Komi ASSR Research Articles

«Арктические» средние специальные учебные заведения в 1950–1960-е годы: специализация учащихся, характеристика преподавательского состава (на примере Коми АССР)

Based on the materials of the annual reports of secondary specialized educational institutions, the specializations in which specialists were trained in technical schools and colleges operating in the territory of the Komi ASSR within the borders of the modern Arctic zone of the Russian Federation are identified. The chronologically presented study covers the 1950s–1960s. Besides, the paper provides a detailed description of the teaching staff of the “Arctic” secondary specialized educational institutions at the specified time, in particular, the number, educational level and work experience of teachers. The conclusion is made about the training of specialists in the studied educational institutions in a wide range of specialities, the list of which has increased significantly over the period outlined. This process would not have been possible without a solid team of highly qualified teachers.

The formation of research in the field of chemical technology of ceramic and composite materials in Komi Scientific Research Center of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (1980-1990-ies)

The work is devoted to the history of the formation of one of the scientific directions currently developing at the Institute of Chemistry of the Federal Research Center "Komi Scientific Center of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences". The subject of the study is the process of formation and development of research in the field of materials science and chemical technology of ceramic and composite materials in the Laboratory of Chemistry and Solid State Physics of the Department of Chemistry of the Komi Scientific Center of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences in the 1980s and 1990s. The main attention is paid to the study of the prerequisites for the creation, conditions and main stages of the laboratory, the mechanisms of interaction between a research institution and industrial enterprises of the republic, the analysis of the influence of external factors on the choice of subjects and the development of scientific research, the role of the personality of a scientist in the history of science. The methodological basis of the research is the principle of historicism, a problem-chronological approach, according to which the formation of a scientific direction in an academic institution was studied in the context of the history of industrial development of the region. Based on the documents stored in the funds of the Scientific Archive of the Komi Scientific Research Center of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences and published works, the history of the organization and operation of the laboratory of chemistry and solid state physics was reconstructed for the first time. It is established that one of the main factors that determined the process of formation and development of research in the laboratory during this period was the availability in the republic of promising reserves of mineral raw materials suitable for use in obtaining functional ceramic and composite materials; the necessary research base; the development of high-tech industries in the Komi ASSR. Scientists have been working on the creation of physico-chemical bases for the production of high-tech materials with special properties (magnetic, electrophysical, etc.) based on the mineral raw materials of the republic. New materials with special physical and chemical characteristics obtained in the laboratory were introduced into production, which contributed to the development of the region's industry.

Дислокационные расстояния расположения трудпоселков в Коми АССР, Архангельской и Вологодской областях в 1941 г.

The article analyzes data on the location of labor settlements based on dislocation tables. The dislocation tables belong to the departmental reporting documentation of the NKVD of the USSR. The information reflects the situation for the second half of 1941, since data for the Arkhangelsk and Vologda regions are given as of November 1941, and for the Komi ASSR as of January 1, 1942. The requirements for the position of labor settlements and the features of their organization are considered. A calculation of the average distances from labor settlements to the railway track, the district commandant’s office and the regions’ administrative center is given. Analyzing the distances from labor settlements to transport routes, district and administrative centers allows assessing remoteness of settlements from railway transport and populated areas. The Komi ASSR, Arkhangelsk and Vologda regions in 1929–1936 were administratively united as part of the Northern Krai, so the organization in the early 1930s of settlements for special settlers – “former kulaks,” renamed in labor settlements in 1933, proceeded according to general plans, so it seems relevant to assess the situation for the three regions as a whole.

Fearlessness and Resistance in the Gulag: Estonian Prison Camp Poetry

During and after the Second World War, over 50,000 Estonians were sent to Soviet prison and forced labour camps. Within these camps, some of the repressed Estonians developed their own subculture – prison camp poetry, secretly written on sheets of paper and also memorised. The poems examined in the article were composed predominantly during the latter half of the 1940s and the 1950s, within various prison camps situated in the Karaganda Region, the Kazakh ASSR (Spassky), the Komi ASSR (Vorkuta, Intalag, and Ukhta), Mordovia (Dubravslag), the Gorki Oblast (Unzhlag) and the far northern camps of Kolyma and Krasnoyarsk Krai (Norilsk). The focus of this article is on the emotional depth of these poems and how they encapsulate feelings of fear and fearlessness, despair and hope, anger and sorrow, vengefulness and loathing. The article demonstrates how not succumbing to fear became a survival strategy within a regime of terror for Estonian Gulag poets, and how poetry provided diverse avenues for exploring this approach. Fear was transformed in various ways: Artur Alliksaar’s poetry confronts the possibility of cataclysm with beauty, while the lyrical selves of Valve Pillesaar, Leenart Üllaste, and Helmut Joonuks chose to shut down their minds. Venda Sõelsepp and Annus Rävälä, on the other hand, replaces his fear with sarcasm, while Enno Piir and Enn Uibo’s poems call for terror to be turned against the system itself.

Средние специальные учебные заведения сельскохозяйственного профиля в Коми АССР в 1950-е годы : половозрастной и национальный составы учащихся

Based on archival sources, the paper considers the problems of age, gender and national composition of students of secondary specialized educational institutions that trained agricultural specialists in the Komi ASSR in the 1950s. It is concluded that a significant proportion of students were female. In the context of the age groups of students during the study period, the proportion of representatives of the oldest group, both among female and male students, increased. It is shown that representatives of many nationalities were trained in the educational institutions under study. However, in terms of the number of students, their ratio was unequal.

Естественное движение населения Коми АССР в 1946–1959 годах

The paper deals with the natural movement of the population of the Komi ASSR in 1946-1959. The post-war period was the most pronounced stage of the demographic transition in the republic. The problems of statistical accounting of the population movement in the post-war years are considered. The dynamics of absolute and relative indicators of fertility, mortality, marriage and divorce are analyzed. The influence of gender, age, nationality and type of settlement on the intensity of natural population movement is estimated. The transformation of the structure of causes of mortality, including infant mortality, is considered. Territorial differences in indicators of natural population movement at the level of urban settlements and Village Soviets are revealed.

Л.И. Сурина - исследователь истории Коми

The paper dedicated to the memory of the Komi historian Lidiya Ivanovna Surina (1918-2015) analyzes her scientific activity, gives an assessment of her most famous works, among which, first of all, academic “Essays on the history of the Komi ASSR” in 2 volumes, published in the 1950s-early 1960s. It was a period when the Komi ASSR did not have its own specialists in the history of the region, so the Moscow colleagues from the Institute of History of Academy of Sciences of the USSR came to assist to the Komi historians. L.I. Surina, as the first Komi Candidate of Sciences (History), who defended her dissertation in 1953, was editor and co-author of these essays, which became a notable phenomenon in the Russian historiography. Later, she worked on other well-known publications of the Komi Branch of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR and the Institute of Language, Literature and History of the Soviet period. They are “The History of the Komi ASSR from ancient times to the present day”, “The History of Syktyvkar”, “The Road of Struggle and Victories: Chronicle of the Komi regional organization of the CPSU. 1917-1981” and others. Already being at the advanced age, she took part in the project of the Komi Science Centre of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences “Encyclopedia of the Komi Republic” and wrote a number of articles. Her scientific works were highly appreciated by colleagues and readers.

Отличительные черты индустриализации Коми АССР в 1927-1937 годы

Based on the documentary sources and scientific papers of Soviet and modern researchers, the paper analyzed why the industrialization of the Komi ASSR proceeded independently of the main strategic plans of the USSR. The first five-year development plans of the Komi region did not take into account the industrialization vector of the USSR aimed at a shift to a new technological paradigm. The wrong impressions about the role of the region in the economic system did not allow to archive the actual potential of the Komi region. The country was in dire need of oil and coal but the central planning authorities and scientific institutions did not see prospects for development of deposits on the Komi territory. Only the non-economic system of GULAG (Chief Administration of Corrective Labour Camps) by attracting a great deal of resources managed to work through the general skepticism about mineral resources of the region, and the Pechora brigade of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR determined a new position for the Komi region on the economic map of the country.

MORAL CHOICE OF CHARACTERS IN S. DOVLATOV'S STORY “ZONE. OVERSEER'S NOTES»

Dovlatov Sergei Donatovich (real name - Mechik) (1941–1990), born September 3, 1941 in Ufa - prose writer, journalist, a prominent representative of the third wave of Russian emigration. From 1944 he lived in Leningrad. Was expelled from the second year of the Leningrad University. Once in the army, he served as a guard in the camps of the Komi ASSR.

«Учение старика совершенно мною завладело...»

The article is devoted to the circumstances of the creation of Lev Karsavin's work “Spirit and Body”, written by him in Lithuanian in the spring of 1952 in a special camp for political prisoners. The article is also about the history of the translation of this work into Russian. The author's manuscript of this work is kept in the archive of the Vilnius University Library. The translation was discovered by the author of the article in Anatoly Vaneev’s personal archive, a disciple and follower of Karsavin. The author of the work “Spirit and Body” found it necessary to add one more part and called it “The author's conversation on “Spirit and Body” with a positivist and a skeptic. This additional part in the chronology of its appearance in print was more than three decades ahead of the main text of the work. This complementary and clarifying part of the manuscript was published in scientific editions three decades earlier than the main text. The letters found by the author of the article in the personal archives of Anatoly Vaneev and Vladas Shimkunas allowed us to see how, under conditions of strict supervision and restrictions of imprisonment in Komi ASSR, Stanislav Dobrovolskis carried out a line-by-line translation of Karsavin's work, and Vaneev made a philosophical revision of this formal version of the translation. The author of the article also established the authorship of the first Russian translation of the second work, explanatory part in relation to the main text of the work, and another work by Karsavin “On Perfection”. For Russian-speaking researchers of Lev Karsavin's works, both parts of the philosophical diptych acquire meaningful completeness only in their interrelation. The publication of the translation is dedicated to the 140th anniversary of the birth of L.P. Karsavin, the 70th anniversary of his death and the 100th anniversary of the birth of A. A. Vaneev

Академик В.Н. Образцов – директор первой базы АН СССР, созданной в автономных республиках Российской Федерации

On the eve of the 300th anniversary of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the most important events in the history of the Research Base of the USSR Academy of Sciences in the Komi ASSR are shown, the activities of the Director of the Base, Academician V.N. Obraztsov in 1944 – 1948 are evaluated. The study was carried out on documents, memoirs, photographs, and periodical publications preserved in archives in the Komi ASSR. The Base of the USSR Academy of Sciences in the Komi ASSR was the first among the autonomous republics of the Russian Federation. According to Academician V.N. Obraztsov, its experience was supposed to facilitate the development of new academic institutions throughout the USSR. Objectively, during these years, the authority of the academic Base in the life of the Komi ASSR was significantly increased.

Становление химических исследований в Коми филиале Академии наук СССР в 1940 – 1960-е годы в контексте промышленного развития региона

The paper considers the period of formation of chemical research in an academic institution organized in the Komi ASSR during the Great Patriotic War. It was determined that the main factor that caused the organization and development of scientific research in the field of chemistry in the republic was the industrial development of the natural resource potential of this region. The main achievements of chemists who played a major role in the development of chemical science in the northern academic institution are shown.

Национальный состав учащихся средних специальных учебных заведений Коми АССР в 1950-х годах

Based on the annual statistical reports of colleges that functioned in the Komi ASSR in the 1950s, it was possible to reconstruct the picture of the national composition of students. The paper presents a list of 35 nationalities whose representatives studied in specialized secondary-education institutions during the study period (1951/52 – 1959/60 academic years), which contains such rare nationalities for the republic as, for example, Chinese, Koreans and Greeks. There is noted the frequency at which during the period under study one or another nationality of students is indicated in the reports of colleges. Based on the number, representatives of all nationalities who studied during the 1950s period were divided into 7 groups. Groups include representatives of a particular nationality from 1 to 5, from 6 to 10, from 11 to 20 people, and so on in ascending order. The group with the largest mass (more than 1000 people annually) includes two nationalities – the Komi and the Russians. These nationalities also occupied the main positions among others in the national composition of the population of the Komi ASSR in the period under study.

Комплексная оценка качества древесины сосны в лесных культурах разных условий местопроизрастания

Комплексная оценка качества древесины сосны в лесных культурах разных условий местопроизрастания

The History of Creation of a Chemical Industry Power System in the Village of Vodnyi Promysel, Komi Autonomous Oblast (Zyryan) (Komi ASSR), in the 1930s

This article is devoted to the history of creation of a power system in the village of Vodnyi Promysel, Komi Autonomous Oblast (Zyryan) (since 1936, Komi ASSR), where a plant for radium extraction from mineral water operated in the GULAG system in the 1930s. The article depicts the conditions in which this power system emerged: severe climate, logistic difficulties with supplying the construction project, the use of worn equipment from other projects, and the use of convict specialists’ labor and knowledge. The contribution of M. D. Krasheninnikov, a repressed power engineer whose talents helped him become the plant’s chief engineer and recipient of the Stalin Prize, is reviewed in detail. The efforts of numerous workers and specialists resulted in the first major power system in the Russian North emerging in Vodnyi Promysel. This system allowed introducing new mineral extraction technologies and develop chemical industry in this region.

Среднее специальное педагогическое образование в Коми АССРв середине 1950-х – начале 1960-х гг. (к вопросу о результативности реформы образования Н.С. Хрущева в СССР)

The paper considers the influence of the process of education reform in the USSR on the system of secondary special pedagogical education, using the example of the Komi ASSR. The evolution of this system in the mid-1950s - early 1960s is revealed. The dynamics of the number of teacher training colleges, the number of students and graduates clearly demonstrate the results and consequences of the education reform for the system under study. The paper shows that, despite the negative impact of the reform on the system of secondary special pedagogical education, the Komi ASSR still managed to train a significant number of teaching staff for primary schools and kindergartens. According to the results of the reform, it is clear that in the considered sphere of secondary special pedagogical education, it did not bring the desired results, and the changes introduced during the reform were mostly canceled.

СТАНОВЯСЬ СОВЕТСКИМ ГРАЖДАНИНОМ: ЯЗЫКОВОЙ ВЫБОР В ДНЕВНИКЕ Н. Ф. ТЕРЕНТЬЕВА

The article based on the diary of the young writer N. F. Terentyev from Komi ASSR who wrote his records in the Komi language from 1936 to 1939 considers peculiarities of the “subjectivity” formation in the non-Russian language discursive space. The author hypothesizes that non-Russian people in the 1930s USSR acquiring new subjectivity, began not only to speak Bolshevik but also appropriated a more prestigious discourse in which the Russian language was endowed with revolutionary consolidating potential. The material of the diary reveals two levels of the formation of a Soviet citizen. As regards Terentyev, the first level is related to the local context: the diarist advocates the development of the countryside, collects folklore, adheres to the national literary tradition in terms of the description of the countryside life. The second level is connected with Terentyev’s desire to be involved in more significant events: he joins Komsomol, uses Marxist language in representation of the everyday life, actively participates in the translation of the texts written in the Russian language. The process of writing the diary reveals not only Terentyev’s aspiration to become a Komi writer but also his active civic engagement. Terentyev’s ambition was to become a Komi writer, a representative of the emergent national intelligentsia. Internalizing “cultural revolution discourse”, Terentyev defined Komi literature as backward which should be developed in order to keep up with the Russian literature. In this context, his personal development as a writer involved overcoming of not only personal backwardness (which he acknowledged) but also backwardness of his native culture.

REVISITING THE ISSUE OF WOMEN’S PARTICIPATION IN NATIONAL-STATE BUILDING THE KOMI AUTONOMY IN 1920–1930s

The study of the gender aspect in the personnel policy of the RCP (b) – ACP (b) during the period of the Soviet power establishment is one of the most interesting historical issues. The article discusses the experience of involving women in the political life of the Komi Autonomous Region – the Komi ASSR in the first years of statehood formation. On the example of creating women’s organizations in the party-state apparatus and their participation in delegate meetings, the first experience of women’s socialization into the “new life” is summarized. The article presents as well the results of analyzing the social-demographic and social-professional information about women-participants of Komi regional party conferences held during the specified period. The study was carried out using such sources as questionnaires and registration lists of women-delegates containing personal data on their age, nationality, party experience, social position, education level. Documents and materials of sixteen party conferences were processed – from January 1922 to January 1940. Based on the study of social characteristics of activists of the women’s movement it is established that mainly representatives of the indigenous nationality took part in the work of the supreme governing body, of whom a significant part belonged to the peasant community. In the composition of the women’s delegate corps of the 1920s there were more women who had secondary education, while at the regional conference held in the 1930s, mainly delegates with primary level of education were present. Personal data obtained from the archival sources give the opportunity to form a generalized social portrait of women, occupying the managerial positions in the party-state authorities. Most of them were communists of indigenous nationality, employees by their social status; they had a secondary or higher education and had the teaching background. The author analyzes their movement through the ranks which changed the social status of the women’s movement activists. However, despite the comprehensive women’s involvement in the socio-political life of the Komi region, in the community of the supreme party-state leadership there was a considerable gender asymmetry.

Preservation of Unique Natural Territories of the North of Russia: from the History of the Creation of the Natural Heritage Site “The Virgin Forests of the Komi Republic”

Based on a wide range of archival sources, the article considers the history of the creation of the UNESCO World Natural Heritage Site “The Virgin Forests of the Komi Republic” located in the Komi Republic on the western slopes of the Northern and Subpolar Urals. It includes the territories of two protected areas of the Pechora-Ilych Reserve and the National Park “Yugyd Va”, which make up the largest of the primary forests remaining in Europe. The level of the industrial development of the USSR and environmental transformation in the first half of the 20th century determined the wide involvement of academic knowledge in solving the problems of conservation of unique natural resources. The article considers the main directions and results of scientific work in the formulation and successful solution of the problems of nature conservation and the rational use of the resources of the northern region. Thanks to the scientists of the USSR Academy of Sciences more than two hundred objects were declared natural monuments on the territory of the Komi ASSR from the 1940s to the 1980s. The organization of the National Park “Yugyd Va” on the territory of the republic became one of the major scientific projects.

Research of oil shale in the Komi ASSR during the Great Patriotic War: experience of the Professor D. N. Kursanov

The subject of this research is the historical role of Russian scientific community in studying the Arctic and Subarctic territories during the years of Great Patriotic War. The key goal consists in demonstrating the contribution of scholars to accumulation of scientific knowledge on the northern region in the context of solution of the priority government objective and establishment of scientific organizations on the European North of Russia in first half of the XX century. The main tasks of this research lie in reconstruction of the process of creation and activity of oil shale laboratory of the Base of Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union on studying the North under the authority of Professor D. N. Kursanov, who dealt with the questions of utilization of solid fossil fuels of the Komi ASSR. This topic did not receive due coverage within the scientific literature. For solution of the set tasks, the author attracted the unpublished archival materials from the Archive of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Scientific Archive of the Federal Research Center “Komi Scientific Center of Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences” and National Archive of the Komi Republic; writings of the staff members of the indicated laboratory published based on the research results in 1940s, as well modern researchers of the depths of Russian North. The article explores the history of establishment of scientific department, development of scientific programs and plans, organization of interaction of academic community with the government and economic branches of the Komi ASSR. The main conclusions consists in the proof that the scientific-organizational activity of D. N. Kursanov led to conducting strategic research of defense designation on the problems of studying oil shale of the mineral deposit on Ayyva River, utilization of oil shale for motor fuel generation, and elaboration of new chemical products for defense industry. It is underlined that the high level of explorations and pilot surveys carried out by national scholars in these directions contributed to the development of new shale-chemical industrial sector of the country in the later years.