Introduction

Humanities faced a “digital turn” at the turn of the 21st century that posed a number of problems based on both theoretical understanding and practical use of computer technologies in historical research.

The first issue is the development of new approaches related to the study of changing source formats and their representation as well as historical source information value search techniques and evaluation methods. The second issue relates to different pace of IT development in Russian regions and within historical and cultural branches. For instance, in spite of active digital support of libraries and archives, projects of the National Electronic Library and the Central Fund Catalogue covering documents of the Russian Federation Archival Fund, some faraway archives are still “information deprived”. Moreover, Russian resources nearly lack data on complex Russian history sources which are preserved abroad. The problem stated proves the topicality to introduce funds of regional libraries, archives and museums as well as foreign information centers into the information field of history studies. The third problem relates to the development of humanities’ digital infrastructure and understanding of its role and importance in research practice. Russian history needs not only (and archives need not so much) digitization of historical and cultural heritage objects but creation of accessible regional on-line data retrieval systems covering the most important and demanded historical sources. In this connection, the data of such a wide-scale statistical enterprise as the 1897 First Russian Empire General Population Census which materials are one of the most popular historical sources are of particular interest.

The report will deal with the creation and analysis of the information system based on archival funds of the 1897 First General Population Census of the Russian Empire as an integrated bulk of sources stored in different Russian and foreign archives. Emphasis will be laid on preservation of census papers which had long been considered lost.

Discussion

Increasing interest in nominative sources was the basis for such big international projects as Nothern Athlantic Population Project (NAPP) and Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMS) (Torvaldsen 2016: 12) as well as MOSAIC. Whereas most of the European countries possess longitudinal data sets gained during regular censuses and other population registers, Russia cannot boast good preservation of primary sources where they are somewhat an exception. Some scholars think that only small sets of primary 1897 census data exist. (Torvaldsen 2016: 12–13; Glavatskaya 2108: 92).

One must note that 1897 population census papers came to a focus due to the development of genealogical studies. For instance, review articles by Т.К. Edlund and А. Dunai (Edlund 2000; Dunai 2008) inform about the preservation of census data covering Guberniyas of Tobolsk, Podolsk and Kievs as well as other territories in Latvia and Lithuania.

At the same time no complex attempt to systematize 1897 census data have been taken until the present study.

Sources and Methods

The First General Census of 1897 covered 89 Russian Empire guberniyas and Russian population in Finland and Bukhara. Further historical events led to such a situation that to create an integrated 1897 census data set one has to study not only Russian regional archives but also state archives of other countries (for instance, Ukraine, republic of Belarus, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, etc.) where similar documents might be preserved.

The search for 1897 census data preserved walked along several ways.

The first one is the study of electronic resources and finding aids of Russian and foreign information centers - archives, libraries. The trend of Russian and foreign archive-keeping is the digitization of inventories and other finding aids, creation of complex retrieval systems and granting on-line access to them. However, this development is slow and many regional archives provide little information in the Internet about their funds. This problem was partly solved by thematic inquiries to archives.

The second way is the search for digitized complexes of 1897 census archival documents. One can get online access to funds granted by the state archives of Tyumen and Yaroslav Oblasts, Krasnoyarsk Krai as well as Estonia, («Saaga» project) (Rahvusarhiiv) and Latvia («Raduraksti» project) (Latvijas 2021).

The data found were the basis for the information system covering 1897 census archival funds.

Results

The information system “Archival Funds of the 1897 First General Population Census of the Russian Empire” accumulates information about archives and funds storing primary 1897 census documents which include not only census papers but documents of census commissions and statistical materials as well. Each complex of documents is linked to a certain guberniya. Such an approach makes it possible, first of all, to find all materials preserved for one guberniya and, secondly, to collect data on one guberniya stored in different archives. For instance, census papers from uezds (administrative unit) of Kazan Guberniya have been preserved in the state archives of the Chuvash Republic, Tatarstan and Mari El. The information system is accompanied by an interactive map demonstrating the centers where primary census documents are stored, on the one hand, and administrative units for which some materials have been preserved, on the other hand. The information system provides for parameter online search (an archive, a document and a guberniya) (Bryukhanova 2019). Moreover, the information system has links to 1897 census digitized complexes of files with online access.

Today the information system has data on 67 archives, 324 funds and over 20 thousand files storing 1897 census materials. The scope of primary data is really not big. The census papers found (with varying degree of preservation from a sheet up to representative collections telling about whole uezds) cover 42 guberniyas and 195 uezds in European Russia, Siberia, the Caucasus and Central Asia. At the same time, the data scope of census papers and their "territorial location" provides for studying them as a complex source informing us about the history of Russian Empire's population at the turn of the 20th century.

Figure 1. Preservation of 1897 census papers: Russian Empire guberniyas

Acknowledgement

The study has got a grant support from the Russian Science Fund, project # №17-78-10156