Peoples of the Middle Volga Region in the writing and archival materials of G.F. Miller

Abstract

For the first time in regional historiography, the author carried out a comprehensive historiographic analysis of information on ethnography, linguistics, religious studies, regional history, sociopolitical and sociocultural life of the Finno-Ugric and Turkic peoples of the Middle Volga contained in the works of the outstanding German, historian, geograph and ethnograph G.F. Miller. Value of the submitted material is comprised in the research of the collected by the scientist of copies of unique historical documents, manuscripts of his unpublished works, numerous notes and other valuable materials. The relevance of the subject is predetermined by the development of a perspective trend of historical research development of the problem of relationship between the government and society on the example of the development of the regions of Russia in the XVIII century in the works by G.F. Miller. This study is based on the principles of historicism and multi-factor nature of the historical process, realized through the use of historical-genetic, historical-comparative, historical-biographical, dialectic and typological methods of research. The author concluded that the writings of the scientist allowed not only to carry out detailed description of spiritual and material life of the representatives of Turkic and Finno-Ugric peoples of the Middle Volga Region, to define their ethnoconfessional characteristics, but also to take into account historical, geographical and geopolitical conditions influencing their development and integration into sociocultural, sociopolitical and social and economic space of the Russian Empire. Scientific heritage of G.F. Miller also contributed to the creation of the system of methodological bases of archiving and source study. Potential of this heritage for carrying out different researches is high, partly owing to the handwritten archive of the historian in German in the funds of the Russian State Archive of Ancient Acts, containing extensive cohort of unique historical documents, not introduced into scientific discourse.

Keywords

• g.f. miller, history, regional historiography, source studies, middle volga region, historical sources, finno-ugric peoples, turkic peoples, academic expeditions.