Little-Known Sources on the History of the Russian Revolution and Civil War in the Regions

Abstract

The article examines bibliographically rare autobiographical works (some of them being manuscripts) by the distinguished Bashkir social, political and cultural activist, historian Karim A. Idelguzhin, who rose from the rank of record clerk in the Tsarist army to that of Soviet public official. In terms of the regional Bashkir historiography, K. Idelguzhin's works remain understudied which is partly due to the fact those had been written in the Arabic script. During the post-perestroika period, when lots of once classified archive funds were made accessible, thus significantly enlarging the thematic range of research studies, data about most popular social and political activists of the first third of the 20th century - such as A. Validov, A. Inan, M. Murtazin - were introduced into scientific discourse; the works of the latter were published. After access was granted to personal funds of public figures who represented different political movements, the data were mirrored in multiple journal, newspaper, and book publications. One such publication is the series called 'Baskortostan in the 20th century. Historical Portraits'. However, numerous papers and manuscripts are still there awaiting to be examined. The article studies Karim Idelguzhin's works notable for breadth of mental outlook resulting from the author's experiences in different positions and ranks. The papers deal with the history of establishment of Bashkortostan's autonomy, the manning and equipping of Bashkir national military units, issues of children's education and school system development, problems of Bashkir language development, culture, most of the materials being largely supplemented with interesting and rare photos. The uninvestigated layer of Arabic script sources is nowadays scattered through diverse archives, libraries, rare book collections. Even when it came to the already published works by K. Idelguzhin, the researchers had to search for them in the central state archives and libraries. The researchers have discovered a total of 9 books and over 10 articles, thus introducing them into scientific discourse and significantly contributing to the fullnes of the 1920s national historiography, which shall also facilitate thematic widening for further studies on the history of the region.