Abstract

The paper attempts to determine the place and role of ego - documents in historical source studies. Specific source material (memoirs of Akmolin detainees' detention camps for the wives of traitors to the Motherland) describes the features of this type of documents in historical, psychological, linguistic aspects. It is proposed to determine the following by the results of intelligence: first, ego - documents are described as part of a group of sources known in the scientific classification as sources of personal origin; second, the use of ego documents, according to the author, will enhance anthropocentric approaches to the study of particular topics and problems, especially those associated with periods of radical change in society, which have had mostly tragic consequences for individuals and families. These are the events of the 1930s, the Great Terror; thirdly, the reference to ego exclusively - the documents artificially narrows the original base of the study, and therefore offers a comprehensive approach to its definition in order to create an objective and multi-vector picture of our past.
 For the researcher, the emergence of a new type of documentary base raises several questions: first, whether the term "ego - document" is not simply a modern synonym for an already established type of documents that we classify as documents of personal origin; secondly, what is the peculiarity of this type of documents, and, finally, thirdly, what information load the said documents carry. We will try to answer these questions in this paper, because that is exactly how we have defined its purpose.
 In domestic historiography, interest in "ego - documents" has become particularly noticeable with the intensification of oral history research, which aims at "knowing and understanding the individual experience of man as the main protagonist of history", even if the term is rarely used by researchers.
 It is these peculiarities that determine the significance of these documents for the researcher, because they make it possible to grasp the whole tragedy of the situation at that time, to understand the inner world of ordinary people, to define the true and not demonstrably propaganda features of the "Soviet man".

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