Medal Awarding Procedures for Smallpox Vaccination in Nineteenth-Century Kalmykia: Analyzing File No. 141 of Collection И-2 ‘Kalmyk Affairs Commission’ at the National Archive of Kalmykia

Abstract

Introduction. The early-to-mid 19th-century Kalmyk Steppe witnessed certain changes in the system of governing the Kalmyk people that were to introduce the region into the unified agenda of Russia’s administrative and territorial structures. And it was Kalmyk Affairs Commission that became the first agency to have implemented such administrative functions and solved issues related to the life of Kalmyks. Documents containing evidence of its activities were included in Collection-2 (similarly referred to as ‘Kalmyk Affairs Commission’, 1825–1836) of Kalmykia’s National Archive. Goals. The study attempts an analysis of the documents’ composition, investigates paperwork procedures adopted by the Commission, and explores whether (and to what extent) the latter actually complied with the then general nationwide norms of records keeping and management. These shall be achieved through an insight into the consideration of a petition insisting Emchi Gelyung Dzhalov be awarded a medal ‘For Smallpox Vaccination’. Results. Documents of Kalmyk Affairs Commission are unique written sources for the study of records keeping and management practices in pre-revolutionary Kalmykia. The examined archival materials hereby introduced into scientific circulation can also become a source for further research into the formation and development of pre-revolutionary Kalmykia’s healthcare system.

Keywords

• rules of 1825
• kalmyk affairs commission
• archival documents
• records keeping
• document management
• smallpox vaccination
• kalmyk uluses
• medal ‘for smallpox vaccination’
• free economic society