Olga Alexeevna Savelova,
Candidate of Historical Sciences, A.P. Ershov Institute of Informatics Systems оf the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences; Institute of Oil and Gas Geology and Geophysics Named after A.A. Trofimuk 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.
Irina Alexandrovna Krayneva,
Doctor of Historical Sciences, A.P. Ershov Institute of Informatics Systems 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.
The Karpov Sisters’ Electronic Archive: A Story of a Scientific Dynasty
DOI: 10.31518/2618-9100-2021-2-2
The Open Archive of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences is the third in a series of projects aimed at providing open distributed access to archival information, which is critically important to historians of science. The content of the archive is based on documents from personal archives as well as archives of educational, social and artistic organizations of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. As a rule, materials are provided by relatives of the fonds’ creators based on free use for research purpose. The Oral History and Memoir Collection form a separate collection. Personal collections of scientists, which dominate the Open Archive, not only contain sources of personal information, but also provide a view of the historical context of the lives and work of the scholars. Ego-documents such as letters and diaries, which are becoming a deprecated kind of historical sources, are of special value. The archive also contains a variety of bureaucratic documents, including office and judicial trial documents, as well as scientific works, periodicals, political essays, works of art and photographs. The article presents a brief analysis of the personal collection of the Karpov sisters (née) – the academician Tatiana Ivanovna Zaslavskaya (1927–2013) and Maya Ivanovna Cheremisina, Doctor of Phylological Sciences (1924–2013). There are several famous scientific dynasties in Russia, going back to the early 19th century: The Lyapunov-Henris, Kapitsa-Milevskiys, Lavrentievs, Vernadskiys, Smalhausens, Vorozhtsovs, et al. The Karpov sisters are another example of such dynasty, worthy of their roots: the first scientist in the family was Olga Karlovna Kraft, who became an MD in Paris in 1884; their maternal grandfather, G.G. De-Metz (1861–1947) was a physicist, professor, Dean of the Department of Physics and Mathematics and later the Rector of the St. Vladimir Emperor’s University in Kiev and the Kuban State University. Their father, Ivan Vasilievich Karpov (1897–1965) was a Candidate of Pedagogical Sciences, who took part in the WWI as a volunteer. By researching the history of the De-Metz–Kraft–Karpov family, the authors pursue the task of “reading” the personal stories in the context of culture and society of the time, and reveal the in-depth influence of the family history on the personal paths. Moreover, they attempt at drawing other historians’ attention to this collection – hence the dominating descriptive style of the paper.
Publishing: 28/04/2021
The article has been received by the editor on 11/02/2021
How to cite: Savelova O.A., Krayneva I.A. The Karpov Sisters’ Electronic Archive: A Story of a Scientific Dynasty // Historical Courier, 2021, No. 2 (16), pp. 25–35. [Available online:] http://istkurier.ru/data/2021/ISTKURIER-2021-2-02.pdf
Links: Issue 2 2021
Keywords: history of science; academic dynasty; Karpov sisters; academician T.I. Zaslavskaya; Doctor of Philology M.I. Cheremisina; SB RAS Open Archive