Olga Valerianovna Edelman,
Candidate of Historical Sciences, State Archive of the Russian Federation, Moscow, Russia, e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Documentary Series “The Decembrist Uprising”: One Hundred Years of the Development of Archeography
DOI: 10.31518/2618-9100-2025-6-7
The series was founded on the eve of the 100th anniversary of the Decembrists. The first volume was published in 1925 “under the general editorship” of M.N. Pokrovsky and “edited” by his namesake A.A. Pokrovsky. The second and third volumes were also prepared by A.A. Pokrovsky (1926 and 1927), the fourth by B.E. Syroechkovsky, and the fifth (investigative cases of leading members of the Society of United Slavs, 1926) by N.P. Chulkov. The compiler of the sixth volume, published in 1929 and dedicated to the uprising of the Chernigov Infantry regiment, was Yu.B. Oxman. At this point, the output of volumes was suspended for two decades, and the next volume, Volume IX, was published in 1950. The pause in the publication of the series had both general historical (political repression in the 1930s, the evacuation of archives during the war, which made them inaccessible to work) and more specific situational reasons. A new revival in the early 1950s coincided with the arrival of another reputable scientist, M.V. Nechkina, to the leadership of this publication. The first volume of the series already set the basic approaches, which were subsequently generally preserved, although partially adjusted. In the five initial volumes of The Decembrist Uprising, as in Volume VII, the principle of preserving pre-revolutionary spelling and carefully conveying all the features of the original spelling was applied. Starting from Volume IX, the text began to be transmitted according to standard rules, according to a new spelling, with errors corrected and the individual features of the original spelling preserved. Many of the approaches laid down from the first volume were preserved throughout the series, down to the book format and serial design of the cover. It is difficult to overestimate the importance of the initial decision to publish the investigative files in their entirety, as they were formed by the officials of the Investigative Commission at the end of the investigation, without any selection of documents. For forensic investigative materials, the preservation of the unity and integrity of the documentary complex is fundamentally necessary.
Publishing: 28/12/2025
The article has been received by the editor on 16/09/2025
How to cite: Edelman O.V. Documentary Series “The Decembrist Uprising”: One Hundred Years of the Development of Archeography // Historical Courier, 2025, No. 6 (44), pp. 111−122. [Available online: http://istkurier.ru/data/2025/ISTKURIER-2025-6-07.pdf]
Links: Issue 6 2025
Keywords: Decembrists; archeography; textual criticism; filigree; forensic investigation materials