1 December 14, 2025
Articles
1. Nicholas W. Mitiukov
The Orders on the Distribution of the “Kamlesosplav” Trust Fleet as a Source of Information on its Composition and Size in 1945–1950
Russkii Arkhiv. 2025. 13(1): 4-11.
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2. Nicholas W. Mitiukov, Yuri L. KimbRusskii Arkhiv. 2025. 13(1): 4-11.
Abstract:
The “Kamlesosplav” Trust made a significant contribution to the supply of timber to the lower Volga region, which was crucial for the post-war economic recovery of the region. Using the fleet allocation orders, this paper attempts to reconstruct the trust's fleet composition between 1945 and 1950. It is concluded that fleet allocation orders, in the absence of fleet management orders, are a valuable source for assessing the evolution of the fleet complement and identifying typos and other textual defects. The trust's fleet showed a clear and steady growth from 1945 to 1950. While in 1945–1946 the highest ship number was 108, in 1947 it was 118, then in 1948 it was 140. But even though the highest number did not increase in 1948–1950, the fleet was being filled with new vessels. These either had their own names or their numbers were assigned based on vacancies created by decommissioned vessels. Furthermore, a steady qualitative growth of the fleet was also observed. Mainly old, low-power kerosene or gasoline-powered vessels were being decommissioned, and new ones with 3D6 diesel engines (150 hp) or steamships (200 hp) were being acquired. All this points to an increase in the trust's productivity.
The “Kamlesosplav” Trust made a significant contribution to the supply of timber to the lower Volga region, which was crucial for the post-war economic recovery of the region. Using the fleet allocation orders, this paper attempts to reconstruct the trust's fleet composition between 1945 and 1950. It is concluded that fleet allocation orders, in the absence of fleet management orders, are a valuable source for assessing the evolution of the fleet complement and identifying typos and other textual defects. The trust's fleet showed a clear and steady growth from 1945 to 1950. While in 1945–1946 the highest ship number was 108, in 1947 it was 118, then in 1948 it was 140. But even though the highest number did not increase in 1948–1950, the fleet was being filled with new vessels. These either had their own names or their numbers were assigned based on vacancies created by decommissioned vessels. Furthermore, a steady qualitative growth of the fleet was also observed. Mainly old, low-power kerosene or gasoline-powered vessels were being decommissioned, and new ones with 3D6 diesel engines (150 hp) or steamships (200 hp) were being acquired. All this points to an increase in the trust's productivity.
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Reconstruction of the Fleet Composition based on Personnel Documentation using the Example of the Sarapul’s Raid of the “Kamlesosplav” Trust in the 1950s
Russkii Arkhiv. 2025. 13(1): 12-26.
Number of views: 2 Download in PDF
Russkii Arkhiv. 2025. 13(1): 12-26.
Abstract:
Documentation on personnel makes up a significant part of the archival funds. Most citizens' requests to archives are related to questions of confirmation of length of service, salary or existing awards. Since personnel documentation is the most asked-for part of office work, the archival funds of many organizations consist exclusively of it. Meanwhile, for research, the greatest value is documentation on the main activities, the safety of which sometimes leaves much to be desired. The paper proposes a methodology ща reconstruction of the ships’ personnel of the Sarapul's raid of the “Kamlesosplav” trust using the documentation on personnel, since documentation on the main activities of the raid was lost. Checking whether an exhaustive list has been obtained is carried out according to the statistical report of the raid. Despite the good result that the methodology gave, it was concluded that with a constant composition of the fleet, usually permanent full-time crews work on ships from year to year, and therefore, these ships are reflected only in connection with incidents. If this does not happen, the personnel orders do not mention the fleet. The second weak point of the methodology is related to the non-self-propelled fleet. As a rule, they do not have a permanent team and therefore references in connection with personnel are extremely eclectic, not creating a holistic picture. The situation is similar with small traveling vessels, where there were also often no full-time crews. Finally, the third weak point of the methodology is the period of intensive growth of the ship’s personnel, as was the case of the Sarapul's raid in 1955–1957. This is likely due to the presence of vacant positions that remain unfilled. In this regard, even accepted ships could be laid up and not appear in the documentation.
Documentation on personnel makes up a significant part of the archival funds. Most citizens' requests to archives are related to questions of confirmation of length of service, salary or existing awards. Since personnel documentation is the most asked-for part of office work, the archival funds of many organizations consist exclusively of it. Meanwhile, for research, the greatest value is documentation on the main activities, the safety of which sometimes leaves much to be desired. The paper proposes a methodology ща reconstruction of the ships’ personnel of the Sarapul's raid of the “Kamlesosplav” trust using the documentation on personnel, since documentation on the main activities of the raid was lost. Checking whether an exhaustive list has been obtained is carried out according to the statistical report of the raid. Despite the good result that the methodology gave, it was concluded that with a constant composition of the fleet, usually permanent full-time crews work on ships from year to year, and therefore, these ships are reflected only in connection with incidents. If this does not happen, the personnel orders do not mention the fleet. The second weak point of the methodology is related to the non-self-propelled fleet. As a rule, they do not have a permanent team and therefore references in connection with personnel are extremely eclectic, not creating a holistic picture. The situation is similar with small traveling vessels, where there were also often no full-time crews. Finally, the third weak point of the methodology is the period of intensive growth of the ship’s personnel, as was the case of the Sarapul's raid in 1955–1957. This is likely due to the presence of vacant positions that remain unfilled. In this regard, even accepted ships could be laid up and not appear in the documentation.
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Publication of Sources
3. Evdokim of Vatopedi, Mikhail G. Talalay, Grigory I. Trofimov
The Athos Mission in the Don Region in the 1760s on the Materials of the Russian Archive of St Andrew's Skete
Russkii Arkhiv. 2025. 13(1): 27-36.
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4. Natalia V. DmitrievaRusskii Arkhiv. 2025. 13(1): 27-36.
Abstract:
The Russian archive of the St. Andrew Skete, located at the Vatopedi Monastery on Mount Athos, has preserved among its many unique documents a handwritten 18th-century Book on the collection of donations. It reflects the mission of the Vatopedi monks in the southern lands of the Russian Empire. Their expedition took place in the context of the developed relations between the Vatopedi Monastery and Russia: out of this monastery in 1518, its monk Maxim the Greek, a spiritual writer glorified as a saint, was sent to Moscow. The Vatopedi expedition of 1761–1764 included two Greek monks, Gervasy and Nifont, who kept a book recording their routes through the southern dioceses of the country, the names of benefactors, and the sums received. This information is particularly interesting for establishing the relations between Athos and the Don and Zaporozhye Cossacks. The monks were present at the founding of the city of Rostov-on-Don. The records were made mainly in Russian, with the use of Church Slavonic in the preamble.
The Russian archive of the St. Andrew Skete, located at the Vatopedi Monastery on Mount Athos, has preserved among its many unique documents a handwritten 18th-century Book on the collection of donations. It reflects the mission of the Vatopedi monks in the southern lands of the Russian Empire. Their expedition took place in the context of the developed relations between the Vatopedi Monastery and Russia: out of this monastery in 1518, its monk Maxim the Greek, a spiritual writer glorified as a saint, was sent to Moscow. The Vatopedi expedition of 1761–1764 included two Greek monks, Gervasy and Nifont, who kept a book recording their routes through the southern dioceses of the country, the names of benefactors, and the sums received. This information is particularly interesting for establishing the relations between Athos and the Don and Zaporozhye Cossacks. The monks were present at the founding of the city of Rostov-on-Don. The records were made mainly in Russian, with the use of Church Slavonic in the preamble.
Number of views: 5 Download in PDF
“The Most Humble Petition”: “The Russian Question” and the Development of Election Rules for the Baltic Provinces in 1905
Russkii Arkhiv. 2025. 13(1): 37-49.
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5. Olga V. RvachevaRusskii Arkhiv. 2025. 13(1): 37-49.
Abstract:
The creation of the first Russian legislative body during the revolutionary events of 1905–1907 actualized at the external level a number of problems located within the territory with the imperial character of the state. The social and property qualifications underlying the electoral legislation do not take into account the ethnic and religious heterogeneity of the outlying territories. The development of the election law and its amendment in December 1905 became a reason for regional authorities and representatives of the outlying community to appeal to the authorities on the issue of infringement of the rights of the Russian population in the outskirts. The most active in this period to the "Russian question" in the Baltics were the Governor of Estonia A.A. Lopukhin and representatives of the right-liberal community, represented by the regional branches of the Union of October 17. The published letters and petitions on behalf of the emperor and the Minister of Internal Affairs make it possible to consider the motivation for the appeals, as well as the arguments that the authors require in favor of the allocation of a separate representative of the Russian population of the Baltics in the State Duma. It seems important that the concepts of the “Russian world” and “Russian land” were expanded during the Duma period in relation to the countable territories that were not included in the traditional borders of the Slavic world or the triune Russian people.
The creation of the first Russian legislative body during the revolutionary events of 1905–1907 actualized at the external level a number of problems located within the territory with the imperial character of the state. The social and property qualifications underlying the electoral legislation do not take into account the ethnic and religious heterogeneity of the outlying territories. The development of the election law and its amendment in December 1905 became a reason for regional authorities and representatives of the outlying community to appeal to the authorities on the issue of infringement of the rights of the Russian population in the outskirts. The most active in this period to the "Russian question" in the Baltics were the Governor of Estonia A.A. Lopukhin and representatives of the right-liberal community, represented by the regional branches of the Union of October 17. The published letters and petitions on behalf of the emperor and the Minister of Internal Affairs make it possible to consider the motivation for the appeals, as well as the arguments that the authors require in favor of the allocation of a separate representative of the Russian population of the Baltics in the State Duma. It seems important that the concepts of the “Russian world” and “Russian land” were expanded during the Duma period in relation to the countable territories that were not included in the traditional borders of the Slavic world or the triune Russian people.
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Regional History and Historical narrative of the Civil War in the Don Cossack Regions in the Memoirs of Its Participant
Russkii Arkhiv. 2025. 13(1): 50-59.
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Russkii Arkhiv. 2025. 13(1): 50-59.
Abstract:
The use of memories as a historical source for the study of the historical period requires an understanding of the specifics of this source. The memoirs collected by the Commission on the History of the October Revolution and the Russian Communist Party (b) had an ideological orientation and were supposed to construct an “image of the epoch”. But at the same time, they were collected as part of the creation of the database. Often, memoir sources collected by regional media outlets contain unique information on the history of the October Revolution and the Civil War, reveal the specifics of events, and the behavior of key actors. The submitted document is such a memoir source. It contains unique information about the creation of the Council and the struggle for power in Kalach-on-Don, the first actions of this government, and the specifics of relations with the population. Information about the red and white Cossacks is of particular value in the study of historical narrative as part of the policy of memory regarding the participation of the Cossacks in the Civil War. The research was based on the memoirs of a participant in the struggle for Soviet power in Kalach-on-Don, which were deposited as a separate case in the R-346 foundation, which contains documents on Tsaritsynsky's activities/Stalingrad Eastpart.
The use of memories as a historical source for the study of the historical period requires an understanding of the specifics of this source. The memoirs collected by the Commission on the History of the October Revolution and the Russian Communist Party (b) had an ideological orientation and were supposed to construct an “image of the epoch”. But at the same time, they were collected as part of the creation of the database. Often, memoir sources collected by regional media outlets contain unique information on the history of the October Revolution and the Civil War, reveal the specifics of events, and the behavior of key actors. The submitted document is such a memoir source. It contains unique information about the creation of the Council and the struggle for power in Kalach-on-Don, the first actions of this government, and the specifics of relations with the population. Information about the red and white Cossacks is of particular value in the study of historical narrative as part of the policy of memory regarding the participation of the Cossacks in the Civil War. The research was based on the memoirs of a participant in the struggle for Soviet power in Kalach-on-Don, which were deposited as a separate case in the R-346 foundation, which contains documents on Tsaritsynsky's activities/Stalingrad Eastpart.
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On the 80th Anniversary of the Victory of the Great Patriotic War
6. Andrey A. Kokhan, Evgeny F. Krinko
Nurse Valentina Mefodyevna Mukhortova's Recollections of the Battles for Rostov-on-Don and Other Events of the Great Patriotic War
Russkii Arkhiv. 2025. 13(1): 60-76.
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7. Russkii Arkhiv. 2025. 13(1): 60-76.
Abstract:
The memoirs of Valentina Mefodyevna Mukhortova (1922–2011), a participant in the Great Patriotic War, were recorded in 2011. V.M. Mukhortova graduated from the Rostov Medical School in 1941, served as a nurse in a military hospital in Rostov-on-Don, then as a medical instructor in an artillery battery of the 771st Artillery Regiment of the 248th Rifle Division of the 28th Army. She took part in the Rostov-on-Don defense and liberation operations, and the Mius Front breakthrough of in the summer of 1943. She was discharged from the active army with the rank of senior sergeant of the medical service. Memories of V.M. Mukhortova's supplement with the understanding of the work of Lower Don hospitals during the Great Patriotic War, including the circumstances of the wounded Soviet soldiers’ evacuation and the care they received during the Wehrmacht's initial capture of Rostov-on-Don in November 1941 and its liberation in February 1943, as well as the Red Army's breakthrough of the Mius Front in the summer of 1943. V.M. Mukhortova also provides a wealth of interesting information about various aspects of the life of a frontline nurse, including nutrition and uniform, birthdays and comrades’ funerals, faith and superstitions, relationships with fellow soldiers, and other issues, allowing for a better understanding of the daily life of those who participated in the Great Patriotic War. The full text of V.M. Mukhortova's interview is published for the first time.
The memoirs of Valentina Mefodyevna Mukhortova (1922–2011), a participant in the Great Patriotic War, were recorded in 2011. V.M. Mukhortova graduated from the Rostov Medical School in 1941, served as a nurse in a military hospital in Rostov-on-Don, then as a medical instructor in an artillery battery of the 771st Artillery Regiment of the 248th Rifle Division of the 28th Army. She took part in the Rostov-on-Don defense and liberation operations, and the Mius Front breakthrough of in the summer of 1943. She was discharged from the active army with the rank of senior sergeant of the medical service. Memories of V.M. Mukhortova's supplement with the understanding of the work of Lower Don hospitals during the Great Patriotic War, including the circumstances of the wounded Soviet soldiers’ evacuation and the care they received during the Wehrmacht's initial capture of Rostov-on-Don in November 1941 and its liberation in February 1943, as well as the Red Army's breakthrough of the Mius Front in the summer of 1943. V.M. Mukhortova also provides a wealth of interesting information about various aspects of the life of a frontline nurse, including nutrition and uniform, birthdays and comrades’ funerals, faith and superstitions, relationships with fellow soldiers, and other issues, allowing for a better understanding of the daily life of those who participated in the Great Patriotic War. The full text of V.M. Mukhortova's interview is published for the first time.
Number of views: 3 Download in PDF