Family correspondence of veterans of the Great Patriotic War in the archives of Siberia: source value, prospects for use.

Savenko Elena ORCID: 0000-0001-9352-8522 PhD in History Leading Researcher, State Public Scientific and Technical Library, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences 630102, Russia, Novosibirsk region, Novosibirsk, Voskhod str., 15 helensav@ngs.ru

Introduction

Frontline letters are unique information documents that reflect the events of the war years.  The value of epistolary evidence of the era was realized already during the war period. At the conference held in June 1943 At the All-Union Conference of Historians and Archivists, the writer A. N. Tolstoy said: "We need to collect letters coming from the front, we need to collect diaries, we need to collect, if possible, eyewitness accounts, write them down, give them to the archive" ^{[12, p. 87]}. During the Great Patriotic War, the letters of the combatants were actively printed in the central and local press, published in separate collections. In 1943, for example, the publishing house "Tambovskaya Pravda" published the book "Letters from the Front". In 1944, collections with the same name were published in Alma-Ata, Leningrad, and "Letters of Patriots" were published in Moscow. For ideological reasons, the focus was on messages addressed to the mass addressee. The main core of the texts were confidence in victory, readiness for self-sacrifice, a call for the mobilization of all forces in the name of the liberation of the Motherland, therefore, correspondence of this type was effectively used in propaganda activities.  The tendency to consider the correspondence of the war years mainly as sources of studying the heroism of Soviet soldiers, the unity of the front and rear prevailed for many years.

Changing the paradigm of social development in the 90s of the twentieth century. it helped to increase interest in the "human dimension" of war. Anthropological ^{[15, 28]}, moral ^{[9, 13, 18]}, psychological ^{[10, 17, 23, 24]} aspects of the military past have become the subject of detailed consideration by historians. It is significant that in modern Russian historical science, along with well-established terms, the concept of "ego-document" has become actively used, focusing on the presence of the personal Self in texts ^{[8, p. 194-195; 29, p. 15]}.  New approaches to understanding the history of the Great Patriotic War led to a reassessment of the information potential of front-line epistolaries ^{[1, 18, 20]} and the involvement of this group of ego documents in the analysis of both military everyday life as a whole ^{[2, 25, 31]} and its individual aspects: front-line life ^[4], family relations ^{[3, 26]}.

During the Great Patriotic War, more than 6 billion postal items were sent from the front and to the front, most of which were letters ^{[20, p. 230]}. A significant part of the correspondence of the war years has been lost, and the preserved front-line epistolaries are scattered through numerous storage facilities and insufficiently studied. The research project "Ego-documents on the history of the Great Patriotic War and other military conflicts of the twentieth century from the archives of the East of Russia: problems of identification, attribution and publication", implemented by the State Scientific Research Institute of the SB RAS, is designed to contribute to the disclosure of the potential of personal documents of the war years. Its tasks, in particular, include the search for collections of family correspondence, their analysis, scientific description, evaluation of informational and social significance, and, ultimately, publication in the form of a separate collection.

Family correspondence of the war years in the archives and museums of Siberia.

The main holders of front-line letters of Siberian soldiers are the state archives of the region, in which collections of documents of veterans of the Great Patriotic War and home front workers are formed. The array of epistolary documents in these funds is mainly represented by single letters from various authors. However, there are also complexes of family correspondence, which are invaluable sources of research on various aspects of military everyday life. One of such epistolary complexes is the correspondence of the Merkuryev family, stored in the State Archive of the Novosibirsk Region (GANO) ^[5]. Chronology of correspondence – 1941-1944 . The collection contains more than 200 letters that Senior Lieutenant Fyodor Sergeyevich Merkuryev addressed to his mother and wife. The Siberian officer sent messages about himself with enviable regularity. Thanks to this , it is possible to trace the path of the 49th Siberian Cavalry Division since its formation in Omsk in July 1941 .  before the encirclement during the fierce battles near Kharkov in May 1942, the letters contain detailed descriptions of the life of the rear Siberian city where the military formation was located before being sent to the front, road impressions of the division following to the front line, stories about front-line everyday life in the liberated territories of Donbass at the beginning of 1942. The front-line letters of F. S. Merkuryev give an idea not only about little-known wartime events, but also about the psychological mood of a front-line soldier. The forty-year-old warrior, wise in life, had no illusions about the imminent end of hostilities.  "It's scary to look into the future – it hurts unsightly," he wrote on July 27, 1941 ^{[5, d. 24, l. 4]}. F. S. Merkuryev, who worked before the war as dean of the Historical Faculty of the Novosibirsk State Pedagogical Institute, was well aware of the gravity of the events taking place: "The war is a heavy, villainous, disgusting massacre" ^{[5, d. 24, L. 97]}. At the same time, the lines from the letters indicate that even in difficult moments of life, faith in the coming victory did not leave the author: "the Germans will definitely be defeated" (December 7, 1941), "the Germans will not only be defeated, but defeated" (January 5, 1942) ^{[5, d. 24, l. 97 vol. 25, L. 4.]}. F. S. Merkuryev, who served as a translator at the headquarters of the 49th Cavalry Division, writes about front-line life with restraint. But the stingy lines convey the severity of military everyday life: "I work a lot. Sometimes, and this is most often both day and night, often without undressing and in a greatcoat for whole weeks" ^{[5, d. 25, l. 38 vol.]}. The hardships of military life did not break the spirit of the front-line soldier. "We will survive the difficulties no matter how ? just to defeat the enemies," he writes in one of the letters ^{[5, d. 25, l.75]}.

The characteristics of captured Germans found in F. S. Merkuryev's letters are interesting. It is noteworthy that initially these descriptions are full of only disgust and contempt.   Later, when the author of the letters saw the consequences of the German occupation in Ukraine, hatred of the enemy joined these feelings: "I wish <...> the utter destruction of the German animals on our territory", "we saw firsthand who the Nazis are – thieves, murderers, rapists" ^{[5, d. 25, l. 13, 27]},

Family correspondence allows us to talk about the evolution of relations to the relatives who remained in the rear. The front-line soldier is constantly interested in the health of his relatives, their living conditions. The longer the separation lasts, the more tender the texts of the letters become. "My heart is filled with love, gratitude to you for living together. It seems to me that I love you more than 20 years ago, more consciously," writes F. S. Merkuryev to his wife in the spring of 1942 ^{[5, d. 25, l. 18]}. It is noteworthy that many of the frontline messages of F. S. Merkuryev end with the words "Keep you all that can", "Nature keep you" ^{[5, d. 24, l. 16, 91]}.  These and some other lines allow us to make an assumption about the origin of elements of religiosity in the consciousness of a communist officer.

 In the spring of 1942, the correspondence of the Merkuryev family was interrupted. According to the documents of the Central Archive of the Ministry of Defense (CAMO), assistant chief of the 1st department of the headquarters of the 49th Cavalry Division, Senior Lieutenant F. S. Merkuryev "on 22-27. 5-42, he was surrounded by the enemy along with a part in the Kharkov direction, did not leave the encirclement, part was disbanded, no information was received on him" ^{[30, l. 109]}. For a long time, F. S. Merkuryev was listed as missing and was excluded from the lists of the Red Army.

In February 1943, the Merkuryev family began to receive news from the front again. From them it turned out that during one of the heavy battles of the unsuccessful offensive operation in the spring of 1942, called by modern historians "Izyumsko-Barvenkovskaya meat grinder", the officer was shell-shocked. Together with his surviving colleagues, he tried to get out of the encirclement, but was captured and spent some time in a prisoner-of-war camp in Barvenkovo. F. S. Merkuryev did not share the details of his stay in the camp, but judging by the lines "our people write little about the atrocities of the Germans in the treatment of prisoners", they were terrible ^{[5, d. 26, l. 31 vol.]}. The Siberian could not accept the humiliating, disenfranchised position. During the transfer of prisoners of war to the Lozovaya railway station to be sent to Germany, he and 3 other soldiers managed to escape.  After spending some time in the forest plantations, they split into two groups. As follows from the letters of F. S. Merkuryev, he and one of the political officers "crawled for three days <...> to the village of Veselaya", where the division was standing before the battles ^{[5, d. 26, l. 31 ob]}. There they managed to change into peasant clothes and rest for a while. After that, a long and difficult journey to their own began. In total, it took almost six months.  Catching up with the front, "straining my strength, without documents, under the fear of constantly being shot", "I had to walk 1000 km." ^{[5, d. 26, l. 31 ob]}.  They moved slowly, "trying to bypass the Germans," stopping in remote villages where enemy soldiers and policemen rarely visited.  It was only in January 1943 that they managed to cross the front line and reach the location of the Red Army. By this time, the officer was very exhausted and was immediately handed over to a field hospital. The Siberian spent the whole of 1943 in hospitals. "I am being treated more than I live," he wrote to one of his friends ^{[5, d. 26, l.77]}.

Despite the painful condition and difficult situation of the author, whose status has been clarified for a long time, F. S. Merkuryev's hospital letters are full of optimism. He not only described the situation of numerous medical institutions, but also told his relatives about the cities in which they are located: Borisoglebsk, Saratov, Pugachev, etc. The officer closely followed the reports from the fronts and shared his impressions about the course of military operations in letters. A considerable part of the family correspondence of this time is occupied by the discussion of ways to restore lost documents and military rank.  In July 1943, this goal was achieved: F. S. Merkuryev received documents on the military rank of "senior lieutenant" and an order to leave for Kovrov at the disposal of the cavalry unit of the reserve rifle division ^{[5, d. 26, l.21]}.  But the state of his health did not allow him to begin service. Shortly after arriving at the unit, he found himself in the hospital again. Hospital days dragged on again, moving from one city to another: Kovrov, Kislovodsk, Krasnodar. In December 1943, F. S. Merkuryev was declared unfit for service, received group 2 disability and returned to Novosibirsk. However, the correspondence did not end there. Most of the rear life of the former front-line soldier took place in hospitals and sanatoriums, from where he sent messages to his family. The letters of this time are filled with hopes for recovery, reunion with loved ones and joint celebration of victory. But F. S. Merkuryev did not live to see this joyful day: he died on April 17, 1945.

The complex of epistolary ego documents of the Merkuryev family is a unique archival collection, which is a valuable source on the history of the Great Patriotic War. Museums of Siberia also have interesting collections of family epistolaries of the war years.  The Integral museum-apartment of everyday life of the Akademgorodok of Novosibirsk owns a collection of front-line letters of representatives of two generations of the Balamatov family ^[11]. The collection consists of 200 letters, most of which are the correspondence of foreman Grigory Maximovich Balamatov, addressed to his wife and children. The father of the family did not bother his loved ones with stories about the hardships of front-line life. His news from the front line is optimistic: "there is enough food" (October 5, 1942), "I go to the bathhouse often, I am dressed warmly and eat well" (February 19, 1944). Such lines were sometimes supplemented with descriptions of the diet or the beauty of Karelia's nature. Such serene pictures do not quite correctly reflect the realities of military everyday life.   Although the situation on the Karelian Front, where the author of the letters fought, was relatively stable in 1942-1944, the situation there was very tense and often there were stubborn battles for holding the line of defense. In August 1944, in one of these battles, G. M. Balamatov was wounded, sent to the hospital, and then demobilized. The somewhat idyllic nature of the letters is due to the desire of the father of the family to protect his loved ones from worries about him. Careful attitude to relatives permeates all his front-line correspondence. Being away from home in difficult conditions, G. M. Balamatov continued to participate in the lives of people dear to him: he worried about their health, gave household advice. "It's very good, Dusik, that you have dug up a lot of potatoes, keep it well" (October 27, 1941), "don't save money, buy what you can" (May 6, 1942) – he wrote to his wife. The front–line soldier was worried about the children's studies, the behavior of his son, a difficult teenager, the contents of the letters indicate that the hardships of the war did not break the spirit of the head of the family. Despite his isolation from home and front-line trials, G. M. Balamatov remained a whole, responsible person, an attentive and loving husband and father.

The character of the younger family member, judging by the correspondence, changed in military conditions.  The correspondence shows that Georges Balamatov, who found himself at the front, rethought his former life.  "As for my "adventures", I want to say that I am ashamed that I found such "comrades" for myself, and my whole life went round the wheel. <...> And all this is a heavy burden on me and I will have to wash away this shame with blood," wrote a young fighter in December 1944. The young man's attitude towards his family became warmer. Unfortunately, these changes remained fixed only in letters. On March 28, 1945, a nineteen-year-old Red Army soldier Zh. G. Balamatov died a brave death. Posthumously, he was presented to the Order of the Patriotic War II degree.

Within the framework of one article, it is impossible to thoroughly consider the epistolary complexes available in various archives in Siberia.  The number of such collections is large. The State Archive of the Tomsk Region (GATO), for example, contains collections of front-line letters of the Guard of Senior Lieutenant V. L. Istomin, Sergeant D. P. Galenko, junior lieutenants I. S. Petrov, K. M. Udalov, etc. ^[6]. The Omsk State Museum of Local History has more than 400 letters of the Balandin family: correspondence of parents with their daughter and son who were at the front ^{[7, p. 258]}. This unique collection, as the senior researcher of the museum L. G. Ermolina notes, contains an abundance of everyday details and personal experiences. However, the content of this meeting has not been fully disclosed to date.

The Novosibirsk State Museum of Local Lore houses large collections of front-line letters of the Guard of Lieutenant Colonel S. A. Ilyin and Sergeant A. A. Medlyak ^[22]. The museum of the Siberian Federal University contains collections of epistolaries of the Deputy Chief of Staff of the artillery unit of the Western Front, knight of the Order of the Red Star I. A. Zolotukhin and Red Army machine gunner V. G. Sport ^[27].

The employees of the archives actively use the correspondence of the war years in educational work: they exhibit at exhibitions dedicated to the Great Patriotic War, create virtual galleries of front-line letters, quote excerpts of individual messages in popular scientific works. However, despite the valuable historical information, many complexes of family correspondence have not yet been introduced into scientific circulation.

Conclusion

The epistolary legacy of the war years has a huge source value.  Letters from the front line give an idea of the diversity of events during the Great Patriotic War, contribute to a comprehensive understanding of the moral and psychological state of the front-line generation. The analysis of the personal correspondence of Siberian soldiers shows that researchers reasonably recognize ego documents as a "form of historical memory" ^{[14, p. 9; 16]}. Given that there are fewer direct participants in the events of the Great Patriotic War every year, there is an urgent need to intensify work on the identification, comprehensive analysis and publication of epistolary documents of the war period.