Russkaya Starina

165-174

Authors: Anna P. Paraskevopulo

The article is devoted to the first decades of the history of the one of the oldest research institutions in Krasnodar region, the experienced leader of tobacco cultivation in the USSR. The author examines the genesis of the Institute of tobacco growing in the context of large-scale social and political transformations, the contribution of individual scientists in the development of its scientific and organizational activity. On the basis of archival documents, periodicals, works of the Institute employees, the author has reconstructed the main stages of development (from the laboratory to one of the leading research institutions in the country), areas of research, and methods of promotion of agricultural knowledge among the population.

182-199

Authors: Andrei V. Venkov

The article, basing on archival materials of the Federal security service, studies the governmental policy towards the Upper Don Cossacks at the beginning stage of collectivization on the example of the cases of 1929 and 1930. It was examined an attempt of the authorities to eliminate their potential opponents on the threshold of the mass collectivization by incriminating them the preparation of the armed uprising. The new archival materials have been introduced for scientific use.

218-239

Authors: Utash B. Ochirov

The article is devoted to the Kalmyk Red Army servicemen who had been awarded the Order of Glory during the Great Patriotic War. This military decoration was known as the “Soldier’s” Order and granted only to privates and non-commissioned officers (as well as to junior lieutenants of the air force) for bravery in action. Due to the fact, those engaged in military logistics could not receive this Order Red Army soldiers viewed it as the highest esteemed reward. Using a wide range of sources the author has compiled a list of the Kalmyk Cavaliers of the Order of Glory alongside with their short histories of military service. Commendation lists that had been digitized and posted on the open-access website OBD “Podvig naroda” (People’s Deeds of Valor) served as the basic source for compiling the list. It should be noted that battlefield scribes and record keepers unfamiliar with the spelling of Kalmyk personal and family names, names of villages and districts introduced significant distortions to the records so that one and the same person could be referred to in 5 documents variously. Besides, the search was dramatically complicated by the absence of the tool “nationality” within the OBD “Podvig naroda” search engine, and in fact, the Kalmyk Cavaliers of the Order of Glory had to be looked up “manually.” Databases of only five regions have been subject to thorough studies (the Kalmyk Republic, Rostov, Astrakhan, Volgograd, Stavropol Regions) with nothing but Kalmyk names being the search criteria. Had there been people bearing fully non-Kalmyk family, personal and patronymic names, they are not represented in the final list. After that the author studied published materials, archival documents, interviewed informants to check, supplement and ascertain information about the Kalmyk Cavaliers of the Order of Glory. The author was also able to enter a few more individuals conscripted in other regions of the USSR into the list. At the final stage of the research, the list of all the materials was structured in such a way that it could be processed using a computer program. After that, the database was subjected to statistical analysis that allowed discovering some certain peculiarities and common features characteristic of the individuals under consideration. At the moment the database contains records of 95 Kalmyks who had been awarded the Order of Glory during and in the first years after the war. Most probably the list is incomplete and shall be supplemented but the final figures are unlikely to change sufficiently. We can confidently declare that every fortieth Kalmyk of those left in the theater of operations was awarded the Order of Glory. There is no doubt that but for the 1943 abolition of the Kalmyk ASSR and deportation of ethnic Kalmyk privates and non-commissioned officers to the Shirokovsky Forced Labor Camp (construction site of the Shirokovskaya Hydroelectric Power Station) there would have been much more Kalmyk Cavaliers of the “Soldier’s” Order.