Mazur L.N. —
Incomes of scientists in the USSR in the 1920s (Based on materials from the budget survey of 1925)
// Historical informatics. – 2023. – ¹ 3.
– P. 41 - 57.
DOI: 10.7256/2585-7797.2023.3.43744
URL: https://en.e-notabene.ru/istinf/article_43744.html
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Abstract: The article examines the structure of income and the level of material well-being of scientists in 1925. The source base of the study is represented by the primary materials of the budget survey, which covered 16 cities of the USSR, including Moscow, Leningrad, Voronezh, Krasnodar, Novocherkassk, Perm, Rostov, etc. Total 282 forms of budgets of scientific workers – university professors, academic and museum workers, librarians, etc. have been preserved in the archive. The information from the budget form makes it possible to characterize various aspects of the life of scientists under the NEP, including income and consumption.
The information from the survey forms was systematized in a database and became the basis for studying the standard of living of various categories of scientists depending on their status and place of residence (capital/province). Budgetary data allow us to conclude that the position of scientists has noticeably worsened in comparison with the pre-revolutionary period. This manifested itself, firstly, in an increase in the workload due to the growth of labor standards at the main place of work and the spread of “part-time jobs” (more than half of the surveyed worked additionally in 1-2 places, had a private practice and other sources of income); secondly, in a noticeable decrease in the income level of the bulk of scientific workers who were not included in the "special" lists. The average monthly salary of a scientist at the main place of work is characterized by a high level of variability and was higher than the average salary of a worker in Moscow. High variability testifies to the processes of differentiation of scientists in terms of income, which depended on the status characteristics of a scientist, his activity, creating prerequisites for the selection of elite categories of scientists, in the 1930s. formed into a hierarchical system of teaching staff with an appropriate set of privileges.
Mazur L.N. —
History in the “Digital Turn” Epoch: Stages and Problems. The example of Budget Surveys of Peasants’ Farms in the 20th Century
// Historical informatics. – 2019. – ¹ 3.
– P. 76 - 89.
DOI: 10.7256/2585-7797.2019.3.30681
URL: https://en.e-notabene.ru/istinf/article_30681.html
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Abstract: The article considers theoretical and methodological aspects of the digital turn in Russian historical science, defines the notion “digital turn” and describes its connection to the digital revolution. The digital revolution in history has primarily affected its methodological, source-related, thematic, and conceptual aspects. The author characterizes the key stages in the digital turn in history: the preliminary stage (mathematization); the initial stage (computerization); and the final stage (informatization of history).
She studies digital turn peculiarities related to specific research areas taking historiography of peasant budget surveys as an example. The history of agriculture and rural life was among the first to join the processes of mathematization and computerization and illustrates the main stages of the digital turn, in particular its final stage that is the creation of remote resources. The informatization of science should be considered not only as a technological process but, since it involves a significant expansion of the range of methodological tools, as a new qualitative level in historical cognition.
Mazur L.N., Brodskaya L.I. —
The Use of Historical and Typological Method to Study Families in the Early Soviet Period
// Historical informatics. – 2017. – ¹ 3.
– P. 43 - 77.
DOI: 10.7256/2585-7797.2017.3.23752
URL: https://en.e-notabene.ru/istinf/article_23752.html
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Abstract: The article describes the methodology for analyzing the primary materials of the 1922 All-Russian Census of the RCP (B) members that was based on the use of historical and typological method. The article is composed of three logical blocks. The first section deals with the essence of the historical and typological method, its types and problems solved. The second section characterizes sociological and demographic typologies of families and their dependence on the research object, i.e. its local and temporal aspects and research goals. The third section reveals the technique for studying the party census data. The key goal of the article is to show the analytical potential of historical typology, consider the modes of the method application (multidimensional analysis methods included) and substantiate the efficiency of its use to study nominative sources organized within a database. The authors implemented a combination of the deductive and the inductive approaches to form a typology that was based on the use of mathematical and statistical methods. The typological method allows us to extrapolate the results of the study of the target array (party families) to the entire early Soviet society of the early 1920s and trace the influence of ideological factor on historical and demographic processes