Chelyabinsk historian V.E. Chetin: Studying the history of the mining Urals in the context of Soviet historiography during the 1950s–1970s

N.N. Alevras*, S.D. Batishchev**

Chelyabinsk State University, Chelyabinsk, 454001 Russia

E-mail: *vhist@mail.ru, **batischew.sergey2015@yandex.ru

Received April 7, 2021

 

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Full text PDF

DOI: 10.26907/2541-7738.2021.3.75-89

For citation: Alevras N.N., Batishchev S.D. Chelyabinsk historian V.E. Chetin: Studying the history of the mining Urals in the context of Soviet historiography during the 1950s–1970s. Uchenye Zapiski Kazanskogo Universiteta. Seriya Gumanitarnye Nauki, 2021, vol. 163, no. 3, pp. 75–89. doi: 10.26907/2541-7738.2021.3.75-89. (In Russian)

Abstract

The dissertation projects of Vasilii Egorovich Chetin, a Chelyabinsk historian, on the history of mining works in the pre-revolutionary Urals were analyzed. His versions of the history of the Ural workers and labor movement were interpreted with regard to the historiographic context of his research activity during the 1950s–1970s. The prototype of a provincial historian committed to the orthodox Marxist-Leninist methodology as exemplified by V.E. Chetin’s personality was identified. General trends in the development of Ural historiography over the period when V.E. Chetin worked on his dissertations were shown. He defended his candidate’s dissertation in 1953. It was devoted to the labor movement in the Perm governorate after the reform of 1861, one of the popular problems of Ural historiography. The doctoral dissertation that ensued was drafted and should have been defended by the end of 1970. It continued to ponder the same problem within the entire region of mining works in the Urals and covered the historical period up to the early 20th century. Here, an attempt was made to take into account a whole variety of factors, including the secondary ones, influencing the situation of Ural workers. It was concluded that the scope of tasks set by V.E. Chetin in the doctoral dissertation made it impossible for him to meet the deadline.

Keywords: V.E. Chetin, Chelyabinsk State Pedagogical Institute, Ural historiography, history of labor class, candidate’s dissertation, doctoral dissertation, Ural historians

Acknowledgments. The study was supported by the Foundation for Advanced Scientific Research of Chelyabinsk State University (project no. 72-1 “The origins on the modern culture of dissertation writing in Russia” of February 2, 2021).

References

  1. Kir’yanov Yu.I. The study of class consciousness and image of Russian workers in the late 19th–early 20th centuries. In: Istorik i vremya. 20–50-e gody XX veka: A.M. Pankratova [Historian and Time. 1920s–1950s: A.M. Pankratova]. Moscow, Izd. RUDN, Mosgorarkhiv, 2000, pp. 57–62. (In Russian)
  2. Batishchev S.D. Vasilii Egorovich Chetin’s letters from the front: Upon publication of the source. Arkhiv v sotsiume – sotsium v arkhive: Materialy tret’ei region. nauch.-prakt. konf. [Archive in Society – Society in Archive: Proc. 3rd Reg. Sci.-Pract. Conf.]. Antipin N.A. (Ed.). Chelyabinsk, 2020, pp. 385–387. (In Russian)
  3. Chetin V.E. Labor movement in the Perm governorate during 1861–1870. Cand. Hist. Diss. Moscow, 1953. 432 p. (In Russian)
  4. Batishchev S.D. V.E. Chetin’s candidate’s dissertation “Labor movement in the Perm governorate during 1861–1870” in the reviews by the academic community. Ural industrial’nyi. Bakuninskie chteniya: Materialy XIV Vseros. nauch. konf. Ekaterinburg, 16–17 noyabrya 2020 g. [Industrial Urals. The Bakunin Lectures: Proc. XIV All-Russ. Sci. Conf. Yekaterinburg, Nov. 16–17, 2020]. Vol. 2. Yekaterinburg, Izd. UMTs UPI, 2020, pp. 100–108. (In Russian)
  5. Pankratova A.M. Proletariat formation and struggle in Russia during the 1860s–1880s. In: Rabochee dvizhenie v Rossii v XIX veke [Labor Movement in Russia during the 19th Century]. Vol. II: 1861–1884. Moscow, Gospolitizdat, 1950, pp. 7–73. (In Russian)
  6. Alevras N.N. Ural worker with an allotment: Discussions in the middle of the 1920s–the first half of the 1930s. In: Istorik i vremya. 20–50-e gody XX veka: A.M. Pankratova [Historian and Time. 1920s–1950s: A.M. Pankratova]. Moscow, Izd. RUDN, Mosgorarkhiv, 2000, pp. 40–52. (In Russian)
  7. Lenin V.I. Razvitie kapitalizma v Rossii [The Development of Capitalism in Russia]. Moscow, Politizdat, 1986. 610 p. (In Russian)
  8. Adamov V.V. About the original structure and some features of the mining industry development. In: Voprosy istorii kapitalisticheskoi Rossii. Problemy mnogoukladnosti [Issues of Capitalist Russia History. Problems of Multistructurality]. Sverdlovsk, 1972, pp. 225–256. (In Russian)
  9. Gorovoi F.S. Otmena krepostnogo prava i rabochie volneniya [The Emancipation Reform of 1861 and Labor Unrest in the Urals]. Molotov, Kn. Izd., 1954. 147 p. (In Russian)
  10. Gorlovskii M.A., Pyatnitskii A.N. Iz istorii rabochego dvizheniya na Urale [From the History of Labor Movement in the Urals]. Sverdlovsk, Kn. Izd., 1954. 380 p. (In Russian)
  11. Chetin V.E. The struggle of mining workers in the Southern Urals against the echoes of serfdom in 1861–1863. In: Iz istorii revolyutsionnogo dvizheniya i sotsialisticheskogo stroitel’stva na Yuzhnom Urale [From the History of Revolutionary Movement and Socialism Construction in the Southern Urals]. Chelyabinsk, 1959, pp. 21–47. (In Russian)
  12. Chetin V.E. On the problem of the situation of workers in the Urals after the abolition of serfdom (1860s–1870s). In: Iz storii zavodov i fabrik [From the History of Works and Factories in the Urals]. Sverdlovsk, Kn. Izd., 1963, no. 2, pp. 84–93. (In Russian)
  13. Chetin V.E. On the problem of land possession and use by mining workers in the Urals. In: Iz istorii Yuzhnogo Urala i Zaural’ya [From the History of the Southern Urals and Transurals]. Chelyabinsk, Yuzhno-Ural. Kn. Izd., 1966, no. 1, pp. 85–109. (In Russian)
  14. Bystrykh F.P. On land use by mining workers in the Urals during the 19th–20th centuries. In: Iz istorii krest’yanstva i agrarnykh otnoshenii na Urale [From the History of Peasantry and Agricultural Relations in the Urals]. Sverdlovsk, 1963, pp. 94–104. (In Russian)
  15. Gorovoi F.S. On changes in the land possession and use by mining workers of Ambalek-Lazarev’s facilities during the post-reform period. In: Voprosy agrarnoi istorii Urala i Zapadnoi Sibiri [Problems of Agricultural History of the Urals and Western Siberia]. Sverdlovsk, 1966, pp. 244–254. (In Russian)
  16. Trefilova L.A. Land possession and use by mining workers of possessional factories in the Perm governorate during 1861–1917. In: Iz istorii rabochego klassa i krest’yanstva Permskogo kraya [From the History of the Labor Class and Peasantry in the Perm Governorate]. Perm, Kn. Izd., 1965, pp. 46–68. (In Russian)
  17. Voprosy istorii kapitalisticheskoi Rossii. Problemy mnogoukladnosti [Issues of Capitalist Russia History. Problems of Multistructurality]. Sverdlovsk, 1972. 375 p. (In Russian)
  18. Chetin V.E. Monopoly capitalism and medieval privileges of the owners of mines in the Urals. In: Iz istorii Yuzhnogo Urala i Zaural’ya [From the History of the Southern Urals and Transurals]. Chenyabinsk, Yuzhno-Ural. Kn. Izd., 1969, no. 4, pp. 22–36. (In Russian)
  19. Matyukhina L.K., Pavlenko G.K. Vasilii Egorovich Chetin [Vasilii Egorovich Chetin]. Chelyabinsk, ChGPU, 2008. 96 p. (In Russian)
  20. Chetin V.E. About the Zlatoust uprising of 1897. In: Iz istorii Yuzhnogo Urala i Zaural’ya [From the History of the Southern Urals and Transurals]. Chenyabinsk, Yuzhno-Ural. Kn. Izd., 1971, no. 5, pp. 84–109. (In Russian)
  21. Chetin V.E. About the evolution of the level of wages for workers in the Urals during 1861–1904. In: Iz istorii Yuzhnogo Urala i Zaural’ya [From the History of the Southern Urals and Transurals]. Chenyabinsk, Yuzhno-Ural. Kn. Izd., 1974, no. 8, pp. 20–32. (In Russian)
  22. Chetin V.E. About the number and density of workers in the Urals during 1861–1904. In: Iz istorii Yuzhnogo Urala i Zaural’ya [From the History of the Southern Urals and Transurals]. Chenyabinsk, Yuzhno-Ural. Kn. Izd., 1975, pp. 24–47. (In Russian)
  23. Chetin V.E. New documents on the labor strikes in Zlatoust and the activity of the Ural Labor Union Organization. In: Ural’skii arkheograficheskii ezhegodnik za 1972 g. [Ural Archaeographic Annals of 1972]. Perm, 1974, pp. 168–181. (In Russian)