Ryazan Province Research Articles

“...From Some Klepiki”: Dostoevsky's Russia in Letters and Documents

The reason for writing this article was a letter received by the authors from the founders of the recently established local history museum in Spas-Klepiki, Ryazan region. This small town is actively working on the formation of museum funds and collections. S. A. Esenin, A. I. Kuprin, K. G. Paustovsky lived and visited here. According to the organizers, the history of the Dostoevsky family at the turn of the XX century should take a worthy place in one of the expositions. The article systematizes published and unknown archival materials about its stay in Spas-Klepiki and surrounding villages. The lands, forest and estate located here was inherited by F. M. Dostoevsky and his relatives after the death of his rich Moscow aunt A. F. Kumanina. The writer learned about the existence of Klepiki on August 19, 1879 from a letter to him from his wife, who visited the Ryazan region with their children. However, protracted litigation over the division of inheritance did not allow Dostoevsky to become a landowner legally, he did not have time to visit this land. On March 24, 1881 his widow and children were confirmed in the rights of inheritance. According to family correspondence, A. G. Dostoevskaya, accompanied by her son Fyodor, visited Spas-Klepiki in the 1880s and 1890s and stayed at the house of lawyer A. D. Povalishin. She described her way from Ryazan to the estate in her notebook of 1881, and here she also indicated the names of residents of Klepiki who could be useful to her. The writer's widow bought out the share of the estate in the Ryazan province, which was inherited by her husband's younger brother A. M. Dostoevsky. She sold part of her lands in 1895, and returned to the sale issue in 1905 at the request of her son Fyodor. Dostoevsky's son became a Ryazan nobleman in 1897, but he did not live in Ryazan permanently. The life of the Sher family, Dostoevsky's maternal relatives and co-owners of the "Kumaninsky inheritance", is connected with Spas-Klepiki. The search for Dostoevsky's documents in the Ryazan archives is relevant. Their discovery would help to reveal new facts of the writer's family’s stay in the Ryazan region and Spas-Klepiki, to expand the funds of the city’s local history museum, which needs Dostoevsky.

Сохранение исторической памяти о касимовских татарах в 1920-е гг.

Research objectives: New publications on the medieval period led to a favorable development in the historiography of the Kasimov Tatars. The authors aims to analyze the factors and trends in the study of Kasimov Tatars history in the Soviet era, collecting and systematizing information about the Kasimov Museum of Local Lore’s formation in the 1920s of collections on the history of the Tatars of the Kasimov district of the Ryazan province as a material component of collective memory. Another aim is to show the interest of the Tatar public in the first Soviet years in preserving their historical and cultural heritage. Research materials: This article is based on the analysis of archival sources, funds of the Kasimov Historical and Cultural Museum-Reserve, and materials of the district newspaper «Krasny Voskhod». Novelty of the research: Scientific novelty emerges from a comprehensive study of the formation in the first decade of Soviet power of a museum’s ethnographic collection about the lives and way of life of the Kasimov Tatars and its popularization among the Kasimov people. Results of the research: As a result of the analysis of archival sources, periodical press materials, and collections from the funds of the Kasimov Historical and Cultural Museum-Reserve, the formation of the Muslim (Tatar) department of the Museum of Local Lore is shown and conclusions are drawn about the origin of commemoration among the Kasimov Tatars as an important means of preserving and transmitting historical memory.

The first antimalarial institutions of the Ryazan province (to the 100th anniversary of the creation of the Ranenburg Malaria Station)

The conditions of the occurrence of mass malaria diseases in the Ryazan province and the stages of combating it from expeditionary work to the creation of a network of antimalarial institutions are described. The data on the organization and operation of the first malaria station in the Ryazan province in the city of Ranenburg, then the provincial malaria station in Ryazan and the Skopinsky malaria station in the village of Pavelets are presented/

Оценка состояния помещичьих хозяйств Рязанской губернии гласными Сельскохозяйственной комиссии для исследования нынешнего положения сельского хозяйства и сельской производительности в России в 1872-1873 гг.

Оценка состояния помещичьих хозяйств Рязанской губернии гласными Сельскохозяйственной комиссии для исследования нынешнего положения сельского хозяйства и сельской производительности в России в 1872-1873 гг.

Confrontation in the Punitive System of Ryazan and the Escape of Political Prisoners in 1921

This article examines the peculiarities of provincial prisons during the formation of the Soviet corrective labour system. It is based on previously unpublished historical documents and materials from the the State Archive of the Russian Federation and the State Archive of Ryazan Region. Despite the general goals of the Soviet state’s corrective labour policy, the formative period was characterised by a dispersion of punitive functions among several departments and fierce competition for the monopoly over the execution of punishments. Based on historical material from Ryazan province, the author illustrates the spectrum of these interdepartmental contradictions, referring to a case connected with the detention of a group of political prisoners in Ryazan. He also gives a detailed description of the appearance of the group in Ryazan, whose background was the mass riots among prisoners that occurred in Butyrskaya prison in April 1921. One of the consequences was a sudden dispersal of political prisoners to provincial places of detention and a mass escape of anarchists from a hastily organised political prison in Ryazan. In the form of a narrative, the article provides a detailed description of the actions of various provincial authorities and officials to ensure strict isolation for political prisoners in Ryazan, presents an ordered chronology of events, and interprets the actions of the participants. As a compromise, they established the organisation of “political prison” in an unprepared building of the former corrective detention department with serious violations of the regime’s requirements. Based on information from official documents, the author describes the requirements for maintaining political prisoners formed by the Punitive Department. The article shows the impact of the events of 1921 in the Ryazan “political prison” on the subsequent development of the system of detention in Ryazan province. It is concluded that the reason for the mass escape of a group of anarchists was the organisational unpreparedness of provincial places of detention and the interdepartmental struggle of the local structures of central departments. Finally, one of the possible consequences of this emergency was the exclusion of Ryazan from the list of provinces in which a network of political isolation prisons was established a few years later.

Религиозный аспект наполеоновского мифа в романе «Преступление и наказание»: образ «Наполеона-пророка» и мистические секты русских раскольников-почитателей Наполеона

The article is dedicated to the presence of the Napoleonic myth in Dostoevsky’s novel Crime and Punishment (1866) through its religious aspect, namely the historical and cultural mergence of Napoleon and Mohammed and the worship of Napoleon among the mystic sects of Russian schismatics in the first half of the 19th century. The formation of a lasting perception of Napoleon Bonaparte as the new “prophet”, “Mohammed of the West” — which can be found in Stendhal, Alexandre Dumas, Honoré de Balzac, and others — is here traced, as well as the way Napoleon used religion and art for political aims during the Egyptian expedition and after. Particular attention is dedicated to Voltaire’s play Mahomet (1741) and its influence on Napoleon (and possibly on Dostoevsky) through theatre performances. Rodion Raskolnikov’s Napoleonic theory is explained through an immersion in the history of the wars between Russia and France and of the Russian sectarian movement, where in 1920s-1940s could be found more than one sect worshipping Napoleon. According to the reports of secret police agents, they tacitly gathered in Moscow and worshipped a bust of Napoleon the Emperor, believing that he was not dead but alive, and would soon appear to “command the righteous regiments to restore the shattered order”. Dostoevsky could use this original mystical phenomenon in his novel. It is no coincidence that one of the doubles-substitutes for the main character in Crime and Punishment is the schismatic Mikolka, who was born in the Ryazan province, where Raskolnikov’s mother and sister lived.

CULTURAL HERITAGE OF THE RYAZAN TRADITIONAL COSTUME AS A BASIS OF ARTISTIC CONCEPTION

The article considers the complexes of traditional costumes of the Ryazan province of the late XIX – early XX cen- tury of the Sergiev Posad Historical and Art Museum – Reserve as an artistic and creative source of the formation of the artistic culture of students. The material base was: the exhibition «Ryazan Madonnas» of the Sergiev Posad Historical and Art Museum – Reserve, a collection of student term papers and diploma practical works of the workshop of traditional Russian costume of the Department of the National Academy of Fine Arts of Moscow State University, creative works of the winners of regional competitions of decorative, applied and fine arts of the Moscow region within the framework of the regional festival of children’s and youth artistic and technical creativity «Young Talents of Muscovy».

Parish Experiences. Social Activity of Parish Priests, Parish Charity and the Question of the Revival of the Orthodox Parish in Russia in the Second Half of the 19th Century

The article examines the experiences of two Russian priests, rural and metropolitan, who in the 1860s initiated projects designed to renew the life of their parishes. Both cases were related to social activity: pastors were looking for new opportunities to be useful to their parishioners. A priest from the Ryazan province, John Molchanov, began to give loans to his parishioners who were in a difficult situation. This practice existed in the pre-Petrine period but was forgotten in the era of the Empire. The revival of this practice indicates the urgency of the problem of small-scale credit in the conditions of the Russian agricultural economy. St.-Petersburg priest Alexander Gumilevskiy began to unite his parishioners to help the parish “ragamuffins” (oborvantsy), orphans, widows — the most vulnerable groups of the urban population, which increased numerically in the conditions of urbanization of the post-reform period. Despite their importance, neither the one nor the other experiences are not widespread. This happened, among other things, because even long-term and successful projects, both socially and religiously, required the approval of high authorities, and in the absence of it, they were threatened with closure.

Peasant Uprisings in 1918 and Rural Cergy (Based on the Materials of the Ryazan Province)

Peasant Uprisings in 1918 and Rural Cergy (Based on the Materials of the Ryazan Province)

LETTERS TO ODESA RESIDENT MYKHAILO KOMAROV FROM ST. PETERSBURG, MOSCOW, KUBAN AND OTHER REGIONS OF THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE OUTSIDE UKRAINE, AS A MANIFESTATION OF THE CONSOLIDATION OF THE NATIONAL MOVEMENT AT THE TURN OF THE ХIX AND XX CENTURIES

Letters to the Odesa bibliographer, writer and public figure Mykhailo Komarov (1844-1913) from the collection of manuscript fund of the Odessa National Scientific Library are examined in the publication. The letters written by the authors from the lands outside Ukraine within its modern borders, but within the territory of the former Russian Empire, are analyzed. In particular, letters from St. Petersburg and Moscow, including letters of such famous scientists and cultural figures as D. Yavornytskyi, D. Mordovets, O. Lototskyi, P.Stebnytskyi and others are examined. Letters to M. Komarov from the Kuban, in particular from Ya. Bihdai, M. Dykariv, V. Skyda and others; from the Voronezh province from B.Poznanskyi; from Ryazan province from H.Machtet, from Moldova from K.Shram; from Siberia from A. Fisun and others are also analyzed. It is emphasized that the cooperation in the exchange of printed materials and the promotion of Ukrainian-language publications and Ukrainian studies publications in various regions of the country, despite censorship prohibitions were the important factors for communication between Ukrainian cultural figures at the turn of the XIX-th and XX-th centuries. The article contains the texts of fourteen letters to M. Komarov from thirteen persons from the different regions of the empire. The texts of these letters indicate that one of the leading topics in the publishing and other spheres of the cultural national Ukrainian movement in the Russian Empire of this period were the study and the popularization of the history of the Ukrainian Cossacks and its leaders. In the investigation the author makes the conclusion that it is necessary to publish as soon as possible, with appropriate comments, of all letters to M. Komarov from the manuscript fund of the Odessa National Scientific Library – about 1000 shits – to provide to wider range of researchers opportunities for comprehensive analysis of their content

Региональная православная культура: Братство Святого Николая Мирликийского

The author analyzes one of the brightest pages of the regional cultural heritage, the Brotherhood of Saint Nicholas based on archival documents and printed pre-revolutionary sources. The brotherhood was created at the end of the 19th century in Tuma, the village of Ryazan province, by the initiative of the clerics and the most active parishioners of the Holy Trinity Church. The main goal of the created organization was to attract people to the Trinity Church activities, to teach them to be socially active themselves, to solve pressing issues all together. The Brotherhood took care of low-income citizens, of charity development, provided financial support to start-up entrepreneurs, was engaged in education, special attention was paid to promoting a sober lifestyle. The key role in the work of the Brotherhood was played by Stefan Ostroumov, rector of the Church, a deputy of the IV State Duma from the Ryazan region. The study presnts the analyses of his biography, published works, publications in periodicals.

Становление системы государственного ипотечного кредитования в Рязанской губернии во второй половине XIX в.: исторический аспект

The research objective includes identifying specificity of the mortgage lending system formation in Ryazan province in the second half of the XIX century. The article examines the basic activity trends of regional branches of the Peasants’ Land Bank and the Nobles’ Land Bank in the mentioned period. Scientific originality of the study involves a comprehensive analysis of the mortgage institutions that functioned in Ryazan province in the initial period of their activity. The research findings are as follows: the author proves that activity of the Peasants’ Land Bank and the Nobles’ Land Bank was aimed to develop peasant landowning and to provide economic support to noblemen. In Ryazan province, mortgage lending institutions were established on the initiative of the zemstvo self-government bodies.

D. I. Mendeleev’s “cherished thoughts” on foreign trade and “proper protectionism”

Foreign trade policy and its role in the economic growth of the national economy are considered through the prism of history and comparison of the formation of the industrial economy in the Russian Empire and the North American United States. The author compares the protectionism of D. I. Mendeleev, described in his economic works, and the free trade thinking of the American scholar W. Sumner, who formulated the “misconceptions” of protectionism. Mendeleev’s proper protectionism is grounded on the basic principles (incentivizing internal competition, growth of consumption, bringing up of new industries ), which are relevant for contemporary Russia. The author gives a typical example of the formation and decline of the factory industry using the case of mirror factories in the Ryazan province. These historical analogies, the paper argues, are necessary for the correct assessment of the current situation and for coming up with valid solutions aimed at the development of the Russian economy.

Several data on the sexual activity of the peasant women of the Taganrog district of the Oblast of the Don Army

The author interviewed 1,328 women, exclusively peasant women, who always lived in the countryside, about the beginning of the regulation and it turned out that on average it corresponds to 16.47 years. These data are closest to the observations of Nikolsky in the Tambov district, Lieven in Russia in general and prof. Slavyansky in the Mikhailovsky district of the Ryazan province.

Проблемы улучшения экономического положения крестьян Рязанской губернии в трудах Особого совещания о нуждах сельскохозяйственной промышленности (1902-1903 гг.)

Проблемы улучшения экономического положения крестьян Рязанской губернии в трудах Особого совещания о нуждах сельскохозяйственной промышленности (1902-1903 гг.)

Первые рязанские милицейские курсы: к 100-летию учреждения

the Article contains a brief historical and legal analysis of the first steps in the organization of the training system for the Soviet police (militia). The Ryazan province was chosen as the base region for the study during the end of the Civil war and the post-war years. The issues related to the formation of educational-methodical and material base of educational organizations specializing in the training of ordinary and commanding personnel for militia institutions were discussed. In connection with the course for the implementation of the new economic policy, the militia were entrusted with numerous functions that were not previously included in its powers. This revealed not only the lack of sufficient professional training for the majority of employees, but also the moral unwillingness to perform some functions whose competencies have not yet been developed.
 The article presents an assessment of a number of acute problems identified at the stage of establishment of Ryazan militia courses. It is important to take into account that they later became the basis of a number of law enforcement educational institutions, including those operating today. Thanks to the introduction into scientific circulation of a significant amount of previously unused archival material, the author’s approach in assessing the events that took place, the article may be of interest to a wide range of historians, lawyers, teachers and local historians.

«…Прождав 23 года, немыслимо ждать опять 20 лет»: Неизвестная стенограмма о судьбе рязанского имения Достоевских

This publication introduces into scientific circulation one of the previously untranscribed shorthand documents of the wife of F. M. Dostoevsky. According to our transcript, the contents of this draft of her letter is related to the inheritance that the writer's family received after the death of a rich Moscow relative, A. F. Kumanina. Dostoevsky did not have the time to use the inherited estate in the village of Spas-Klepiki of the Ryazan province, and the writer’s widow and children became the owners of the Ryazan estate. On these three pages, A. G. Dostoevskaya encrypted a message to an unknown person about the upcoming sale of her family's share of the estate in Spas-Klepiki and a request for advice on drawing up a forestry plan. In addition to the fact that this document is written in shorthand, the work with it was complicated by several circumstances: it was randomly enclosed in a folder with letters from N. A. Disterlo to A. G. Dostoevskaya; there is no evocation of the addressee or date. After studying the letters of F. F. Dostoevsky to his mother, the authors of the article concluded that the draft letter was dated 1895. An attempt is made to attribute it: it is demonstrated that the likely addressee is A. D. Povalishin, the manager of the Ryazan branches of the Noble and Peasant Banks. The transcript helped determine that count A. A. Golenishchev-Kutuzov provided assistance in the sale of the estate. It was established that a certain Monsherov, mentioned in the verbatim draft, is not a joint heir of Dostoevsky, as he is listed in the nominal index of the Complete Academic Works of the writer, but the Ryazan surveyor I. P. Monsherov. The study analyzes unpublished letters from 1896 by this acquaintance of Dostoevsky's widow, as well as epistolary documents from the archive of Andrei and Anna Dostoevsky, which are related to the Ryazan estate. Examination reveals that one parcel of the land inherited by the writer's family was sold, and the first income from the Ryazan estate was received in 1895-1896. The fair copy of the letter written by Dostoevsky's widow has not been recovered; the task of locating it (likely in the Ryazan archives) remains relevant. The transcribed, attributed and dated draft of this letter and the surviving letters of I. P. Monsherov to A. G. Dostoevsky are the documents that establish new facts about the fate of Kumanina’s inheritance after the writer’s death.

Food Supply and Bagging in the Ryazan Province. 1918–1919

Introduction. The problem of the ratio of planned regulation and the market in the conditions of centralization of the Russian economy during the civil war is relevant. The role of the illegal market in the context of food supply of the population in the conditions of military Communist policy is considered on the example of the Ryazan province. Materials and Methods. As a theoretical and methodological strategy of the study, we consider the problem-chronological method, the implementation of which, in conjunction with the method of political psychology, allows us to comprehensively consider the problem of illegal supply of local population with food products during the Civil war. Results. The article analyzes the activities of state bodies aimed at eliminating the system of self-supply, through the implementation of the food dictatorship, the organization of the grain monopoly. Bagging is investigated as part of social history, human behavior in extreme conditions of civil war and famine. Special attention is paid to the complex relationship of illegal suppliers with representatives of the provincial government, employees of food authorities, railway workers. Abuse of barrage detachments in relation to railway employees is investigated. The situation with food in the Ryazan province in the period under review, was a reflection of the overall picture with the supply of bread in the country. The supply of the population was experiencing a serious crisis, which led to the introduction of emergency measures against the illegal market. The state used a monopoly on bread, suppressed attempts to speculate on food. Discussion and Conclusion. Despite the anti-market ideology, the grain monopoly, the Bolsheviks failed to combat the elements of market consciousness among the population in 1918 and 1919. The Market found an opportunity to adapt and exist in the planning and distribution system. Later it transformed into freedom of trade under the NEP.

Spatial determinants and underlying drivers of land-use transitions in European Russia from 1770 to 2010

ABSTRACTHistoric land-use and land-cover data are important inputs for assessing the impacts of human activity on the environment. Our goal was to reconstruct land-cover change from 1770 to 2010 and to evaluate its spatial determinants and underlying drivers for three study sites in diverse agroecological settings in Ryazan province in European Russia. We used historic maps and statistics as well as satellite imagery to reconstruct land-cover change and categorize it into six distinct land-management regimes. We applied spatially-explicit logistic regressions to assess which spatial determinants have had the strongest influences on land cover and how these influences have changed over time. Our results show how long-term land-cover trajectories can be modulated by broad political and economic alterations, rather than through gradual and local demand-side pressures from a rising population density and an increasing local demand for agricultural commodities.

Проблемы расширения крестьянского земельного фонда в трудах особого совещания о нуждах сельскохозяйственной промышленности (по материалам Рязанской губернии)

Проблемы расширения крестьянского земельного фонда в трудах особого совещания о нуждах сельскохозяйственной промышленности (по материалам Рязанской губернии)