational knowledge of historic preservation and planning practice, and ethics.

The Galician Paradigm? Post-war Voices of German-Speaking Polish Jewish Survivors1

This paper examines the experience of Galician-Jewish survivors who were fluent in German and who had developed close ties to German culture before the Second World War. It suggests that looking through the German linguistic lens highlights the multilayered nature of Jewish cultural identity in Galicia and offers an important critical tool with which to understand the distinct ways in which Galician Jews experienced the Holocaust. Using personal accounts, this article analyzes the ways in which complex cultural biographies of Galician Jews shaped their identities as eastern European Jews, Polish citizens, and Holocaust survivors. On the basis of testimonies included in early accounts for the Jewish historical commissions, statements by Jewish witnesses in post-war trials, oral interviews, and memoirs, this article discusses the ways in which Galician Jews remembered their relationship with German culture and how their complex cultural identity shaped their personal trajectories after the liberation.

STATEWIDE INVENTORIES OF HERITAGE RESOURCES: MACRIS AND THE EXPERIENCE IN MASSACHUSETTS

The Massachusetts Historical Commission (MHC) is the State Historic Preservation Office for Massachusetts. Established in 1963, MHC has been inventorying historic properties for over half a century. Since 1987, it has maintained a heritage database, the Massachusetts Cultural Resource Information System, or MACRIS. Today MACRIS holds over 206,000 records from the 351 towns and cities across the Commonwealth. Since 2004, a selection of the more than 150 MACRIS fields has been available online at mhcmacris. net.<br><br> MACRIS is widely used by independent consultants preparing project review files, by MHC staff in its regulatory responsibilities, by local historical commissions monitoring threats to their communities, as well as by scholars, historical organizations, genealogists, property owners, reporters, and the general public interested in the history of the built environment.<br><br> In 2016 MACRIS began migration off of its three-decade old Pick multivalue database to SQL Server, and in 2017, the first redesign of its thirteen-year old web interface should start to improve usability. Longer-term improvements have the goal of standardizing terminology and ultimately bringing interoperability with other heritage databases closer to reality.

Items of jewelry art of pre- Mongolian Russia in the collections of Russian museums

The article deals with the question of exhibiting of jewelry art items of pre-Mongolian Russia in Russian museums. Public and private museums that were opening in the Russian Empire contributed to preservation of the cultural heritage of the country. When they were emerging, many private collectors donated part or all of their collections to state. This was especially promoted by opening of the Historical Museum in 1883 for the general public. Exhibits of public museum were replenished by the collections of Uvarovs, Kropotkins, Shcherbatovs, Golitsyns. The fate of collection of the outstanding collector M. Botkin is noteworthy. Masterpieces of jewelry art of ancient Russia may be exhibited in only a few museums in the country, including two sites in the Moscow Kremlin, which show such kind of items. Collection &#34;Russian gold and silverware of beginning of XII-XVII centuries&#34; is located in the exposition hall 1 of Armory Chamber. The glass case 2 presents gold and silver items, made by goldsmiths of Kiev, Chernigov, Ryazan, Suzdal, Novgorod. Museum affair after the October Revolution in the country was significantly reformed. Museums and collections of the palaces were declared as the national property. For registration, accounting and secure of all artistic and cultural treasures, the artistic and historical commissions and the State Museum Fund were created. Majority private collections were nationalized. Russian Museum, located in the Mikhailovsky Palace in Sankt Petersburg has one of the largest collections of pre-Mongolian Russian treasures and individual items of jewelry art of X-XIII centuries. Thousands of works of jewelry art of ancient Russia are collected in the expositions and funds of Russian museums. Today collections of not only central but also local museums are multiplied, facilities and exhibitions are quality improving.