ДЕЯТЕЛЬНОСТЬ СИБИРСКИХ ОТДЕЛОВ ИМПЕРАТОРСКОГО РУССКОГО ГЕОГРАФИЧЕСКОГО ОБЩЕСТВА В МЕМУАРАХ ПОЛИТИЧЕСКИХ ССЫЛЬНЫХ ВТОРОЙ ПОЛОВИНЫ XIX - НАЧАЛА XX В
Authors: Т.А. КЕБАК 
Published: November 2024

В статье анализируются мемуары политических ссыльных, отбывавших ссылку в Сибири во второй половине XIX в. и принявших активное участие в работе местных отделов Императорского Русского географического общества. Большинство привлеченных текстов воспоминаний было написано и опубликовано в 1920-1930-х гг. в Советской России по инициативе Общества политкаторжан и ссыльных-поселенцев. «Общим местом» для мемуаров политссыльных стало упоминание участия в работе отделов Географического общества, а также описание возможностей, которые это давало: занятия общественной и научной деятельностью, вопреки правительственным запретам, финансирование экспедиций и доплаты к скудным выплатам вышедшим на поселение революционерам, право передвижения по Сибири. Определены чаще всего встречающиеся в текстах «герои» - члены местных отделов Географического общества.

In the second half of 19th - early 20th century, the Imperial Russian Geographical Society (IRGS) was one of the most influential scientific societies of the empire, to enter which one needed the recommendations from other members of the organization. However, in Siberia, where the branches of the IRGS were also opened, there were many political exiles who were formally forbidden to engage in social and scientific activities. The local administration, represented by the governors and the governors-general, who were at the same time the patrons of the branches, looked tolerantly on the participation of the political exiles in scientific activities due to a lack of qualified specialists. The authorities were interested in studying the expanses of Siberia in geographic, ethnographic, geological and other respects. However, the opportunities which the political exiles got due to the participation in the work of the Siberian branches of the IRGS, and the ways they described the activities of the geographical society in their memoirs has not yet become the subject of a special study of historians. The texts analysis of the memoirs of the political exiles made it possible to determine the time of their writing and publication. Most of them were published in 1920s - 1930s through the activities of the Society of Former Political Prisoners and Exiled Settlers. The range of the opportunities, which the Siberian branches of the IRGS provided to the “involuntary settlers” was significant: involvement in social and scientific activities, bypassing government restrictions; getting funding for research trips and additional payments to meager payouts to the revolutionaries on the settlement; the right to travel across Siberia and the empire as a whole, as well as participation in expeditions to the neighboring border countries. The article characterizes the interaction of the local authorities with the settlers-researchers and the factors that influenced it. The texts of the memoirs revealed a variety of significant people for the authors, whose choice was influenced by the social, political and national identity of the political exile. In addition, the most frequently encountered “heroes” were identified in the texts - the scientists of the local branches of the geographical society (G.N. Potanin, D.A. Klements and A.K. Kuznetsov), who abandoned revolutionary work for the sake of scientific and social activities, but continued to provide all possible assistance to the political exiles.