«У АППАРАТА СТАЛИН…»: ЗАПИСИ ПЕРЕГОВОРОВ ПО ПРЯМОМУ ПРОВОДУ КАК ИСТОЧНИК ПО ИСТОРИИ ВЕЛИКОЙ ОТЕЧЕСТВЕННОЙ ВОЙНЫ

Abstract

This article describes the features of such historical documents as the records/transcripts of direct wire communications. The article begins with the focus on the following: the researchers of the history of the Great Patriotic War have so far paid insufficient attention to the historiographic analysis of such documents. This phenomenon resulted in the fact that historians continued using paperwork documents mainly (battle logs, directives, etc.) for their research. And it did not allow them to move beyond the classical political (military) history. The article also contains the analysis of the main characteristics of the conversation transcripts and provides justification that they mediate between paperwork documents and the sources of private origin. The similarity with the former ones is determined by the fact that the transcripts of direct line telephone talks were created to serve the bureaucratic system. From the sources of personal origin, communication records inherited a direct dialogue form between the speakers. However, beyond certain common features, there are significant differences between transcripts and paperwork documents the latter represent the type of a oneway and formal communication. The key difference from the sources of private origin is that the direct wire talks have been recorded by the third party. The last part of the present article comments on what information a researcher can get by analyzing in detail the contents of this historical source. The findings of the research are supported by numerous examples of Stalin’s activity as the Commander-in-Chief of the state’s Armed Forces during the war. Stalin’s tactical and operational proposals sent to the front command are also assessed. Besides, the article outlines the range of the issues that were in the Supreme Commander’s primary focus and close attention. The author comes to the conclusion that the true scientific evaluation of these transcripts will only become possible after having compared them with other sources on the history of the Great Patriotic War