=Paper=
{{Paper
|id=Vol-3152/BD2019_paper2
|storemode=property
|title=Reconstructing Data for Modelling Collective Biography: A Case of Zemstvo Deputies in Russia in the Second Half of XIX century
|pdfUrl=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-3152/BD2019_paper_2.pdf
|volume=Vol-3152
|authors=Nadezhda Povroznik
|dblpUrl=https://dblp.org/rec/conf/bd/Povroznik19
}}
==Reconstructing Data for Modelling Collective Biography: A Case of Zemstvo Deputies in Russia in the Second Half of XIX century==
https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-3152/BD2019_paper_2.pdf
Reconstructing Data for Modelling Collective Biography: A Case of Zemstvo
Deputies in Russia in the Second Half of XIX Century
Nadezhda Povroznik
Center for Digital Humanities
Department of Interdisciplinary Historical Research
Perm State University
Ul. Bukireva, 15. Perm 614990. Russia
E-mail: Povroznik.ng@gmail.com
Abstract
The article presents the main stages of prosopographical research and the formation of collective portraits of deputies of local
self-government in Russia in the second half of the XIX century. The problems of searching, organizing, modelling, analyzing and
presenting data are considered. In forming the source basis of the study, a combination of a source-driven approach and data
obtaining principles were used, depending on the types of characteristics studied. The author shows the transformation of the initially
created local database dedicated to the deputies of the Moscow, St. Petersburg and Perm provinces Zemstvo into an information
system with a wider set of characteristics and description fields, focusing on changing data sets and their ability to solve various
historical research problems. The article discusses questions relating to the completeness of data, ways to expose collected personal
information as digital biographies, as well as usage of an information system designed for historical analysis of the Zemstvo deputies’
activities. The author shows how a comprehensive historical study can enrich structured prosopographical data, enabling the user to
choose the level of data presentation in the form of collective portraits or personalized data, giving an overview of each deputy and
the deputies’ activities in the Zemstvo.
Keywords: database, information system, prosopographical survey, collective portrait, data modelling.
of particular value, as they allow for the analysis of
1. Introduction collective portraits of the individuals studied, and
The creation of collective biographies as life writing can creation and presentation of collective biographies in
take various forms and approaches. On the one hand, the digital format. This study of deputies of provincial
biography can have different scales, from short, full texts Zemstvo assemblies in the Russian Empire is a case in
to extended volumes devoted to individuals, groups of point.
people or personalities united by some common This article describes the experience of building a
characteristics (Davies, B. Gannon, S., 2006). The basis prosopographical database, transforming it into an
for the integration may be, for example, the fame of information system, and creating collective biographies
people and their relation to a place (Anderson M., 2013), of Zemstvo deputies of three provinces of the Russian
participation in historical events (Smith R., 2014) or Empire such as Moscow, St. Petersburg and Perm in the
representative institutions (Parliamentary History, 2019), second half of the XIX century.
gender (Collective Biography of Women, 2019), or even
common experiences (Hawkins R., Al-Hindi KF, 2016). 2. Historical background
The main factor is the representation of personalities in The 60-70s of the 19th century became a significant
one place in a common format. Digital collective stage in Russian history, a time of the “great liberal”
biographies may refer to digitized biographies having reforms of Emperor Alexander II. Of particular
analog forms, or may be designed initially as born-digital importance was not only the legislative liquidation of
sources. Prosopographic databases organizing personal serfdom, which gave freedom to the peasants but also the
information refer to the last type of digital collective intensification of the processes for the social
biography mentioned. The establishment of such modernization.
databases may lend itself to a source-driven approach, The introduction of Zemstvo self-government in the
when a digital collective biography is formed on the Russian Empire was an important link in the chain of
basis of the materials of one main source and aims not liberal reforms of Alexander II. The significance of the
only at creating a database of people for the purpose of Zemstvo was that the new institution contributed to the
studying them, building collective portraits, etc., but also development of the regional economy and infrastructure,
for preservation and representation the historical source resolving social problems and contradictions, but it was
in digital form. especially important for the government to recognize the
However, certain types of historical sources are often need to involve the public to consider these issues and to
characterized by incompleteness, or insufficient provide some autonomy for new regional
complexity to contain a wide range of significant self-governmental bodies. Minister of Finance, S.Yu.
personal characteristics. Therefore prosopographic Witte, in a confidential note, explained the importance of
databases are often modeled on the basis of data from the Zemstvo as a “school of representative institutions”
various sources. These information resources may be (Witte S.Yu., 1899), indicating its political role as a
Copyright © 2019 for this paper by its authors. Use permitted under Creative Commons License Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).
precursor of parliament. V.V., 1911); a special group of investigations consisted
The study of the socio-cultural image and activities of of studies of law scholars (for ex., Gradovsky A.D., 1903;
Zemstvo deputies as a collective is a necessary basis for Bezobrazov V.P., 1874; Korkunov N.M. 1909), who
the study of representative institutions in Russia. Only manifested the predominance of social status in the
with the creation of the Zemstvo were the main formation of Zemstvo representation with a preferential
categories of the population able to influence right for nobles and large landowners to be elected and
decision-making processes. The culture of interaction of attend meetings. In the Soviet period, the study of the
deputies began to take form, the basic principles and history of the Zemstvo institutions and the socio-cultural
orders of the electoral system began to develop and be image of the deputies was not a priority for conducting
established, and these elements informed the historical research, which was associated with the
establishment of the State Duma at the beginning of the political pressure of ‘official’ science. However, at this
20th century. time the study of regional Zemstvos began (Pirumova
Provincial Zemstvo assemblies significantly influenced N.M., 1977; Gerasimenko G.A., 1990). Important
the development of the socio-political, economic, and research was undertaken by M. I. Chernysh, who
social spheres of those provinces where Zemstvo considered the introduction of Zemstvo institutions in the
self-government was introduced. Decisions determining Perm province, and the social composition of the
the directions of activity, although limited to the Zemstvo in Perm, etc. (Chernysh M.I., 1959). In modern
framework of the Provisions of 1864, were made in historiography, the focus of research has been on various
provincial Zemstvo assemblies and inevitably depended aspects of the Zemstvo institutions and their activities, as
on the composition of the collective of deputies, their well as socio-cultural portraits of deputies of different
opinions, competencies, personal experience, and other provinces (Nizamova M.S., 2013; Melnikova Yu.N.,
factors. Thus, the staff of the assembly directly 2014). The scholars have noted the leading role of nobles
influenced which problems were raised and solved in the in the formation of Zemstvo bodies, the influence of the
Zemstvos, the nature of relations with the provincial socio-political composition of deputies on the level of
authorities, and other factors. Deputies of provincial democracy and representativeness of Zemstvos, and the
Zemstvos played an important role in the rivalry of the Zemstvo groups and the significant stages
decision-making process, determining the development for Zemstvo institutions’ development.
of Zemstvo self-government. At Perm State University, through the Laboratory for
In studying the composition of the Zemstvo assemblies, Historical Information Science (now the Center for
the sociocultural image of the deputies is important – to Digital Humanities), an entire new research direction has
enable research into factors such as who represented the been formed, a research school for studying Zemstvo
interests of the population in the Zemstvo, and who history and local self-government in the second half of
solved the social and economic issues of the the 19th - early 20th centuries. The researchers of the
development of the provinces, and how the collective Center work on source-study issues on the history of the
portrait of the Zemstvo deputies determined the features Zemstvo, evaluate the completeness, quality of sources,
of the Zemstvo. Famous people and representatives of identify their information potential, document and
the local elite, who could be prominent public and analyze sources devoted to Zemstvo history. Digitization
political figures of the time and left their documented of sources, their study and organization of data are based
record in history, were elected to Zemstvo assemblies, on the use of information technology. Thus, the Perm
especially in the capitals, in Moscow and St. Petersburg. University has created an information system “Journals
On the other hand, there is no such extensive information of provincial Zemstvo assemblies”, which was the result
about the overwhelming majority of Zemstvo deputies as of the project “Journals of provincial Zemstvo
we have the various sources devoted to individual assemblies as a source for studying the history of local
outstanding personalities on the scale of the capital, a self-government in Russia (2nd half of XIX - early XX
separate region or a state as a whole. Ordinary people centuries)” (The information system “Journals..., 2007;
were often represented in the Zemstvo, whose memory, Kornienko S.I., Maslennikov N.N. & Shabalina D.V.,
if preserved, requires scrupulous research and careful 2005), which is a platform for organizing an important
verification. Therefore, the obtaining, modelling and record keeping source on the history of the Zemstvo and
organization of data, and the creation of a data about it, as well as a valuable tool for further
prosopographical database for filling with data, allows investigation.
closer analysis and building a biography of unknown, Based on a broad source base, researchers at the Center
ordinary people and preserving the memory of them. for Digital Humanities study Zemstvo history, analyze
sociocultural portraits of Zemstvo deputies from
3. Historiography different provinces of the Russian Empire (Povroznik
The study of the social composition of the Zemstvos N.G. & Kharisova A.R., 2014), and consider various
began in the pre-revolutionary period and the study of domains of Zemstvo activity, including the development
the deputies’ image was carried out in the framework of of public literacy. The accumulated experience of
studying the history of social thought and the Zemstvo studying the social composition and activities of
assembly as a whole (Svatikov S.G. 1905; Veselovsky Zemstvo has allowed researchers to address the issues of
mutual influence of the socio-cultural aspects of contain information about the estates (“soslovie”) and
Zemstvo deputies and their activities and their impact on rank of deputies. To supplement the data, lists of
the functioning efficiency of Zemstvos in general. candidates for the elections of Zemstvo deputies and
It is necessary to emphasize that the problems of ballot lists were used (for ex. Central Historical Archive
modelling the socio-cultural image and the activities of of Moscow, Fund 11). The regular replacement of
Zemstvo deputies practically has not been the focus of deputies posed a difficulty for producing the full list,
attention of researchers to date. In turn, this issue is since the lists of the elected were published at the
significant and relevant from the point of view of the beginning of the meetings, and the changes in the
importance of behavioural factors in the decision-making composition during the meetings were not often
process in the Zemstvos, in terms of developing a culture recorded.
of participation in the political process, as well as the Demographic characteristics and estate were determined
significant role of the Zemstvo as one of the sources of on the basis of official lists of service (for ex. State
the social-active part of society and the future Archive of the Russian Federation. Fund 575), which
parliamentary elite. This study is an attempt to explore were filled in during the elections to the Zemstvo.
complex data on the socio-cultural image and activities Formal lists contain a brief biographical note on each
of deputies based on information technologies (first of all, elected deputy. Other common features are the county of
such as information systems and databases), the election, education, and previous experience of work.
reconstruction of collective portraits of Zemstvo deputies These sources are close to the affairs of the personnel of
of three provinces of the Russian Empire and their the provincial Zemstvo Assemblies and Zemstvo
comparative analysis. authorities ("uprava") (The State Archive of the Perm
Region. Fund 44). However, this group of sources does
4. Sources not provide information on the majority of deputies of
The predominance of the obtaining data from various provincial Zemstvos, which required consulting other
sources in the formation of the source basis of the study sources.
for the construction and filling of the prosophographical Reference sources of the second half of the 19th century
database should be noted. As mentioned earlier, some became significant sources for obtaining data about
deputies of the provincial Zemstvo assemblies were estates and main areas of activity. They are the
distinguished people, and information about them was address-calendars, address books, memorial and
preserved in various sources, including periodicals – but reference books of the Moscow, St. Petersburg and Perm
for the majority of deputies the reconstruction of the provinces [19]. These sources allowed the discovery of
character portrait, life, and activities of these people institutions and organizations (public and state), in which
requires considerable effort due to lack of available the deputies took part before, during and after Zemstvo.
information and the need to derive data particle by This group of sources also includes estate reference
particle. In addition, despite the fact that candidates had books, calendars, lists of nobility, alphabetic lists of
to fill out questionnaires with brief information about noble families, genealogical collections, address books
themselves before the elections, these sources were of the St. Petersburg trade merchants, and lists of persons
usually not preserved and only individual copies of such in the state, public and Zemstvo service, which set out
questionnaires could be found in the archives. Therefore, with greater accuracy the deputies’ estates. Information
the reconstruction of biographical data on deputies has on the education of deputies was partly derived from
required searching for individual information from published materials of educational institutions with lists
multiple sources. of graduates by name (for ex. The Imperial Alexander
The study was made on the basis of a complex mix of Lyceum, 1961), and materials from non-Zemstvo
sources, some of which were specific to some provinces, institutions where future deputies worked and trained.
and accordingly reflect only information available in These documents contain data on education and
particular regions. Therefore, the types of sources were professional activities of Zemstvo representatives (for ex.
not the same for all the provinces selected for this study, The State Archive of the Perm Region. Fund 72).
and there were different levels of completeness and Further reference publications were also included in the
irregular distribution of data. study, which included lists of cemeteries of the provinces
Published and archival materials formed the main source under study (for ex. Gladyshev V.F., 2001). These
base of the study. These sources were documents from sources allowed the reconstruction of the dates of birth
the Central Historical Archive of Moscow, the State and death of deputies (rarely mentioned in other types of
Archive of the Russian Federation, the Rare Books sources).
Department of the Russian Fund of the Russian National Periodicals of the second half of the XIX century became
Library, the State Archive of the Perm Region, the Perm a valuable and informative source. Regional periodicals,
Regional Museum, and the Rare Book Foundation of the in particular the newspaper Perm Provincial Sheets,
Perm Regional Library in honour of M. Gorky. contained entire sections about the Zemstvos, including
The full list of deputies was created on the basis of the lists of representatives elected to Zemstvo assemblies,
“Lists of persons elected to provincial representatives” and announcements of county and provincial Zemstvos,
(for ex. Materials of the Rare Book...), which partially which contain, among other things, indications of
inaccuracies in published information on the activities of characteristics and reconstruction of data on the activities
Zemstvos, and data on the incompleteness of the lists of of deputies, the focus moved to the first triennium since
persons entitled to participate in electoral congresses. the elections. The Zemstvo deputies were elected for
Other periodical sections are important as well, for three years and the first such triennium for the Moscow
example, obituaries, which give brief information about and St. Petersburg provinces is 1865-1868, and
the activities of deputies. 1870-1872 for the Perm province.
Biographies and biographical dictionaries made up an
important group of sources (for ex. Semevsky M.I., 4.1 Local personal database. Socio-cultural
1892). Some of them are published in electronic form image of deputies
and can be accessed online, such as the information The analysis of the complex sociocultural characteristics
system on “eminent people” of Bogorodsk [24]. The of Zemstvo deputies was enabled by the organization of
biographical publications contain information on the sources and the creation of a relational database
activities of the most significant public and state figures “Deputies of Zemstvo assemblies: the second half of the
who could take part in the work of the Zemstvos. XIX - early XX centuries” (The personal database
According to the dictionary chapters, it was possible to “Deputies..., 2008) managed in MS Access. The database
establish some professional, educational and contains a complete list of deputies of the provincial
demographic characteristics of the deputies. Zemstvo assemblies of the Moscow, St. Petersburg and
Some of the information about Zemstvo figures was Perm provinces elected in 1865–1890, which amounted
established on the basis of a study of the personal to 1018 entries (individuals). On the basis of queries to
materials from archives (for ex. The State Archive of the the database, quantitative data describing the
Perm Region. Fund 714) or personal sources such as sociocultural image and some parameters of the deputies’
recorded memories and memoirs of Zemstvo figures activities were identified and analyzed (Gorbacheva
(A.A Bobrinsky, V.S. Golubev, E.I. Lamansky, G.E. (Povroznik) N. G., 2008).
Lvov, S.A. Muromtsev, V.A. Obolensky, B.N. Chicherin, The “Deputies ...” database consists of 11 tables where
D.N. Shipov and others (for ex. Bobrinsky A.A., 1931). the main table is “Personal” and 10 auxiliary. The
While the socio-cultural characteristics of the Zemstvo “Personal” table contains a list of elected representatives,
deputies can be reconstructed on the basis of a wide the description of which is structured into the following
array of sources, the information about the activity of main fields, including personal and social characteristics:
deputies in the assembly was recorded mainly on one • full name;
type of source, the journals of provincial Zemstvo • dates of birth and death;
assemblies. • estate;
In relation to the reconstruction of the deputies’ activities, • rank;
a source-driven approach was used for this study. The • level of education;
journals of the provincial Zemsky assemblies of the • educational institution;
Moscow, St. Petersburg and Perm provinces were the • province; and
main resource documenting Zemsky office work and • county;
were the central source for understanding this aspect of as well as some characteristics of activities in the
the deputies’ lives and identity. To study the journals the Zemstvo:
information system “Journals of the provincial Zemstvo • Zemstvo institution;
assemblies ...” was used. The value of the journals and • type of membership;
their informational potential are discussed in the articles • participation in commissions; and
by S. I. Kornienko and A. R. Ehlakova (Kornienko S. I. • election by the representative from Zemstvo in
& Ehlakova A. R., 2018). It should be emphasized that other organizations.
the journals had different degrees of detail of the As a result of data analysis, for the first time in the
information displayed, including the published historiography, an entire set of socio-cultural features as
transcripts of meetings, which does not allow for all demographic (age structure of the Zemstvos; change in
provincial Zemstvos to be identified equally and the average age of deputies), educational and
evaluated in terms of the characteristics of the Zemstvo professional characteristics, as well as properties of
Deputies. In rare cases where published assembly representatives’ activities (attendance of meetings,
journals were not available, unpublished meetings participation in commissions, etc.) was identified (for
transcripts, records, and handwritten texts of journals more details, see Kornienko S.I., Povroznik N.G.,
stored in archives were analyzed (for ex. The State Ekhlakova A.R., 2017). An analysis of the sociocultural
Archive of the Perm Region. Fund 65). image of Zemstvo deputies based on queries to the
database showed that the composition of Zemstvos did
5. Methodology not remain unchanged during 1864–90, but was
The study of collective portraits of Zemstvo deputies was constantly changing. The dynamics of the estate,
carried out in two major stages and initially covered the demographic, educational characteristics of deputies
deputies elected to the provincial Zemstvos in 1865-1890. were altered, and deputies’ professional level was also
At the next stage, expanding the range of socio-cultural changed. Some statements by previous researchers on
social layers and on the dynamics of estate representation and a set of fields describing the deputies’ activities was
in provincial Zemstvo assemblies were disproved. For developed.
instance, as the study showed, during the years 1864 - The reconstruction of the full range of activities was
1890, representatives of the nobility dominated the carried out on the basis of a study of the legislation on
capital Zemstvos, which comprised 70-80% of the total Zemstvo of the second half of the XIX century, but the
number of deputies. The composition of the Perm journals of the provincial Zemstvo assemblies were the
provincial Zemstvo assembly was not so uniform. The main sources for obtaining data.
largest groups in the Perm Zemstvo were merchants, The following fields are highlighted as the main fields
peasants and officials, and the predominance of a for describing the activities of deputies:
particular group was not constant, but alternated between • attendance of meetings (number of visits per
1870 and 1890. In the Perm provincial zemstvo, contrary session);
to the statements by B.B. Veselovsky (Veselovsky B.B., • appointment or election to the Zemstvo
1911), there was no predominance of representatives administrative position (chairman, secretary, member of
from the peasant estate and the number of peasants in the Zemstvo Authority Body);
this period did not exceed the number of representatives • election to the Zemstvo representation in various
of other social strata. non-Zemstvo institutions and organizations;
A number of the data obtained cast doubt on the opinion • election to Zemstvo commissions (temporary and
that had taken root in Zemstvo historiography about the permanent);
ever-deepening crisis in the Zemstvo in the 1870s-1880s, • the signing of documents;
which was associated with low attendance. It was shown • reading reports or other documents at meetings;
that the regularity of visits by certain deputies was • presentations in meetings about commission
almost the same on average. An analysis of the social reports;
characteristics of these deputies allows us to talk about • speaking at meetings on various issues;
the formation of a “professional” stratum. Some of the • expressing a dissenting opinion (submitted as a text
results were obtained for the first time, for example, data message, published in a specific section in journals); and
on the impact of the deputy’s experience, age, and • absence in the meeting.
educational characteristics, as well as a number of The characteristics of the deputies’ activities are
competencies on the possibility and likelihood of his presented in quantitative data formats, which made it
being elected to the Zemstvo. In addition, a comparison possible to carry out a correlation analysis of the
of the socio-cultural image of the deputies of the relationship between the different characteristics of the
provincial Zemstvo assemblies of the provinces under socio-cultural image and activities.
consideration allowed for identification of their common In addition, in the structure of the information system in
and special features. Thus, the analysis of the database the description of each deputy, data on the thematic
allowed finding of new arguments for proving a number (quantitative and qualitative) variety of speeches is
of stipulations on the history of the Zemstvos existing in displayed. Presentation of data on the speeches of
historiography, questioning some established points of deputies is based on the study of the corpora of journals’
view related to the social structure of provincial Zemstvo texts, the creation and analysis of personal sub-corporas
assemblies, as well as introducing new knowledge with a of speeches of deputies in meetings, as well as the
higher level evidence base. creation of cognitive maps reflecting quantitative and
qualitative information about speeches. Space diagrams
4.2 Information system “Zemstvo deputies” are published on the personal page of each deputy in the
As a result of the work on the database and its analysis, project “History of the Zemstvo” (for ex. Personal page
new research questions emerged, in particular relating to of Smyshlyaev…, 2019) and display information about
the ways that the sociocultural characteristics of the the set of topics of the deputies’ speeches in the meetings,
deputies influenced the activities, and assessment the allowing assessment of the priorities in the deputies’
interdependence between the deputies’ image and activities in the assemblies based on the distribution of
activity. Implementation and transformation of the their attention to certain aspects.
previous local database managed by MS Access was not Currently, the system contains information about 265
a viable option for a number of reasons, and the database deputies and data on socio-cultural characteristics and
was only partially used as a structural and substantial performance indicators. The smaller number of
basis for filling the new information resource. personalities compared to the previous database is
The database “Zemstvo Deputies” of the newly designed explained by the study in the current project only of
information system “Zemstvo Self-Government in those deputies who were elected to Zemstvos in the first
Russia” (Zemstvo self-government.., 2019) has become three years from its establishment in the region. However,
part of an information resource available online. it is assumed that in case of confirmation of the
Functionally, the structure of database was expanded by effectiveness of the chosen approach, the project can be
adding related sociocultural characteristics (for example, continued and other personnel will be included in the
fields about nationality, religion, place of permanent system and their set of features as well.
residence, occupation, and some others were introduced), The search module of the information system allows the
user to obtain complete lists of deputies of each province recorded as a single act of positive interaction. The
or district, as well as to explore deputies individually by dispute or the statement of fundamentally different points
specific characteristics of their socio-cultural image and of view on the same issue was regarded in the framework
activity. of the methodology as an act of negative interaction.
The information system is developed on the MySQL Social network modelling, building social and semantic
DBMS and powered by CMS WordPress. networks of Zemstvo deputies, showed the fragmentation
of the assemblies, determining the foundations of the
6. Discussion formation of groups of deputies and the system of
The prosopographical database and information system interconnections between deputies. As a result of the
allows the user to create and study collective portraits of analysis, it was shown that in the Perm provincial
groups of deputies, compare these collective images with assembly only 38% of deputies, and in Moscow 52%,
images of deputy groups from different regions, and were connected by a network. The journals of the
identify common and special features, so revealing Petersburg Zemstvo did not allow forming of a
information and knowledge which cannot be obtained by statistically significant basis for network analysis due to
traditional methods. The project can be further developed the specifics of the information displayed in them and
by increasing the number of deputies, expanding the the prevalence of a collective “they” or a neutral “was
chronological framework, and adding other provinces of proposed” over an individualized display of information
the Russian Empire to the project. However, the question (for example, deputy N “said”).
arises of how much personal information about each Network analysis data (Povroznik N.G., Smetanin A.V.,
individual deputy remains valuable and important as an 2018) poses the question of whether absenteeists and
independent set of features, and not as part of a large deputies who were present but did not actively express
collective portrait? Are individual characteristics and their position should be ignored and the main focus
identities obscured by taking a collective approach? The should be devoted to only the active core?
answer to these questions is obvious and complicated at Indeed, network interrelationships are becoming
the same time. increasingly important in contemporary biographical
The unifying basis in the case of the information system research (Arthur P.L., 2017) and not only because
about deputies is the participation of these individuals in network analysis allows users to visualize the
the work of local self-government, the newly established connections of individuals, but also because the different
Zemstvo, the forerunner of the Russian parliament. scale and different meanings of personalities in the
Consequently, the role of each deputy, his contribution to studied network become apparent.
the activities of the Zemstvo can be considered as a In this case, while ignoring part of the collective, the
general, to some extent impersonal work, or as an whole collective portrait will appear differently and
individual. reflect those who really worked, and not those who were
Can a Zemstvo case be regarded as an individual case? elected. It is probably worthwhile to form collective
Could the role of one person or a small core of active portraits of individual groups according to the
participants dominate the general Zemstvo work, direct contribution of the participants. In any case, the research
and define it? And how important is it for us to know in task is to study in detail each deputy, his sociocultural
more detail about the image and activities of each image and activity, and then determine his role,
individual deputy, if he actively participated, but he did significance, and contribution to the common purpose.
not necessarily determine the course of development of With this approach, deputies find themselves under the
the Zemstvo province? How many such important watchful historical “microscope”, when the role, place,
personalities are present in Zemstvos? To answer these and value of each deputy becomes obvious, and the
questions, we can observe the set of features devoted to a uniqueness of each person is not lost in the team. In these
deputy’s activity. Additionally, it is possible to apply circumstances, the creation of digital biographies allows
social network analysis approaches. Zemstvo assemblies us to choose which approach is more revealing and
as an object of research have a number of features that appropriate. We do not impose any single point of view
make it difficult to apply tried and tested methods of on the questions postured, but see a solution in modern
modelling legislatures (Porter M., 2007; Smetanin A.V., digital technologies that provide opportunities for
2009). These features include a limited amount of different data representations, both collective and
information in the sources about the personal activity of individual.
each person, differences in the structure of the Journals Zemstvo has become to some extent an opportunity for
of Zemstvo Assemblies, the lack of collection of deputies to express themselves. We cannot say for sure
signatures for draft decisions, and a fairly high level of about the meaning and role of each deputy in the life of
the deputies’ passivity. Building links in the network and society at that time, but the real fact that they have been
determining the interaction between deputies were trusted by a large number of people in the form of being
carried out on the basis of their direct interaction in the elected to self-governing bodies speaks about their
conference room. So, the support for the opinion of the influence, authority, and motivation to work. Historical
previous speaker or the statement of the identical point sources and, first of all, Zemstvo documentation, contain
of view in the framework of the same meeting was unique data such as transcripts of the speeches of
deputies in the assembly, the diversity of their activities, The study “Socio-cultural image and behaviour models
which certainly provides important information not only of deputies of provincial Zemstvo assemblies (based on
for understanding the development of the Zemstvo in materials from Moscow, St. Petersburg and Perm
whole but also for personal activity. Unfortunately, there Zemstvo of the second half of the XIX century)” is
are not many sources about the diverse activities of supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research
personnel, alternative to Zemstvo documentation, and (No. 17-06-00470, head of the grant Professor S.I.
they are mainly represented by memoirs written by a few Kornienko).
of the deputies. The particular importance of this project
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