Republic of Buryatia: The Century-Long Path in Historiography and Historical Memory

Goals. The article analyzes materials from anniversary events, historical discussions, examines fundamental publications and academic editions for an insight into the evolution of ideas about Buryatia’s historical path. Ceremonial events and publications issued on the occasion of anniversaries are of particular historiographic value: on the one hand, those reflect achievements and problems of a certain period, and, on the other hand, narrate about dominant political ideologies and patterns of historical consciousness. In the meantime, anniversary scientific conferences usually attended by leading officials and scholars of the Republic were to somewhat comprehend actual results and discuss further development prospects. Materials and methods. The paper examines documents stored at the State Archive of Buryatia, Scientific Archives of the Buryat Scientific Center (SB RAS), Center of Oriental Manuscripts and Xylographs affiliated to the Institute for Mongolian, Buddhist and Tibetan Studies (SB RAS). The principle of historicism proves instrumental in reconstructing how historical thought has evolved within the general trends of state development and Buryatia’s political life throughout the 100 years. Results. On 30 May 1923, the Presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee decided to unite Siberian and Far Eastern autonomous oblasts of Buryat-Mongols into one autonomous socialist Soviet republic to be centered around the city of Verkhneudinsk. In terms of theory pertaining to historical science and historical enlightenment, the formation of the Buryat-Mongol ASSR set forth a most important task of comprehending experiences and paths of Buryatia’s peoples in accordance with the Marxist-Leninist paradigm of historical process, while in terms of practice it was urgent to substantiate the Soviet ideology and socialist reforms. All this required that experts joined their efforts to develop conventional approaches in the field of historical knowledge and nation/state building. So, the history of Buryatia was to be generalized and systemized by the academic publications as follows: History of the Buryat-Mongol ASSR (1951, 1954, 1959); Essays on Buryatia’s History and Culture (1972, 1974); History of Buryatia in three volumes (2011), etc. The 100th anniversary of the Republic has been welcomed with another two-volume edition — Republic of Buryatia in the 20th–21st Centuries: Chronicles, Events, Comments — that provides a systemic overview of its peoples’ historical paths (and milestones), illustrates quantitative and qualitative transformations in politics, economy, culture, and demography, that had formed a vector of progressive and constructive development which survived even in most dramatic periods. The centenary celebrations have been pinnacled by the international scientific conference — Cross-Border Regions of Russia’s East in Modernization Processes, 20th–21st Centuries: [Celebrating the] 100th Anniversary of the Republic of Buryatia.

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