Family memory of the Polovtsovs family in the archival collections of Moscow and St. Petersburg, 20th – Early 21st Centuries

Scientific article

DOI 10.28995/2073-0101-2026-1-143-161

For citation

Mitsyuk, N. A., Pushkareva, N. L. (2026). Family memory of the Polovtsovs family in the archival collections of Moscow and St. Petersburg, 20th – Early 21st Centuries, Herald of an Archivist, no. 1, pp. 143-161. DOI 10.28995/2073-0101-2026-1-143-161

Mitsyuk N. A., Pushkareva N. L., N. N. Miklukho-Maklai Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology of Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia

Family memory of the Polovtsovs family in the archival collections of Moscow and St. Petersburg, 20th – Early 21st Centuries

Abstract

The paper aims to explore the source study potential of the Polovtsovs family's personal collections in representing social history, everyday life, and family history in Russia in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The article focuses on the study of family memory based on the extensive archival collection of the Polovtsovs family's personal collections. When working with autodocumentary sources, key methods are source study and discourse analysis, as well as genealogical analysis. It was established that the family members’ personal collections have been preserved in the document repositories of the Russian State Historical Archive, the State Archives of the Russian Federation, the Central State Historical Archive of St. Petersburg, and the Manuscripts Department of the National Library of Russia. Despite the rich archival collection (the collections contain 4,519 files from 1762 to 1942), the materials in the collections have remained poorly studied and utilized in scholarly discourse. The uniqueness of this archival complex lies in its rich epistolary heritage, a multitude of diary entries, notes, and memoirs that allow us to represent the daily life of Russian families over more than a century and a half, as well as the transformation of parenting culture. The authors have classified these self-documentary sources and grouped them into distinct categories: children's and adolescent diaries, «parental diaries», and «mother's texts». The family members' entries are distinguished by their regularity and consistency. The Polovtsovs family's rich archival materials provide vivid evidence of the formation of a distinctive Russian tradition of family life, characterized by family members' immersion in the upbringing process, child-centeredness, and conscious parenting. Women's self-documentary writing, particularly mother's texts, attest to the emergence of conscious parenting and the legitimization of pregnancy and childbirth practices. Parental diaries characterize a new culture of educated parenting, characterized by parental involvement in the educational process and the incorporation of expert systems (medicine, pedagogy) into caregiving and parenting practices. Fathers' records of their own children's development attest to the emergence of a culture of conscious fatherhood. A significant number of children's diaries demonstrate new practices of autobiographical writing, in which children's everyday experiences became significant. Women's and children's self-documentary writing allows for the reconstruction of family events as subjective, personally experienced, and personalized anthropological experiences.

Keywords

Family memory, Polovtsovs, everyday history, «parental diary», conscious motherhood, family history, history of motherhood, history of childhood.

Download the article: mitsyuk_pushkareva_doi

References

Assman, Ya. (2003). Cultural Memory, Moscow, Languages of Slavic Culture publ., 368 p.

Barash, R. E. (2023). Family History and Family Memory in Russia in the 2020s., Polity, no. 4, pp. 141-162.

Belova, A. V. (2010). ‘Four Ages of a Woman’ Everyday Life of a Russian Provincial Noblewoman of the 18th–Mid-19th Centuries, St. Petersburg, Aleteya publ., 480 p.

Veremenko, V. A. (2009). Noble Family and State Policy in Russia (Second Half of the 19th–Early 20th Centuries), St. Petersburg, European House publ., 622 p.

Veremenko, V. A., Zhukova, A. E. (2020). Educational Practices in Noble-Intellectual Families of Russia in the Second Half of the 19th – Early 20th Centuries, St. Petersburg, Leningrad State University named after A. S. Pushkin publ., 232 p.

Deriker, V. V. (1873). Physiological History of Women, St. Petersburg, Hohenfelden publ., 243 p.

Logunova, L. Yu. (2011). Family and Tribal Memory as a Social Phenomenon, Kemerovo, KSU publ., 251 p.

Pushkareva, N. L. (Ed.) (2018). Maternal Identity, Family and Collective Memory of the ‘Female Destiny’ in Russia, Moscow, IEA RAS publ., 453 p.

Nora, P. (2005). Worldwide Celebration of Memory, Neprikosnovenny zapas, no. 2–3, pp. 40–41.

Polovtsov, A. A. (2005). Diary of the State Secretary, in 2 vols., v. 1, 1883–1886, Moscow, Centerpoligraf, 605 p.; v. 2. 1887–1892, Moscow, Centerpoligraf publ., 639 p.

Repina, L. P. (2012). The Experience of Social Crises in Historical Memory. IN: Crises of Turning Points in Historical Memory, Moscow, Institute of World History, Russian Academy of Sciences publ., pp. 3–37.

Ricoeur, P. (2004). Memory, History, Oblivion, Moscow, Humanitarian Literature publ., 728 p.

Rozhdestvenskaya, E., Semenova, V. (2011). Social Memory as an Object of Sociological Study, Interaction, Interview, Interpretation, no. 6. pp. 27–48.

Savelyeva, I. M., Poletaev, A. V. (2003). Knowledge of the Past, in 2 vols, v. 1, Constructing the Past, Moscow, Nauka publ., 632 p.

Halbwachs, M. (2005). Collective and Historical Memory. In: Neprikosnovenny zapas. no. 2–3, pp. 8–27.

Byford, A. (2013). Parent Diaries and the Child Study Movement in Late Imperial and Early Soviet Russia, The Russian review, v. 72, № 2, pp. 212-241.

Engel, B. A. (1983). Mothers and daughters, Women of the intelligentsia in nineteenth-century Russia, Cambridge, Cambridge University publ., 244 p.

Slabakova, R. (2021). Family Memory as a Prospective Field of Memory Studies, Routledge, Imprint publ., 621 p.

About authors

Mitsyuk Natalia Alexandrovna, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Associate Professor, N. N. Miklukho-Maklai Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology of Russian Academy of Sciences, Sector of Ethnogen Studies, leading researcher, Moscow, Russia, 8-920-329-70-55, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Pushkareva Natalya Lvovna, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor, N. N. Miklukho-Maklai Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology of Russian Academy of Sciences, Sector of Ethnogen Studies, head of sector, Moscow, Russia, 8-926-868-43-68, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Grant information

The article was prepared with the financial support of the Russian Science Foundation grant (no. 24-18-00212) «Women's family memory in Russia in the 18th–20th centuries: forms of transmission, dynamics of transformations, social mission», https://rscf.ru/project/24-18-00212/

The article was received in the editorial office on 07.03.2025, recommended for publication on 20.12.2025.