Рre-war Personal Pensions for Relatives of Prominent Citizens

Abstract

The article is devoted to the practice of awarding a personal pension on the occasion of the loss of a breadwinner to the relatives of people outstanding in the sphere of culture, science and revolutionary movement in the period of 1920–1930. The main sources for analysis include the pension documents kept in the State archive of the Russian Federation as well as the personal cases on the issue of granting pensions being in the process of consideration. In particularly, the archival documents revealed information concerning the pension provision of the relatives and inheritors of L. Tolstoy’s, F. Dostoevsky’s, N. Chernyshevsky’s, M. Glinka’s, and F. Dzerzhinsky’s. The documents in questions describe the difficulties they faced during the early decades of the Soviet period. A special emphasis in the applications is placed on health problems as personal pensions were granted only to disabled or elderly citizens. The author underlines that the number of relatives of outstanding people was more numerous than the one of ordinary people receiving personal pensions. It included not only minor children, brothers, sisters, spouse and parents, but adult grandchildren, nephews and nieces. It is noteworthy that the dependence of the applicants on the deceased breadwinners was not always proved. The results of the research indicate that awarding a personal pension for the loss of a breadwinner became one of the means to honor the memory of those who provided outstanding service to the Soviet Republic.