Letter from Z. A. Voskresenskaya to the Chairman of the Leningrad City Executive Committee P. S. Popkov with a Request for Food Aid (1943)

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УДК 94(47).084.8+94(47)+929

DOI 10.28995/2073-0101-2022-3-784-795

Tverdyukova, Elena D.

Institute of History of St. Petersburg State University; St. Petersburg Institute of History of the Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg, Russian Federation

Letter from Z. A. Voskresenskaya to the Chairman of the Leningrad City Executive Committee P. S. Popkov with a Request for Food Aid (1943)

Abstract

The article analyzes the text of the letter from Zinaida Andreevna Voskresenskaya, wife of Nikolai Alekseevich Voskresensky, a historian of law of the Petrine era, written on March 2, 1943 and addressed to the chairman of the Executive Committee of the Leningrad City Council of Workers’ Deputies Petr Sergeevich Popkov. N. A. Voskresensky (1889–1948) spent many years identifying and systematizing documents and deciphering autographs of the first Russian emperor. Working as a teacher in a Leningrad school, without being member of any scientific community or academic institution, he independently analyzed about 3,500 monuments of the legislation of Peter the Great, studied the legislative process of the Petrine era, and assessed the role of foreign law in its formation. Voskresensky did not interrupt his work even in the days of the siege. Together with his wife, he prepared 80 author’s sheets of texts for printing. The couple survived the first blockade winter thanks to food parcels on behalf of the Leningrad City Executive Committee, scientist’s registration under the category of workers in supply standards, as well as assistance from the Food Commission of the Military Council of the Leningrad Front, by decision of which he received academic rations in a special store. The activities of the Food Commission and the scale of assistance to Leningraders in the winter of 1942 have been assessed in recent historiography, but the events of 1943 have not yet been covered by scientific literature. The published letter is the second known petition sent by the Voskresenskys to P. S. Popkov. It has been found in the fond of the Main Department of Trade of the Leningrad City Executive Committee in the Central State Archive of St. Petersburg. Unlike the first letter published by N. A. Lomagin in 2017, the decision on which was made in March 1942 by the Food Commission, apparently collegially, the instruction to provide food assistance to the Voskresensky family following this second letter was given personally by the head of the Trade Department of the Leningrad City Executive Committee I. A. Andreenko in March 1943. Anthropological approach has led to the use of biographical method. When preparing the documentary publication, various methods of source criticism, historical-comparative and problem-chronological methods have also been used. The publication of the letter of Z. A. Voskresenskaya along with commentary clarifies some biographical data on N. A. Voskresensky and completes the picture of food supply of scientists after the breaking of the blockade of Leningrad.

Keywords

N. A. Voskresensky, siege of Leningrad, food aid, history of law, Petrine law.

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References

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About the authors

Tverdyukova Elena Dmitrievna, PhD in History, associate professor, St. Petersburg State University, Institute of History, department of contemporary history of Russia, professor; St. Petersburg Institute of History of the Russian Academy of Sciences, department of modern history of Russia, leading researcher, St. Petersburg, Russian Federation, +7-921-947-62-26, +7-812-235-15-80, +7-812-328-94-47, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Submitted 10.03.2022, published (for citation):

TVERDYUKOVA, E. D. Pis'mo Z. A. Voskresenskoi predsedatelyu Lengorispolkoma P. S. Popkovu s pros'boi o prodovol'stvennoi pomoshchi. 1943 g. [Letter from Z. A. Voskresenskaya to the Chairman of the Leningrad City Executive Committee P. S. Popkov with a Request for Food Aid (1943). In Russ.]. IN: Vestnik arhivista / Herald of an Archivist, 2022, no. 3, pp. 784-795. doi 10.28995/2073-0101-2022-3-784-795

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