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 lies in finding out more about the major deputies, who 9. References did not leave other noticeable and significant Anderson M. (Ed.) (2013) Biographies of the New documented traces in history, except for activities in the World: Leif Eriksson, Henry Hudson, Charles Darwin, Zemstvo. and More (Impact on America: Collective Also, a positive strength of the database and information Biographies). Britannica Educational Publishing. system designed for this project is that in the future it Arthur P.L. (2017) Integrating Biographical Data in may be applied to solving problems other than the tasks Large-Scale Research Resources: Current and Future implemented in this study. The functional limitation of Directions. In Europa baut auf Biographien: Aspekte, this database is that only a part of the life biography of Bausteine, Normen und Standards für eine the subjects is the focus of this study. 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URL: storytelling can be promising, which has the potential to http://bogorodsk-noginsk.ru/lyudi/s-o.html (last visit attract a wider, not only expert, audience, increase the 28.04.2019). social impact of such projects, and enhance their social Central Historical Archive of Moscow. Fund 11. Moscow significance. Despite the fact that the system cannot at county Zemstvo. the moment become the basis of a complete biography of Collective Biography of Women. How Books Reshape figures due to its fairly narrow research focus and limited lives. URL: http://cbw.iath.virginia.edu (last visit sources for which it is impossible to completely 11.09.2019). reconstruct professional and any other activities of the Davies, B., Gannon, S. (Eds) (2006) Doing collective majority of deputies outside the Zemstvo, yet it has the biography. London: Open University Press. potential to become the basis for producing significant Chernysh M.I. 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(2016) course of history in Russia, be exposed as part of the Practicing Collective Biography. Geography Compass digital public space, a part of the historical information Vol. 10/4, pp. 165–178. environment. Korkunov N.M. (1909) Russian state law. St. Petersburg. Vol. 2. 8. Acknowledgements Kornienko S.I., Maslennikov N.N., Shabalina D.V. (2005) Journals of the Zemstvo Assembly: Problems of Muromtsev S.A. Creating an Information System. Circle of Ideas: Svatikov S.G. (1905) Social movement in Russia Algorithms and Technologies of Historical Informatics: (1700–1895). Rostov-on-Don: Don speech, pp. 1-204. Proceedings of the IX Conference of the Association The Imperial Alexander Lyceum, 1811 - October 19, “History and Computer”. Eds. Borodkin L.I., 1961. (1961) Memorial Book of Students. Paris: Vladimirov V.N. Moscow-Barnaul, pp. 153-164. Publishing Association of former Pupils of the Kornienko S.I., Povroznik N.G., Ekhlakova A.R. (2017) Imperial Alexander Lyceum. 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