Don pre-revolutionary historiography of the Caucasian war: from an unimportant war to the memorial cult of YA.P. Baklanov

Abstract

The article is devoted to the phenomenon of the Caucasian War coverage in the Don pre-revolutionary historiography. The article shows that initially, in 1850-1870, the Caucasian War was not considered by the Don authors as a landmark event, and could not even be mentioned in the list of wars in which the Don Cossacks participated. It is established that the situation changed in the 1880s. under the influence of Russian historiography, in which the heroization of the image of Ya.P. Baklanov occurred. The author concludes many unclear statements about the degree of his real support, meaning the anniversary of Ya.P. Baklanov in 1909, after which Ya.P. Baklanov was included in the pantheon of Don heroes, but the celebration had a clearly expressed political background (monarchism and religiosity of the general were emphasized in every way). Only after this, publications of Don authors about the Caucasian War became regular, and they were financed from above, were patriotic, not scientific, and reduced the war to the exploits of Ya.P. Baklanov and several other Cossacks.

Keywords

• кавказская война
• донское казачество
• историография
• историческая память
• построение нарратива