Milevskiy O.A. The “Little” Person in Light of Significant Chyhyryny Events: the Fate of the Rural Teacher Ilya Frolov

Abstract: On the basis of previously unused in scientific studies archival documents from the State Archive of the Russian Federation, the Central State Historical Archive of Ukraine and the National Archive of the Republic of Karelia, the article undertakes an attempt to reconstruct the specific events in the life of the rural teacher Ilya Nikolaevich Frolov, who found himself involved in the movement of revolutionary populism during the 1870s in Ukraine. Upon examining and analyzing the existing material, the author pays particular attention to the clarification of the facts concerning the actual participation of I. N. Frolov in the events linked to the “Chyhyryn affair”, and also to the examination of the history of I. N. Frolov’s stay in administrative exile. The article is written within the framework of the personal history approach that allows to reconstruct the biography of an individual of “secondary importance in history” within the framework of a particular historical context. On the basis of the original sources the author analyzes the methods of inquiry that were used by the members of the Third Section against suspects of political crimes. On the example of the life of I. N. Frolov the author demonstrates the tragic fate of a whole generation of Russian democratically-inclined intellectuals who wished to return their civic duty to the people, but were ultimately thrown on the sideline of active public life by the repressive imperial apparatus.

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