Denis I. Murenko,
Postgraduate Student, Institute of History of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, Russia, e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Opportunities of Oral History in the Study of Formation of the Komsomol Organization of the Novosibirsk Academgorodok (1958–1960)
DOI: 10.31518/2618-9100-2020-5-18
The article is devoted to the use of oral history methods in the study of the local history of Akademgorodok. Based on the example of several interviews, the socio-psychological environment in which the Komsomol organization of the scientific center was formed was reconstructed. The article shows the institutionalization of the Komsomol structures – the Soviet District Committee of the Komsomol and the Komsomol Committee of the Siberian Branch of the Academy of Sciences. The peculiarities of the uneasy relationship between the Komsomol scientists and the Komsomol builders are revealed. Through the memoirs of eyewitnesses, the relationship between the Komsomol Committee of the Siberian Branch of the Academy of Sciences with the party-Komsomol leadership of the city is shown. The advantages and disadvantages of biographical interviews of Komsomol scholars are considered in comparison with other sources. It was concluded that the interview materials significantly supplement and “revive” the existing archival documents. In the difficult conditions of the construction of a scientific center, the party and Soviet bodies of Novosibirsk formed an attitude that the potential of newly arrived young scientists – Komsomol members could be used as a reserve labor force, including for solving other, non-scientific tasks. The interviews with the then young scientists – “pioneers” allow to more vividly and substantively identify one of the signs and manifestations of the time of the “thaw” – the presence and collision of two youth subcultures – scientific and working, aggravated not only by difficulties of a domestic and psychological nature, but also by considerable distance in educational and ideological guidelines.
Publishing: 30/10/2020
The article has been received by the editor on 25.07.2020
How to cite: Murenko D.I. Opportunities of Oral History in the Study of Formation of the Komsomol Organization of the Novosibirsk Academgorodok (1958–1960) // Historical Courier, 2020, No. 5 (13), pp. 216–227. [Available online:] http://istkurier.ru/data/2020/ISTKURIER-2020-5-18.pdf
Links: Issue 5 2020
Keywords: Siberian branch; historical memory; oral history; Komsomol; young scientists; reconstruction; method; biography