THE STUDY OF HISTORICAL MEMORY AND THE METHODS OF FIELD WORK OF MILITARY RESEARCH GROUP IN THE 1960s IN THE SOUTH OF WESTERN SIBERIA
Authors: Щеглова Т.К. 
Published: July 2024

В центре настоящего исследования находятся методы полевой работы с памятью, используемые в экспедициях Алтайского отделения Военно-научного общества (ВНО) при Сибирском военном округе на базе Новосибирского дома офицеров. Экспедиции проводились по местам сражений партизанской армии Ефима Мамонтова в Степном Алтае. Дается сравнение с аналогичными методами экспедиций Новосибирского отделения ВНО. Выявляется близость указанных методов работы с технологиями современной устной истории, определяются этапы, их содержание и особенности в советских коммуникативных общественных и исследовательских практиках 1920–1960-х гг. Предлагаются оценки опросным методам, выборке респондентов, способам фиксации материалов, их хранения. Показана связь состава и маршрутов экспедиций с задачами ВНО по формированию системы коммуникации, коммемораций и гражданского патриотизма.

The objective of the conducted research is the analysis of techniques of field study of military and revolutionary memory of the population of the south of Western Siberia with the use of methods of “oral history” by the regional branch of Military research group at Siberian military district. The basic sources are the materials of the expeditions of 1961, 1962, and 1963 (headed by Major General M.T. Karnachev) to Steppe Altai, which are compared to the Soviet practices of interviewing from 1920 to 1940s, including those by Party History Committee. They are compared with the expeditions of Novosibirsk branch of Military research group to the region adjacent to the Chumysh and Altai Mountains (headed by Major General Sokurov), as well. The basis of the research materials was formed by the documents from the regional archives of Altai Krai and Novosibirsk Oblast, as well as by materials of the expeditions, reports and protocols of sessions. Conceptions of memory anthropology and anthropology of Sovietness, as new trends of ethnological research, were the primary theoretical and methodological approaches. The research has demonstrated that the main methods of field work were individual and group interviews, such as public recollections, in no particular form, recorded on tapes. The respondents were the participants of guerilla movement, who had lived in the area where the guerilla army of E.M. Mamontov operated. The participants of the expeditions were themselves veterans of the Civil War and the Great Patriotic War, retired military officers, members of Military research group, primarily those who participated in military campaigns in the areas under research. Members of other public organizations such as Russian Army, Air Force and Navy Volunteer Society, Society of Promotion Knowledge, etc., were involved as well, assisted by the Communist party and Komsomol authority bodies. The platforms for communications were local Houses of Culture, Communist party authority bodies, schools, and, in cities, local museums. The peculiar feature of their oral history was the combination of research projects and military patriotic activities that determined the participation of historians and writers who popularized the Civil War. Their major achievement was the understanding of historical significance of oral materials that were stored in the state local museums and archives, as well as their preparation for publication and subsequent introduction into the scientific circulation. The peculiar feature of “Soviet-type” oral history was ideologization of the history of the Civil War in order to use the oral sources in morale building activities and interaction between authorities and society, the senior and the younger generations. Another peculiar feature was immortalization and memorialization of reminiscences and memory sites of guerilla movement: hundreds of participants were interviewed, thousands of tape meters recorded, hundreds of guerillas, battlefields and memorials photographed.