History of the Russian Navy in the World War I: source study aspect.
| 14 August 2010
Posted in
Archival and documental
Annotation / Аннотация
Article is the review of a source complex of researches of a history of the Russian navy during World War I. The author analyses the acts, the office work documents, published documentary materials, sources of a personal origin, a periodicals and reference editions, which use is called to raise gnoseological and applied importance of results of study of a domestic naval history.
Автором представлен обзор источникового комплекса исследований истории российского военно-морского флота в годы Первой мировой войны, проанализированы законодательные акты, делопроизводственные документы, опубликованные документальные материалы, источники личного происхождения, периодическая печать и справочные издания, использование которых призвано повысить гносеологическую и прикладную значимость результатов изучения отечественной военно-морской истории.
Keywords / Ключевые слова
World War I, Russian navy, Naval ministry, Naval general staff, source complex. Первая мировая война, Российский военно-морской флот, Морское министерство, Морской генеральный штаб, источниковый комплекс.
Д.Ю. КОЗЛОВ
ИСТОРИЯ РОССИЙСКОГО ФЛОТА ПЕРИОДА ПЕРВОЙ МИРОВОЙ ВОЙНЫ: ИСТОЧНИКОВЕДЧЕСКИЙ АСПЕКТ
The characteristic of source base in the First World War is expedient for beginning bases of researches of activity of the Russian fleet with acts, and also the authorized, supervising and other official documents, allowing to make representation about standard base of activity of officials, bodies of military management and forces in process of construction of fleet and its application in a wartime.
The basic file of the office work documentation on an investigated theme was postponed in funds of the State archive of the Russian Federation (GARF), the Russian state archive of navy fleet (RGA the Navy), the Russian state military-historical archive (RGVIA) and Archive of foreign policy of the Russian empire of Historic-documentary department the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The documentary base of researches of history of domestic fleet of the period of the First World War would be incomplete without documents of diplomatic character from collection AVPRI. The greatest, in our opinion, value is represented by fund materials “Confidential archive of the minister” (F. 138), the chief of foreign policy department accumulating documents concerning the conclusion of the Russian-French sea convention (1912) and preparations of the sea agreement with Great Britain (1914), coordination of actions of the Russian fleet and the Navies of allies in days of war, extensive correspondence on problems of passages Bosporuss and Dardanelless, militarization of the Aland islands, etc.
For revealing of the personal contribution of officials in the decision of key questions on application of the Navies, openings of motives of administrative decisions pertinently to use stored in РГА the Navy and ГАРФ documents of personal funds of V.M. Altfater (RGAV MF. F. 1), I.K. Grigorovich (RGA the Navy. Ф. 701; GARF. F r-5970), M.A. Kedrov (GARF. F r-6666), A.V. Kolchak (RGA the Navy. F. 11), A.I. Nepenin (RGA the Navy. F. 28), S.N. Somov (GARF. F r-6378), A.I. Rusin (RGA the Navy. F. 1335), prince M.B. Cherkassky (RGA the Navy. Ф\F. 759), N.O. von Essen (RGA the Navy. F. 757) and other historical characters.
Extremely valuable source which practically has been not entered into a scientific turn in our country, is an advanced achievement of our German colleagues – the four-volume documentary collection «Die deutsche Seekriegsleitung im Ersten Weltkrieg» (“the German naval command in the First World War”), let out by Bundesarchive in 1999-2004 the Edition M?ller's background, chiefs of an admiral-staff of admirals H. von Muller, H. von Pohl, G.Bahman and stats-secretaries of imperial sea management (sea ministers) gross-admiral А. von Tirpiza and admiral E. von Capellle, and also commands of the German naval forces on Baltiysk and Black the seas containsa substantial selection of documents of Kaiser Wilhelm II, the chief of its sea office of admiral.
The important component of source base is a complex probably manuscripts of researches on stories of "sea" war 1914-1917 not published or published in repeatedly reduced kind. Has left diary records and I.I. Rengarten who was at the head of investigation of the Baltic fleet. The reference to memoirs of the former officer of Naval management at ВГК B.P. Aprelev allows to reconstruct the circumstances connected with escalation of conditions in Black sea after break of the German cruisers "Geben" and "Breslau" to Dardanelless, and also to throw light on motives of key decisions of the Supreme power and command of fleet of Black sea on the threshold of war with Turkey.
Memoirs of the known Russian diplomat and the lawyer-foreign affairs specialist of baron M.A. Taube contain the unique information on international legal aspects of activity of domestic fleet during Great war. In the manuscript of memoirs of vice-admiral M.A. Kedrov (1933), occupying a number of supervising posts in Baltiysk fleet and central office of the Sea ministry, rather substantial judgements of the author about conditions on the Russian sea battlefields, decision-making process, and also curious details about mutual relations in the environment of the state management and the higher naval command contain.
However the greatest interest among the neopublished memoirs of “the Prague archive” represent, as it seems to us, “Memoirs of vice-admiral D.V. Nenjukov”, dated 1925 the Author, headed in 1914-1916 Naval management at ВГК. Some private papers of the former opponents – letters and memoirs А a background of Tirpiza, Г a background of the Field, V.Sushona, R.Firle, etc. – were published fragmentary or in a short form in the Soviet and emigrant military periodical press in 1920th years. In 1940 in the USSR memoirs of admiral Р a background of Sheera (in 1916-1918 – the commander of high sea Fleet), and in 1957 – rather substantial memoirs a background Tirpitsa anticipated by detailed introductory articles of known Soviet experts Н were issued. P.Poletiki and V.A.Alafuzova. Diaries and letters of vice-admiral А a background of Hopmana holding high posts in the German naval forces in Baltiysk are published in Germany.