Manuscript of Е. D. Prokofieva “Fishing of the Taz-Turukhansk Selkups” from the Archive of the Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera) of the Russian Academy of Sciences as a Source on the History and Ethnography of Siberia: 1920s–60s

In the archive of the Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera) of the Russian Academy of Sciences, in the collection of famous ethnographers and researchers of Siberia, employees of the MAE RAS G.N. Prokofiev and E.D. Prokofieva there is an incomplete manuscript of an article by Ekaterina Dmitrievna Prokofieva “Fishing in the Taz-Turukhansk Selkups” (AMAE, fond 6, series 1, no. 104). In the first part of the manuscript, the author provides purely ethnographic data on traditional fishing methods among the population of the Taz River, characterizing the state of fishing in the region on the eve of Soviet modernization. The second part contains information about socialist changes that had taken place in the Taza region from the 1920s to the early 1960s: the transformation of the traditional culture of the local peoples, the change in the anthropogenic landscape, and the formation of the industrial fishing. The material, on which the work is based, was collected by E.D. Prokofieva during the expedition of 1962 to the Krasnoselkup district of the Tyumen region. The expedition was her last trip to the Northern Selkups. Alongside E.D. Prokofieva in the expedition there worked a young graduate student A.M. Reshetov, in future, well-known sinologist, historian of Russian ethnography, head of the department of East and Southeast Asia, and party organizer of the MAE RAS. The materials included in the text of the manuscript were obtained from direct participants and witnesses of the events or were taken from the economic documentation available at that time in the organizations of the district. The generation of informants has since changed, and the complex of documentation with which the researcher worked has become fragmented, scattered in the archives, and partially lost. This makes the manuscript a valuable source containing rare materials on unexplored issues of ethnography and history of the Taz lands of the era of intensive Soviet transformations. The purpose of this and several previous publications by the author, written on the basis of E.D. Prokofieva’s manuscript , is to introduce into the scientific use new data on the history, ethnography, and historiography of Siberia.

Stalin’s Liquidation of Kulaks as Class and Organization of the Process of the Soviet Peasantry Proletarianization

The article examines various aspects of the recently revealed archival document of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) on the plan of repressive policy against the Soviet peasantry “On measures to eliminate kulak farms in the areas of continuous collectivization.” The author notes that the process of liquidation of kulaks as class, or of depeasantrification, as it is often designated in the historical literature, has been well studied. The first and rather timid attempts to assess the problem in the terms of individual “deformations of socialism” date to the turn the 1990s. At present, the attention is mostly focused on the regional aspect, as over the past three decades there has been made available a complex of sources from local archives, which was previously in closed storage. The article analyzes preconditions of the protest sentiments in the course of mass collectivization undertaken by the party bodies in the center and in the regions, as well as harsh suppression of possible peasant uprisings by punitive bodies, identification and persecution of the instigators. Examination of official party documents on collectivization permits to identify the ideological, social, and economic criteria for ranking Soviet peasants among kulaks. It is concluded that liquidation of kulaks as class on the territory of the USSR was conducted in a very short time and in two stages. At the first stage, in January – March 1930, repressions were to be carried out in the economically developed regions: the Black Earth region, the Middle and Lower Volga region, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Belarus, North Caucasus, Dagestan, Ural, Siberia. The second stage spread them to other regions of Soviet Russia. The author notes an inconsistency in the thesis of positive economic consequences of the mass collectivization and elimination of kulaks as class for industrialization. Taking into account their consequences, the author proposes to consider these two complementary processes initiated by the leadership of the CPSU (B) as a preventive campaign to intimidate the rural population in order to return to the methods of surplus appropriation via formation of the collective farm system. It has been revealed that J.V. Stalin’s plans, in accordance with the Marxist-Leninist doctrine, included a rapid change in socio-economic status of peasants: from relatively free farmers, producers of agricultural products entitled to manage their crops (after paying the taxes) to hired workers, in other words, proletarians. According to the author, the large-scale famine of the first half of the 1930s was a direct consequence of the so-called “revolutionary transformations in agriculture,” the victims of which are still to be accurately calculated.

Excerpts from Land Separation Books as Title Deeds for Hereditary Estates, Fisheries and Meadows: The 17th Century Materials from the Tikhvin Assumption Monastery Archive

During the 17th century, the archives of the Tikhvin Assumption Monastery accumulated documents testifying to the monastery’s acquisition of rights to votchinas (hereditary landed estate) and ugodia (collective name for fisheries, meadows, etc.). Among these documents there are excerpts from land separation books (otvodnye knigi). In order to determine the significance of such excerpts as title deeds, the article examines situations requiring their receipt, and sequence of actions of the patrimonials and authorities. It is generally accepted that grant deeds were basic document confirming monasteries’ rights to votchinas and ugodia. The Tikhvin Assumption Monastery received its last grant deed in 1621. However, in the following years, the Monastery was granted new votchinas and ugodia, which also required title perfection. And yet thereafter all grants were issued without drafting grant deeds. The article considers four situations that demanded separation of land: proving rights to old landholdings; acquiring new votchinas on the basis of grant deeds; proving rights to ugodia recorded in census records, but not in grant deeds; acquiring new votchinas and ugodia on the basis of decree without grant deed. The study of the archival documents has made it possible to reveal how rights to votchinas and ugodia were established in the 17th century without issuance of grant deeds. First, the monastic authorities filed a petition in Moscow and received a decree ordering the authorities of Veliky Novgorod to separate the land. Upon receiving such order from Novgorod, a local official performed separation of land according to an excerpt from cadastral register and compiled a land separation book. In order obtain an excerpt from the land separation book, the procedure was to be repeated. In the case of disputes or legal proceedings with outside parties – landholders (pomeshchiki) or court peasants (dvortsovye) – a new land separation book for the successful party was to be drawn. Sometimes several years could pass between land separation and obtaining an excerpt from the land separation book. The monastic authorities did not seek to receive it immediately and, probably, did not have a clear idea of the need for such an action. The available data allows the author to conclude that excerpts from land separation books may have been main document proving ownership of votchinas and ugodia, but were usually obtained in case of land disputes. However, to decide a case, other documents reflecting the history of the grant were required: excerpts from cadastral registers and survey books, originals or copies of decrees, and command letters.

The Rocky Road to the Formation of the Korean Department of the Eastern Section of the Communist International (1919 – first half of the 1920s)

The article highlights the process of formation of the Korean Department of the Eastern section of the ICCA under the conditions of existence of the buffer state — the Far Eastern Republic. It was to strive for geopolitical compromise in face of the Civil War and the Allied Intervention. The paper discusses conditions for establishment and reasons for further expansion of the Korean section. On the basis of documents from central and regional archives that are being thus introduced into the first scientific use, the contradictions of the national section formation are shown, the positions of the warring parties and the role of Soviet Russia representatives in the settlement of conflicts are highlighted. The conclusion is made about further directions of work with Korean communists. The past provides an opportunity to take a critical look at the events of a century ago, while the opening of the Comintern archives allows the open press to saturate its content with new data. The main body of unpublished documents on the activities of the Communist International is contained in the fond 495 of the Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History, however, information on some aspects may be found in other federal and regional archives. It is no secret that foreign communists played their role in the foreign policy of Soviet Russia, and their help was big. However, the process of bringing them to work in the interests of the RSFSR has not yet been fully studied. Expediency, cost, and consequences of their work may be arguable, but only one conclusion is allowed: this page of national history should not be forgotten, it has to find its researchers. Recently, the study of the activities of departments and sections of the Communist international has not been popular among researchers either. The notions of ideological work have fallen by the wayside, pushed away by the Soviet past of the Comintern departments and sections. However, in our view, some aspects of the activities of divisions and sections of the Comintern remain relevant.

Forced Migrants from Central Asia in Terms of Archival Documents (1991-2002): A Case Study of the Chelyabinsk Region

The article draws on the documents from the United State Archive of Chelyabinsk Region and the State Archive of the Russian Federation to examine forced migration from the former Soviet republics to the South Urals in 1991-2002. The choice of chronological framework is due to the fact that this period saw the peak of forced migration caused by the outflow from the military conflicts zones and due to the difficulties of post-socialist transit in the states of Central Asia. The 2002 Population Census allows the author to draw the balance of these processes and to identify the number of the region’s residents who arrived from the former Soviet Union republics between 1989 and 2002. The Chelyabinsk region is a part of the Russian-Kazakh frontier. After the collapse of the USSR and the reformatting of state borders, this borderland was an extended settlement area of the Russian-speaking population, mostly leaning towards moving from Kazakhstan. Due to a sufficiently high level of development, transport accessibility and low start-up opportunities for migrants, these border regions became one of the main places for receiving forced displacements from the Central Asian states, mostly Kazakhstan. In the current historiographical situation, a holistic reconstruction and detailing of these large-scale migrations requires a reliance on new historical sources. Archival documents of regional migration services contain valuable data on the number of forced migrants, their main areas of origin, socio-demographic characteristics, and other important parameters. The documents revealed in the fonds of the OGACHO and the GARF have showed that, at the initial stage, the backbone of migration flows was the Russian-speaking population from neighboring Kazakhstan, able-bodied, with a sufficiently high level of skills. This compensated for demographic losses due catastrophic growth of mortality and decline in birth rate. Thus, according to the migration service of the region, migration compensated for more than half of the total population loss, without any significant impact on its ethnic composition. At the same time, migrants encountered numerous difficulties in integrating into Russian society, which were rarely reflected in the specific documentation of state institutions. Many of the arrived, for various reasons, were not included in the forced migrants and refugees statistics due to numerous bureaucratic difficulties and an objective lack of resources for helping such a large number of people.

Territorial Heraldry of the Muscovite Tsardom in the “Titulyarnik” of 1672

The article is devoted to the analysis of images of territorial coats of arms in the "Titulyarnik" of 1672. The "Titulyarnik," existing in several copies, is the most important source on the history of Russian heraldry. It is a complete visual embodiment of the complex of territorial coats of arms, formed via mentioning the corresponding lands in the royal title. By the early 1670s, the territorial title of the Russian tsars included over 30 names. It had significantly changed and had been supplemented in connection with the events of the war between Russia and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth of 1654–67, which was successful and resulted in annexation of new territories. These territorial incorporations were interpreted by the Russian side as the return of the ancestral lands, the "fatherland" of the Muscovite sovereigns. The "Titulyarnik" became the second source after the Great Seal of Ivan the Terrible, in which the heraldic representation of the royal title was given in its entirety. The complex of territorial coats of arms underwent certain changes since the end of the 1570s, when the Great Seal of Ivan the Terrible had been created. These changes most probably took place under the first Romanovs, starting in the 1620s. At the same time, some coats of arms were re-drawn. In the "Titulyarnik," most of the territorial coats of arms were also changed. Moreover, the complex of territorial coats of arms was supplemented with completely new coats of arms. Iconographic and source analysis of the images of coats of arms and their comparison with earlier versions has allowed the author to identify some important patterns of their transformation. It has been determined that many territorial coats of arms of the "Titulyarnik" were significantly strengthened by Christian semantics. This was primarily done by addition of various Christian symbols to the coats of arms. The most important of these symbols was the cross, represented in its two forms — straight and x-shaped cross. Thus, the heraldic reform carried out in the "Titulyarnik" was consistent; it was associated with the need to emphasize the Orthodox nature of the Muscovite Tsardom as guardian and defender of the Christian religion. Christian semantics also appeared in the heraldic verses written by an unknown author in the 1670s. In these verses, the territorial coats of arms were described and their interpretation was given. Variants of the coats of arms presented in the "Titulyarnik" continued to exist in the period of the Russian Empire.

History of the Syrian Christians on the pages of the book “The Urmia Tragedy. The Life of the Holy Martyr Pimen (Belolikov, 1879–1918), Bishop of Semirechensk and Vernen”

The peer-reviewed monographic study by Archimandrite Damaskin (Orlovsky), dedicated to the little-studied problem of the missionary activity of the Russian Orthodox Church and the policy of the Russian government towards the Christian part of the Syrian people, has been carried out on the basis of a vast array of archival primary sources, many of which have been thus introduced into scientific use. It is noted that the peer-reviewed work is one of the first, where the author, acting simultaneously as historian and as agiator, recreates the historical canvas of the saint’s life on the basis of a comprehensive study of archival sources, including documented testimonies of persons who were canonized, but whose names and works were crossed out from the official historiography. The review shows that the historical and agiographic context of the author's study has allowed him to quickly and comprehensively recreate historical facts and events, fates of individuals and to reveal their morality. The reviewer appreciates the historical significance of the book's materials, believing that they deserve the closest attention of historians, foreign policy specialists, political scientists, clergy, scholars in historical psychology. The book will be of interest to teachers and students studying the history of religions and of the Russian Orthodox Church.

On Degree and Methods of Borrowing of Western Scientific and Technical Achievements in the Oil Industry in the Days of Forced Industrialization: The 1930s

The article addresses the issue of implementation of the forced industrialization in the USSR, a topic presently figuring among most controversial. In this regard, such its aspects as technical re-equipment of the oil industry, an industry that was of strategic importance, are of particular interest. The research is based on key principles of historical knowledge: historicism, systematicity, objectivity in order to determine the essence of scholarly disagreements on the degree of borrowing of scientific and technical achievements. The study is to consider the activities of the Military-Technical Bureau under the Council of People's Commissars (SNK) of the USSR in the 1930s. Declassified, but previously unintroduced into scientific use documents allow us to assess how technical documentation, procured by the Soviet intelligence agencies on the instructions of national leadership, was introduced into oil production. The study has proved that a significant number of documents and materials containing technical description of various samples, devices, technologies, and developments was thus obtained. This activity reached its peak in the early 1930s, when the course for import phase-out was clearly outlined due to scantiness of resources for forced industrialization. Most materials found their use in oil industry, the rest remained unused due to shortage of specialists, repression, accusations of sabotage, insufficient coordination of departments or their desire to continue purchasing imported equipment. It has been proved that by the end of the 1930s, oil industry used a significant degree of materials thus obtained. The conclusion is formulated that purchases of latest foreign technologies and equipment and materials obtained by the Soviet intelligence provided cost cuts. A variety of methods used to strengthen the oil industry, including introduction of Western developments, were among the factors that provided the USSR with its fuel resources on the eve of the Great Patriotic War.

More Theories, Good and Different: Reflections on the G. A. Dvoenosova’s Monograph on the Theory of Document in the Paradigm of Interdisciplinary Knowledge

G. A. Dvoenosova’s monograph is an attempt at theoretical rethinking of the phenomenon of document in the context of synergistic paradigm. It presents a full-scale structural and functional analysis of document. Based on the principle of causality, the laws of origin and evolution of document have been revealed, the role of document as a system-forming factor has been studied. These questions occupy several chapters in the monograph, where the phenomenon of document is examined in detail from different angles. Document is an interdisciplinary concept included in the dictionaries of many sciences: social, informational, humanitarian, technical, etc. This complicates its study and theoretical comprehension, since each scientific discipline forms its own view of the phenomenon, sets its own accents, and offers its own methods and approaches to its study. Being a classical document expert by education and vocation, G. A. Dvoenosova has made an attempt to integrate the existing knowledge on document into a unified theory based on synergetic toolkit and offered it to the scientific community. The author of the presented monograph is fluent in her material, using a variety of approaches to its interpretation (philosophical, informational, managerial, etc.). Her monograph is characterized by deep historiographic study of its main subjects and by its polemical orientation. Using different research optics, the author reveals the phenomenological nature of document, its systemic characteristics, allowing it to connect space and time, to organize society and structure its information flows. I would like to dwell on the definition of document as materialized memory of humanity. Evaluating the presented theory as an undoubted scientific achievement, it is important to emphasize that synergetic theory of document takes into account and integrates various achievements in the field of theoretical understanding of document as seen in classical document management, communication and information theories of document.

Fonds of Regional Planning Agencies as a Most Valuable Source on the Dynamics and Standards of Living of the Urban Population of Eastern Siberia: 1954–84

The article reviews archival fonds containing collections of the planning committees in three biggest Siberian cities: Irkutsk, Krasnoyarsk, and Novosibirsk. The Gosplan of the USSR acted as one of the pillars of the Soviet economic system, and hence of the Soviet society. This organization, by virtue of its official duties, was to possess the most complete information on the state of national economy, as well as on characteristics, needs, and requirements of the population living in towns and villages of the vast country. Despite the importance of this organization, which had its cells in every administrative unit of the country, its activities have been poorly studied by historians and urbanists. This is especially true of the territory of Eastern Siberia. This situation is due to the fact that its fonds have been classified until recently when most archives have lifted these restrictions. However, the huge volume of the fonds (fonds 1478 and 1300 of the State Archive of the Krasoyarsk Krai are among the largest in the region) and their poor organization complicate working with these collections. Nevertheless, they allow a comprehensive disclosure of the issues of the Soviet city. Turning to urban studies, a historian may feel lost in front of the huge volume of dynamically changing facts, phenomena, processes. Despite rigid unified structure of the Gosplan, the quality of its collections in the local archives depended largely on local managers and employees. Among three largest cities of Siberia (Irkutsk, Krasnoyarsk, Novosibirsk), only Novosibirsk possesses a great number of documents, well sorted and organized, supplied with reference material. The Krasnoyarsk fond is rich in information, especially analytical. However, its organization is chaotic, collections remaining as they was transferred to the archive. Irkutsk has the poorest collection and, being scattered over several archives, it is poorly accessible to researchers. Moreover, the State Archive of the Irkutsk Region has no modern digitized guide to its Soviet period fonds. In general, given the informational value of the planning agencies fonds in the cities of Eastern Siberia, two things should be noted. First, it is necessary to make them more accessible to researchers through transfer and digitization. Second, it is necessary to write a history of regional planning commissions and biographies of their leaders. Working with materials of these fonds should be the first step for any researcher concerned with socio-economic development of Eastern Siberia.