Memoirs of Lieutenant Colonel K.N. Ignat’ev about his service in the 12th Siberian Barnaul Infantry Regiment. 1910

Scientific article

doi 10.28995/2073-0101-2024-2-522-535

For citation

Lizogub, Anna S. (2024), “Memoirs of Lieutenant Colonel K.N. Ignat’ev about his service in the 12th Siberian Barnaul Infantry Regiment. 1910”, Herald of an Archivist, no. 2, pp. 522-535. doi 10.28995/2073-0101-2024-2-522-535

Lizogub, Anna S., Omsk State University named after F. M. Dostoevsky, Omsk, Russia

Memoirs of Lieutenant Colonel K.N. Ignat’ev about his service in the 12th Siberian Barnaul Infantry Regiment. 1910

Abstract

This work is devoted to the analysis of regimental histories as one of the tools for the formation of historical memory in the military environment. Active work on creating histories of military formations was carried out at the turn of the 19th–20th centuries, which was associated with reforms in the army in the last quarter of the 19th century, as well as a series of regimental anniversaries. This genre of military historical literature contains rich information not only about wars, but also about the peculiarities of regimental life. For the first time, the memoirs of Lieutenant Colonel K.N. Ignat’ev about his service in the 12th Siberian Barnaul Infantry Regiment are published, deposited in Fund 339 - Russian Military Historical Society of the Russian State Military Historical Archive (RGVIA). The analytical part of the article analyzes the heuristic potential of the source, characterizes its structure, style and content. In the memoirs of K.N. Ignat’ev contains information about some regimental traditions, personal characteristics of commanders and colleagues. The source contains references to the names of officers, information about which is being introduced into scientific circulation for the first time. To identify the information about the mentioned military personnel of the regiment, lists of officers by seniority of the imperial army of the second half of the 19th - early 20th centuries were used. Based on contextual-historical analysis, it was determined that the time of creation of the memories of K.N. Ignat’ev coincides with active work on creating an essay about the 12th Siberian Barnaul Infantry Regiment, compiled by military historiographer, member of the Imperial Russian Military Historical Society (IRVIO) M.K. Sokolovskii. Historical and comparative analysis made it possible to establish that the lieutenant colonel’s memories were not used by M.K. Sokolovskii while working on regimental history. The compiler's attention is focused on recreating the life of the regiment during the Russo-Japanese War. The author comes to the conclusion that in order to form the identity of a military corporation, regimental histories focused on military events and heroic deeds of the military formation. However, analysis of the memories of K.N. Ignat’ev made it possible to establish that in local commands and battalions with less combat experience, they sought to preserve the memory of commanders and regimental traditions. The published document allows us to significantly supplement our knowledge about the history of the Barnaul regiment, as well as about the peculiarities of relationships within the military corporation. At the same time, analysis of the content of the source and the context of its appearance reveals some features of the process of compiling regimental histories.

Keywords

Imperial Army, historical source, archival documents, regimental histories, Barnaul Regiment, K. N. Ignat’ev, historical memory, memories

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About the authors

Anna S. Lizogub, PhD in History, associate professor, Dostoevsky Omsk State University, Department of Russian History, Sociology and Political Science, Omsk, Russia, +7-950-796-53-34, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Grant information

The article was prepared with the financial support of the Russian National Science Foundation grant No. 23-78-01190 («Military events in the historical memory of Russian society at the beginning of the 20th century»), https://www.rscf.ru/project/23-78-01190/

The article was received in the editorial office on 8.10.2023, recommended for publication on 20.03.2024.