Kaptelina, O. A. Monarchical Moods of the Peasants in the Russian Empire of the Early XXth Century (Based on the Letters of the Chief Council of the Russian People’s Union): Issues of Source Studies

Abstract: Political transformations that took place in the Russian Empire after revolutionary events of 1905 – 1907 were followed by the differentiation of public moods. Various social groups experienced the process in different ways. The most interesting and understudied question still remains the question about the attitude of peasants to democratic changes happening in Russia back in those times. The present article presents the attempt of the author to clarify the moods of peasants that were refl ected in letters addressed to the Russian People’s Union and stored in the State Archive of the Russian Federation. The article deals with the questions about to what extent peasants followed the monarchical views, how they conveyed their ideas and what infl uence the Russian People’s Union had on the evolution of peasant mentality. In her research O. Kaptelina studies archives and focuses on methods of information analysis adopted from source studies including attribution and classifi cation of letters as well as the frequency analysis. Source analysis of materials was performed with reference to the authentic interpretation of letters written by peasants and analysis of their informative value for the purpose of studying the perception of the policy of the Russian People’s Union by peasants as well as to what degree peasants shared the monarchical moods and basic ideas of the party. The results of the analysis of peasants’ letters do not only show that after the revolution of 1905 – 1907 peasants kept to the monarchical policy and shared the ideas of the extreme right-wing political movement but also allow to see all the shades of those moods. The scientifi c novelty of the research is in introduction of archives and their integrated study into scientifi c use.

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