Personal Provenance Sources on the Operations of the Caucasus Expeditionary Force in Persia in 1915–1918 and Their Publication
| 19 March 2024
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Osin V.M., Moscow, Russian Federation
Personal Provenance Sources on the Operations of the Caucasus Expeditionary Force in Persia in 1915–1918 and Their Publication
Annotation
The article examines one of the types of personal provenance sources, memoirs, which is considered to be an integral part of documentary and literary heritage pertaining to history of the World War I, and on the example of memories of A.G. Emel'janov, a participant in the Russian army operations in Persia in the years the World War I, addresses the specific tasks connected with preparing them for publication. The memoirs cover the military mission of the Caucasus expeditionary force in Persia, bear testimony on certain military operations, such as mountain passes combats with Persian gendarmes, led by German instructors; the carrying of the city of Kermanshah; the fighting the armed groups of the Kurds attacking Cossack patrols and their trains; the heroic Turkish rear area raid carried out by the Cossack sotnia of V.D. Gamalija; the advance on Baghdad, etc. The causes for the introduction of troops into the territory of a neutral country are given. Those, according to the memoirs’ author, are: protection the country’s southern borders, safeguarding compatriots that lived and worked in Persia from religious fanatics, as well as imperial ambitions of autocratic Russia that dovetailed the UK policy of dividing Persia into the spheres of influence. The main cause for the military defeats A.G. Emel'janov sees in the Russian revolutionary movement that led to the army disintegration. He blames the high command for agreeing to the hard terms of allied obligations, disadvantageous for the Russian army, and decries the double standard policy of the Entente towards Russia. The novelty of the work consists in the analysis of ‘archaeographical’ (academic) preparation of this memoirs for publication: text transmission, compiling the explanatory notes (preface, historical essays, notes), search tools (indexes) and appendices. In the preface the memoirist’s portrait is drawn, his political views are studied, the issues raised by him are described. The notes clarify certain facts and give extra information. It is advisable to place in the appendices such archival documents that may amplify and supplement the memoirs. Thus, the archaeographic (academic) preparation of the memoirs for publishing significantly increases their value as a historical source.
Keywords
World War I, Persia, Caucasus expeditionary force, memoirs, A.G. Emel'janov, archival documents, publication
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About the authors
Osin Vladimir Mikhailovitch, The Chief Archives Directorate for the Moscow region, Consultant, Moscow, Russian Federation, 8-499-610-59-75, 8-929-645-67-77, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it