PUBLIC SENTIMENTS IN SIMBIRSK AT THE END OF THE XIX – BEGINNING OF THE XX CENTURY ACCORDING TO THE MEMOIRS OF PROFESSOR A.I. YAKOVLEV

DOI: 10.47026/2712-9454-2025-6-1-37-46

УДК 94(470.42-25)”188/190″

ББК Т3(2Рос-4Уль-2Уль)53ю14

Tatyana N. IVANOVA, Oleg S. TYUNTEROV

Key words

Aleksey Ivanovich Yakovlev, Alexander Ilyich Ulianov, Simbirsk in the late XIX – early XX century.

Abstract

The relevance of the research lies in the introduction into scientific circulation of A.I. Yakovlev’s memoirs entitled “Revolution”, preserved in the State Historical Archive of the Chuvash Republic, which were written by the son of the Chuvash educator I.Ya. Yakovlev, Aleksey Ivanovich. The analysis of this manuscript makes it possible to study the public sentiments in the town of Simbirsk in the late XIX and early XX centuries, as well as to characterize the author’s worldview.

The purpose of the study is to analyze a new source, to characterize social relations in Simbirsk in the late XIX and early XX centuries, as well as to study the views of A.I. Yakovlev on the reasons for the growth of revolutionary sentiments and the genesis of revolution in Russia.

Materials and methods. The basis of this work is the memoirs of Aleksey Yakovlev from the manuscript entitled “Revolution”. To achieve this purpose, the principles of historicism, objectivity and consistency are important, as well as methods of analysis and synthesis, induction and deduction, the historical and genetic method, and the method of source analysis.

Results. The memories of A.I. Yakovlev were written in 1930. In August 1930 Aleksey Ivanovich was arrested by the “Academic case.” The very structure of the memoirs gives us the opportunity to hypothesize that the author’s original intention was to explore the origins of the Russian revolution and bring the narrative to 1917. However, supposedly the arrest of A.I. Yakovlev prevented the completion of the work. Structurally, the following themes can be distinguished in the memoirs: 1) the situation in Simbirsk on the eve of 1887; 2) the arrest of Alexander Ulianov and the reaction of Simbirsk community to what happened; 3) the situation of Simbirsk gymnasium students after the events of 1887; 4) the attention of the author and Simbirsk youth to revolutionary publications and Marxist literature; 5) views and behavior of Simbirsk society’s representatives.

Conclusions. The memories of A.I. Yakovlev makes it possible to characterize the public mood in Simbirsk on the eve of the events of 1887 and up to 1904 in different social groups, which were expressed in generational conflict, the spread of revolutionary literature, antagonism between the lower and upper classes of society, and the government’s rejection of objective trends in the country’s development.

References

1. Aleksandrov G.A. Aleksei Ivanovich Yakovlev. – istorik, arkheograf, pedagog [Alexey Ivanovich Yakovlev – historian, archaeographer, teacher]. Voprosy istorii, 2003, no. 8, pp. 151–157.
2. Aleksandrov G.A. Chuvashskie intelligenty. Biografii i sudby [Chuvash Biographies and destinies]. Cheboksary, 2002, 216 p.
3. Gosudarstvennyi istoricheskii arkhiv Chuvashskoi Respubliki. F. 515. Op. 2. D. 106 [State Historical Archives of the Chuvash Archive 515. Anagraph 2. Document 106].
4. Ivanova T.N. I. Yakovlev v kommunikativnom prostranstve rossiiskoi nauki pervoi poloviny XX veka [A.I. Yakovlev in the communicative space of Russian science in the first half of the twentieth century]. In: Narody Volgo-Uralya v istorii i kulture Rossii: sbornik materialov Mezhdunarodnoi nauchno-prakticheskoi konferentsii, posvyashchennoi 90-letiyu so dnya rozhdeniya Petra Vladimirovicha Denisova (28–29 sentyabrya 2018 goda) [Proc. Int. Sci. Conf. «Peoples of the Volga-Ural Region in the history and culture of Russia»]. Cheboksary, Sreda Publ., 2018, pp. 312–318.
5. Krasnov N.G. Ivan Yakovlev i potomki [Ivan Yakovlev and descendants]. Cheboksary, Chuvash Publ. House, 2007, 480 p.
6. Krivosheev Yu.V. Aleksei Yakovlev i Dmitrii Ul’yanov (iz istorii semei Yakovlevykh i Ul’yanovykh) [Alexey Yakovlev and Dmitry Ulyanov (from the history of the Yakovlev and Ulyanov families)]. Noveishaya istoriya Rossii, 2019, vol. 9, no. 3, pp. 660–670.
7. Krivosheev Yu.V. Istoriki i revolyutsiya. A.I. Yakovlev [Historians and Revolution. I. Yakovlev]. In: Trudy po rossiiskoi i vseobshchei istorii XVI–XX vv.: Sbornik nauchnykh rabot k 80-letiyu professora Sankt-Peterburgskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta, doktora istoricheskikh nauk V.I. Khrisanfova [Works on Russian and world history of the 16^th – 20^th centuries: Collection of scientific works for the 80^th anniversary of Professor of the St. Petersburg State University, Doctor of Historical Sciences V.I.Khrisanfov]. St. Peterburg, 2020, pp. 20–30.
8. Krivosheev Yu.V. …ya nikogda ne bral na sebya fal’shivoi roli poklonnika sovetskoi sistemy […I never took on the false role of an admirer of the Soviet system]. Vestnik Ryazanskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta imeni S.A. Esenina, 2020, no. 1(66), pp. 7–13.
9. Krupskaya N.K. Vospominaniya o V.I. Lenine [Memories of V.I. Lenin]. Moscow, Gospolitizdat Publ., 1956, 629 p.
10. Selivanova O.V., Tsypkina A.G. Epistolyarnoe nasledie A.I. Yakovleva: materialy k biografii (po dokumentam lichnogo fonda v Arkhive RAN): sbornik trudov konferentsii [Epistolary heritage of A.I.Yakovlev: materials for a biography (based on documents from the personal collection in the Archives of the Russian Academy of Sciences): collection of conference papers]. In: Paradigmy rossiiskoi istorii skvoz’ prizmu biografistiki (k 140-letiyu Alekseya Ivanovicha Yakovleva): materialy Vseros. nauch. konf. [Proc. of Russ. Sci. Conf. «Paradigms of Russian history through the prism of biographical studies (on the 140^th anniversary of Alexey Ivanovich Yakovlev)»]. Cheboksary, Sreda Publ., 2019, pp. 38–43.
11. Tikhonov V.V. Istoriki i sovetskaya vlast’ v 1920–1940-e gg.: patrony i klienty [Historians and Soviet power in the 1920s–1940s: patrons and clients]. Vestnik RGGU. Ser. Filologiya. Kul’turologiya. Vostokovedenie, 2014, no. 19(141), pp. 193–204.
12. Tikhonov V.V. Moskovskaya istoricheskaya shkola v pervoi polovine KhKh veka: Nauchnoe tvorchestvo Yu.V. Got’e, S.B. Veselovskogo, A.I. Yakovleva i S.V. Bakhrushina [Moscow Historical School in the First Half of the Twentieth Century: Scientific Works of Yu.V. Gautier, S.B. Veselovsky, A.I. Yakovlev and S.V. Bakhrushin]. Moscow, St. Petersburg, Nestor-Istoriya Publ., 2012, 320 p.

About the authors

Tatyana N. Ivanova – Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor, Department of History and Culture of Foreign Countries, Chuvash State University, Russia, Cheboksary (tivanovan@mail.ru; ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2428-2578).

Oleg S. Tyunterov – Lecturer, Department of History and Culture of Foreign Countries, Chuvash State University, Russia, Cheboksary (tyunterov01@mail.ru).

For citations

Ivanova T.N., Tyunterov O.S. Public sentiments in Simbirsk at the end of the XIX – beginning of the XX century according to the memoirs of Professor A.I. Yakovlev. Historical Search, 2025, vol. 6, no. 1, pp. 37–46. DOI: 10.47026/2712-9454-2025-6-1-37-46 (in Russian).

Download the full article