Aleksei Eduardovich Maksiutov,
Postgraduate Student, Institute for Mongolian, Buddhist and Tibetan Studies of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Ulan-Ude, Russia, e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Documents of the State Archive of the Republic of Buryatia about the Decembrists
DOI: 10.31518/2618-9100-2025-6-11
The article examines the contents of the collection of documents of the State Archive of the Republic of Buryatia related to the life and work of the Decembrists in Siberian exile. Based on the analysis of the archival collection, its characteristics are given, documents are classified, and usage problems are identified. The author identifies two groups of sources that have not yet been published by archivists. The first group includes a small number of documents about the stay of the Decembrists in the territory of present-day Buryatia, their economic, local history and educational activities. The second group tells about the process of studying the Decembrist exile, perpetuating the memory of the “noble revolutionaries” in the republic, events held in Buryatia to mark the 150th anniversary of the Decembrist uprising: the organization of the Decembrist Museum in Novoselenginsk, the restoration of monuments related to them; media coverage of the life of the Decembrists in Siberia, in the works of regional artists. A separate segment consists of documents stored in the personal funds of historians and local historians. The article draws attention to the fact that the materials of the republican archive about the Decembrists can contribute to the study of regional nuances of the state policy of the Russian Empire in relation to political exiles, the study of ways to preserve the memory of the Decembrists in the republic, and the expansion of the historiography of the Decembrist movement. Conducting a historiographical review of the works on the topic, the author establishes the place and importance of studying the funds of regional archives in Russian Decembrist studies, emphasizes the need for further archeographical activity of historians of the Decembrist movement.
Publishing: 28/12/2025
The article has been received by the editor on 25/09/2025
How to cite: Maksiutov A.E. Documents of the State Archive of the Republic of Buryatia about the Decembrists // Historical Courier, 2025, No. 6 (44), pp. 167−175. [Available online: http://istkurier.ru/data/2025/ISTKURIER-2025-6-11.pdf]
The work was carried out as part of the state assignment, project “Russia and Inner Asia: Dynamics of Geopolitical, Socioeconomic, and Intercultural Interaction (17th−21st Centuries)”, No. 121031000243-5.
Links: Issue 6 2025
Keywords: Decembrists; State Archive of the Republic of Buryatia; Siberia; political exile; archive collection