Home – Home – Jornals – Humanitarian sciences in Siberia 2022 number

The article aims to reconsider the sources that reflect the Siberian episode of V.A. Artsimovich biography, an outstanding statesman of the Russian Empire, from the point of view of imperial studies and personal history. The study base includes two groups of sources. The first one comprises documents from the revision of the administration of West Siberia led by Adjutant General N.N. Annenkov, and notes by V.A. Artsimovich, preserved in his collection of documents. Their textual similarities, found while studying revision documents and V.A. Artsimovich’s notes, confirm the author’s hypothesis that some documents signed by N.N. Annenkov were initially prepared by V.A. Artsimovich. Moreover, these documents played a major role in establishing the 2^nd Siberian Committee. This fact is crucial for understanding the essence and the evolution of Artsimovich’s worldview and opinion on the Siberian region problems and future, to assess his personality adequately. The second group of sources is private correspondence and memoirs (or semi-memoirs). Letters by Ya.S. Skropyshev to V.A. Artsimovich show him as the most educated, trusted, and close person to the governor. Comparing the texts of Skropyshev’s semi-memoir essay on the Tobolsk Province of the 1850s with letters of V.A. Artsimovich’s relatives demonstrates that the content and nature of the essay, characteristics of Tobolsk Governor himself, his relationship with the Governor-General of West Siberia G.Kh. Gasford, Senator M.N. Zhemchuzhnikov are largely influenced by views of Artsimovich’s family members. It was they who initiated the creation of essay by Skropyshev and provided him with materials from the family archive and contributed to the publication of notes in “Vestnik Evropy”, and then in the collection of documents “Viktor Antonovich Artsimovich. Memories. Characteristics”. These circumstances should be taken into account when referring to Skropyshev’s essay on the Tobolsk Province, which is widely used by researchers. The explicit, frank and constant patronage of M.N. Zhemchuzhnikov towards V.A. Artsimovich reflected in the correspondence of family members can serve as a clear and illustrative example of relations common within the empire administrative apparatus.