“Pulse of History” — Russian Onomasticon and Demographic Problems: Reflection of Mass Phenomena and Processes in Entries on Copies of the Old Printed Cyrillic Books

Abstract

This article continues the author's research in the field of source studies of records on copies of the old-printed Cyrillic books. The article demonstrates the possibility of using records as sources for a number of specific historical research aims. It shows that the appearance of records before the 1860s was clearly caused by certain natural and coinciding religious cycles, when the peak of records always falls on the period from December to May. In this case, the observation leader is March (the month in which the Great Lent always falls). Since the beginning of the Great reforms, the life of Russian society with agricultural cycles has become much weaker. At the same time, if we take the entire period of the 16th - 21st centuries, the largest number of records falls on the eve of major social transformations: 1690s, 1750s, and 1850s. Records also clearly show 8632 cases of changes in male and female names during the 16th — 21st centuries. If the male naming shows clear monarchical predilections (at all times, the names of Russian tsars are among the most popular names), then women naming does not show any dependence. In conclusion, the author shows the possibilities of using entries on books to study demographic processes. The article is provided with appendices in the form of tables and diagrams that support conclusions formulated by the author. One of the applications of this approach is the genealogy of Shein family from Perm. All this shows the importance of entries in books of old-printed Cyrillic books as sources for studying both micro-and macro-historical processes.