Archival collections of advertising materials as the source of Russian abroad history in 20 century. The problem of revelation, classification and information analysis

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Аннотация / Annotation
В статье проводится источниковедческий анализ рекламных материалов российского зарубежья, что позволяет показать возможности их использования в процессе исследования историко-культурного феномена зарубежной России ХХ века в целом, а также его отдельных территориальных и социальных компонентов.
In this article the source study analysis of Russian abroad advertising materials is carry out. It helps to show this materials use possibility in researches of Russian abroad cultural-historical phenomenon in 20 century. In particular, his territorial and social components.

Ключевые слова / Keywords
Источники, источниковедческий анализ, российское зарубежье, эмигрантские рекламные материалы, архивные фонды. Sources, source study analysis, Russian abroad, emigrant advertising materials, archival funds.

Strategic task of modern Russia entry into world economic space add currency to the historical experience of business development in Russian abroad in 20 century. In Russian abroad system in beginning of 1920th was created the diverse spectrum of trade and mediatory companies, finance and credit institutions, industrial structures, crafts, quasi-retailing business, etc.

The institutionalization of emigrant business was accompanied with big development of commercial advertising, which creation was considered the prerevolutionary Russian experience and the need of compete with other countries. The independent sphere of advertising use in Russian abroad was the business in creative and intellectual sphere: theatre and concert activity, book publisher business, etc. All of this come to cause of highly artistic advertising materials origin. This materials became the part of business history and enriched the world culture. The majority of areas of commercial, sociopolitical and creative activity of Russian emigration developed during all 20 century. Research of emigrate advertising materials is the important component of historiography study process. Here being the applied and research tasks. They connect with Russian abroad advertising analysis.

The valuable material in information relation for studying of a print advertising of the Russian abroad of the 1920-1930th is presented in GARF scientific library meeting which structure included sets and separate numbers of periodicals from a RZIA collection and some other emigrant meetings, including the period of the 1950th – the 1980th. As a rule, commercial was published in daily newspapers and popular weeklies of the Russian abroad, and also in editions of business and entertaining character. Many of them remained in the form of separate sets or the individual copies which are available in GARF: “Evening press” (Constantinople), “Our life” (Sofia), “Economic sheets” (Harbin), "Colonist" (Prague), “Geodetic business” (Belgrad), “Science and life” (New York), “Screen and scene” (Harbin), “Blue brilliant” (Shanghai), etc.

Advertising studying as independent subject within a source study represents one of the new, being formed directions in a domestic historical science. Information value of advertising in a context of historical and historical and economic researches was noted at the beginning of the XX century. So, for example, G. Tsiperovich wrote: “If over a modern system the accident which has destroyed it all signs, except for advertising burst, on this child of capitalist culture it would be possible to restore many essential lines peculiar to modern way”. Use of the advertising material as a historical source and illustrative materials was carried out to some extent within works on history of a national economy, merchant class, trade, both in the Soviet historiography, and in publications of the 1990th – the 2000th.



Considerable development of concrete historical and theoretical researches on problems of development of domestic business and business, served as incentive for identification and studying of nonconventional types of the historical sources reflecting evolution of the Russian economy, business and daily culture. The modern historical science “everything addresses to the archival materials allowing in a new way to look at, apparently, well studied processes” more fixedly. First of all, the print advertizing, despite specificity and uniqueness of its separate samples, can be considered as a mass source, thanks to a tirazhnost, repeatability of its information row and visual images. Respectively, it gives the chance applications when studying advertizing materials both general scientific and general historical methods, and methods of the natural and exact sciences. Besides, at work with newspaper advertizing as with a mass source, "there is no need to study all sampling units, and it is enough to consider only a sample”.

On materials of leading emigrant newspapers and magazines (“Latest news", “A new Russian word”, “the Illustrated Russia”, "Today", “Russian thought”, "Panorama", etc.) it is possible to track dynamics of number of advertisements as a whole and on separate groups of the goods and services, specific advertisers, to consider evolution of structure and contents of advertising information during rather long period (10 years and more), to carry out the comparative analysis of features of emigrant advertising in the different countries and world regions. Information loading which is born by advertising production of the Russian abroad, can't provide complete, exhaustive ideas of the business environment of foreign Russia, but, nevertheless, use of advertising materials essentially supplements and expands a picture of social and economic and cultural evolution of the world of the Russian abroad for the 20 century.

You can read completely article in the russian historic-archival magazine “The Herald of an Archivist”. Read more about terms of subscription here.

Полностью материал публикуется в российском историко-архивоведческом журнале ВЕСТНИК АРХИВИСТА. Ознакомьтесь с условиями подписки здесь.