L. A. Lyagushkina Towards an appraisal of the information potential of the “Memorial Books” as  compared to the investigation dossiers  of the “Great Terror” victims

Abstract: The article examines the possible sources for an analysis of the social portrait of the “Great Terror” victims (1937– 1938). For this purpose it becomes important to give an assessment of the information potential of the “Memorial Books of the Victims of Political Repressions”, which contain short biographical data of the repression victims. The “Memorial Books” are compared with the archival investigational dossiers, which were compiled by the law enforcement agencies on all those arrested during the “Great Terror”. The files recorded biographical data in standard forms, as well as in interrogation protocols and various certificates. This research applied the comparative method of analysis. Two sources are being compared: the passionary of the “Butovo firing range”, where data about those executed on the firing range in Butovo was recorded, and the investigation files of those repressed, stored in the State Archive of the Russian Federation (GARF). The divergences and errors in both these sources are of particular interest. The article comes to the conclusion that although the investigation files contain more complete biographical information, it is often contradictory and needs verification. The “Memorial Books” contains more reliable biographical information than the investigation files. Consequently, the data in the “Memorial Books” can be sufficient to create a basic social portrait of the victims of political repression.

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