Vol 23, No 1 (2024): ETHNIC MINORITIES AND THEIR PLACE IN THE HISTORY OF RUSSIA – USSR THROUGHOUT XVIII–XX CENTURIES

The authors consider the position of Russian Germans in the empire, who during World War I became victims of the foreign policy circumstance. There is analyzed the process of the transformation of the state-ethnic identity of the Germans through the identification of factors that had a psychological impact on them and contributed to the formation of a “negative” identity in their environment. The sources for the study are the letters of military doctor F.O. Krause and Russian Germans who served on the Caucasian front, as well as German colonists from various provinces of the Russian Empire; decrees and orders of the military and civil administration, periodical materials; office correspon- dence between ministries and other materials stored in the central and regional archives of the Russian Federation. The study shows that the rise in nationalist sentiments in Russian society and the implementation of anti-German policy in the country exerted significant psychological pressure on Russian Germans. Due to this, during World War I they found themselves in a “new reality.” The authors come to the conclusions that influenced by numerous factors, Russian Germans had to choose various ways to preserve their identity: changing the name, emigrating, completely immersing themselves in their professional activities.

The authors consider the issues of involvement of native minorities of the Russian North in the Soviet construction in the first half of the 1920s. The problem is illustrated through the example of Turukhansk region (until 1930 it united the peoples that populated the North of Yeniseysk Governorate). The source base includes the documents from the fund of the State Archive of Krasnoyarsk Territory. It is noted that during the early Soviet period the national policy towards the indigenous peoples of the North was characterized by flexibility and search for balance between the interests of the government and the northern peoples. This policy was mostly founded on socio-economical tasks, rather than political ones. At this stage the government assumed the administration management, provision of economic aid to the native minorities of the North, preservation of the life-sustaining system for using natural resources, all that determined their traditional lifestyle. There began the creation of institutions of self-government (clan councils), trade services, medical care and school education. It was the Northern instructors that acted as conductors of Soviet policy among indigenous peoples. It was intended, on the one hand, to streamline the activities of Soviet institutions among the indigenous peoples of the North, and on the other hand, to help the latter adapt to the new socio-economic conditions. The authors determine the specifics and role of Northern inspectors (from 1924 - instructors in foreign affairs) through the nature of interaction between state, local administrative and clan institutions in the process of developing and implementing support for indigenous peoples of the Yenisey North; their general catastrophic situation could entail irreversible processes of the extinction of these peoples.

The authors analyze the cultural component of the social life of the Kasimov Tatars in the interwar period, the essence of which was the implementation of the Cultural Revolution. Along with the industrialization of the country and the collectivization of agriculture in the mid-1920s, it was declared an important part of the three-tier program of socialist construction. The purpose is to establish the peculiarities of the behavioral pattern of the Kasimov Tatars in the period under review. The source base is the materials from periodicals and ego-documents. The study shows the conditions and realities of the “reforging of consciousness,” the struggle against the remnants of the past which boiled down to the attempts to eradicate the religious cults and customs of the Kasimov Tatars. There is revealed the level of development, continuity, and specificity of local transformation in the most important segment of the cultural sphere - education. The authors come to the conclusion that at the sharp turn of history in the 1920s the Kasimov Tatars showed energy and freedom in order to become “equal among equal” peoples, as declared at the official level. Trying to preserve their own identity, they also showed etatism peculiar to them accepting and actively participating in the transformations as part of the implementation of the Cultural Revolution tasks.

The authors analyze the social practices of creating and storing a Tuvan family photo album throughout the XX - early XXI century. The sources of the study are the materials of narrative biographical interviews with ten respondents - indigenous residents of Tuva of different ages which were recorded by the authors in April - May 2023. The appearance of photo albums, the features of their creation and storage reflect the general history of photo albums in the Soviet state, and now in Russia. The authors point out that in the history of photo albums there appear the Tuvan traditions, for example, in photo frames inside the yurt there are photographs of relatives, domestic animals (horses), and elements of national cuisine. But due to the events of the XX century, the issue of loss and theft of photographs and photo albums became relevant for Tuvans. In the XXI century, Tuvans have a wide variety of photo albums on different media, and today family photo albums also represent the ethnicity of people.

The ambivalence of the approaches of Russian ministries at the end of the XIX century is demonstrated, in relation to public-private partnership in the framework of the implementation of the railway project in the Trans-Caspian General Government.There is presented a system of arguments in support of this approach and against it; the author clarifies the reason for the government’s rejection of the idea of public-private partnership in the construction of the Trans-Caspian railway. The source base of the study is the protocols of the meeting of the government commission, letters from government officials, statistical information on the turnover of commodities with Persia and other materials stored in the Foreign Policy Archive of the Russian Empire and in the Central State Archive of Moscow. The author concludes that the formal basis for rejecting the application of entrepreneurs for the implementation of this railway was the ineffectiveness of the financial model of their participation in the framework of this project. The real reason for this decision was the position of the officials of the government departments that opposed attracting private investors to the implementation of this transport project in the Central Asian region due to the military-strategic and geopolitical aspects.