Abstract: Through the analysis of epistolary documents, the author determines the information component of letters and perception of war by the Siberian combatants: weekdays and holidays in the field, adaptation behavioral strategies, emotional state, and transformation of mindset. The work is based on application of the techniques of military psychology, history of everyday life, historical-anthropological approach and text analysis. The sphere of personal human experiences are analyzed in the context of extreme conditions for the first time. The novelty of this work is defined by introducing into the scientific discourse of a complex of epistolary documents from the family archives of Tobolsk residents, which have not been previously subjected to scientific analysis. The specificity of communicative process, generation of information, emotional coloring of epistles directly depended on situational factors and addressing of correspondence; receiving a letter became the key event within the realm of daily life in the front. The attributes of soldierly letters contained consolation of relatives, recommendations on maintaining the household in case of death of the combatants, description of life in the field, recreation culture. In the atmosphere of potential danger to life, took place the process of reassessment of the fundamental human values, formation of views on the nature of war, personal aspects of its perception. These problems were solved based on the level of education, professional and social affiliation, intellectual capabilities of the addressers. The adjustment to military reality was accompanied by the negative form of stress, development of the habit to extreme existence. The form of written communication allowed realizing intra-familial socio-demographic role common to the traditional binary gender system. The distinct peculiarity of Tobolsk soldier consisted in understanding of spiritual connection with birthplace; the sense of compatriotism became much stronger.

Abstract: The goal of this article is the synoptic characteristic of the photographed visual sources applied in the process of reconstruction of everyday life of the residents of Russian periphery, as well as models of everyday routine of the diverse social, professional and age groups of urban population of the late XIX – early XX century. For detailed and gradual examination of this topic, the range of sources was limited by photo collections of Tobolsk and Tyumen. This article is first to describe and introduce into the scientific discourse of the set of photos of several local collections preserved in the state museums, as well as private and family archives. Methodological foundation contains the principles of historical anthropology and visual history, combined with the micro-historical approach towards exploring the local photo collections of various types. Micro-historical approach is specified by studying the local collections, with application of systemic and structural-functional analysis, comprehensive and descriptive approaches, historical-typological method, as well as paramount in working with photo collections method of museum classification and attribution. The scientific novelty is defined by the use of photo documents as the backbone and independent sources in studying the history of everyday life of Western Siberian cities during the period of rapid growth of photographic industry in Russia, which fell on the turn of the XIX – XX centuries.