History of 17th – 19th century Balkaria in documents from the Archival Fond of the Russian Federation
| 17 December 2024
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Publication of archival documents
Muratova E.G., Nalchik, Russian Federation
History of 17th – 19th century Balkaria in documents from the Archival Fond of the Russian Federation
Abstract
The article reviews documentary sources on history of the 17th-20th century Balkaria from the Archival Fond of the Russian Federation. It describes sources on the subject from the following central and regional archives: the Russian State Archive of Ancient Documents (RGADA), the Russian State Military Historical Archive (RGVIA), the Russian State Historical Archive (RGIA), the St. Petersburg branch of the Archive of Russian Academy of Sciences (SPb.FA RAN), the Central State Archive of the Kabardino-Balkar Republic (CGA KBR). The author offers a classification of documents and underlines the particular nature of information contained in the sources. A comprehensive study of documents collection from the state archives of the Russian Federation pertaining to the history of Balkaria of the 17th – 20th centuries has suggested the following conclusions: data on Balkars can be found in unconnected documents from different archival collections, often discovered accidentally while processing sources on other topics; there are no archival fonds devoted specifically to the population group in either central state or regional archives; targeted search of archival documents on the history of Balkaria of the 17th – 18th centuries has yielded modest results, since most of the sporadic sources found by the author were published in various documents collections. They contain records of political, social and legal relations between Balkar societies, their representatives and neighbour peoples or the Russian government. The archival documents of the 19th - early 20th century allow depict the history of Balkaria during its political and socio-cultural integration into the Russian Empire. According to the author, application of new research methods allowing obtain all relevant data is a major trend for improving the source base on the Balkar history until early 20th century. Practices of applying statistical and mathematical methods in analysis of the 19th - early 20th century mass sources open vast possibilities for obtaining scholarly results from studying known materials on Balkar history.
Keywords
North Caucasus, Balkaria, Balkars, archives, archival sources, source study, 17th -19th centuries.
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About the authors
Muratova Elena Georgievna, PhD in History, professor, head of the Department of Russian History of the H.M. Berbekov Kabardino-Balkar State University, Nalchik, Russian Federation, +7-928-703-90-79, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it