The Systematic Character of Resolving Issues of Historical Source Study, Archeography and Historiography (Thoughts on the Book “‘The Short Course on the History of the VKP(b).’ The Text and its History”)

Abstract

This article analyzes a systematic approach to the study and publication of documents that can serve as a means of resolving issues of historical source study, historiography and archeography. “‘The Short Course on the History of the VKP(b)’: The Text and its History”, a collection of documents published in 2014 by M. V. Zelenov and D. Brandenberger, is dedicated to the history of the text of the “Short Course on the History of the VKP(b).” (work on this textbook stretched from 1931 to 1956). In the preface, the authors offer a new, systematic approach to the classification of historical sources that forms the structure of the book and provides a basis for the archeographic principles governing the publication of party documents. Grouping together all known documents according to subject and addressee demonstrates that the initiators and authors of the “Short Course” were party executives within the Central Committee apparatus. Grouping together documents according to Central Committee activity formed the basis for the structure of the book (work on variants of the book, distribution of the book abroad, reception of the book, attempts to update the book in 1946–1956). Grouping the documents according to function established the value of each document in terms of source study. Use of the method of diplomatics (formulaic analysis) allowed for the development of archeographic techniques for the publication of resolutions emanating from various Central Committee organs. The editors of this edition consider the “Short Course” to be a form of social consciousness: it was a “fact” governing party education (and they publish documents to this effect in the book); it was a “fact” governing to political struggle (and they publish I. V. Stalin’s instructions in this regard; it was a “fact” governing ideology (and they publish ideological resolutions and instructions to this effect from the Central Committee and Stalin himself); and it was a “fact” in the study of history (and they analyze the various approaches to history that I. V. Stalin, Ye. Iaroslavskii and P. N. Pospelov took toward historical evidence and theory. The systematic approach to the publication of documents structuring this collection represents an innovation in the resolution of issues concerning historical source study, historiography and archeography and could be successfully used in other areas of the field of historical sciences.