Кадровый состав экспертов и ювелиров советского Государственного хранилища ценностей (Гохрана) в 1920-е гг.

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of staff changes in the State Repository of Valuables (Gokhran) of the RSFSR in the 1920s. It reviews personal files of the employees who carried out examination, assessment, classification, and description of valuables, and also processes resulting in emergence of new activity areas of the Goskhran. The expansion of valuables composition coming to the Gokhran led to emergence of new positions. The article examines professional qualities and competence of the Gokhran employees working with valuables of national importance. It details the biography of the main Gokhran expert N. A. Dmitriev. The methodological basis of the work is comparative-historical, systematic, descriptive methods, as well as method of archival heuristics. Scientific research of the Gokhran history does not pay enough attention to its jewelers training level, which was of great importance as working with valuables involved sorting, evaluating, separating diamonds, precious metals, systematizing valuables by kind and quality; it was a responsible job requiring special knowledge and skills, especially in the 1920s, when the directions of the Gokhran's activities were changing and the requirements to its personnel were heightened. The author has studied documents from the Russian State Archive of Economics (fond 2324 “State Bank of the RSFSR,” fond 7632 “State Repository of Valuables of the People's Commissariat of Finance of the USSR,” fond 7733 “Ministry of Finance of the USSR”), the Central State Archive of the City of Moscow (fond R-1204 “Moscow Jewelry Partnership,” fond R-1906 “Moscow Loan Treasury”). The documents prove competence of employees and high level of professionals working in the Gokhran. A comprehensive study of archival documents on personnel and on organizational and administrative documentation has permitted to identify patterns in the Gokhran personnel formation, to study the employees’ biographies. Masters from large jewelry firms Lorie, Faberge, Khlebnikov worked in the Gokhran. They were knowledgeable in types of precious metals processing and familiar with the world market of precious metals and stones. Increased variety of valuables, acquisition of church and Romanov treasures led to appearance of narrow specialists in the Gokhran. The contribution of this research to historical science is determined by its novelty. Involvement of a wide range of archival documents that have not been previously used in scientific research allows readers to learn the names of people who worked with valuables of national importance.