TY - JOUR

T1 - "[...] There Are Such Moments in Political Life of the Country, When Active Influential Public Figures Must Be Imprisoned"

T2 - Letters of N. Ya. Bykhovsky and I. I. Ignatovich-Bykhovskaya to the Chairman of the Siberian Revolutionary Committee I. N. Smirnov

AU - Shishkin, Vladimir

N1 - Шишкин В.И. «...Есть такие моменты [в] политической жизни страны, когда активные влиятельные обществ[енные] деятели должны сидеть в тюрьме». Письма Н.Я. Быховского и И.И. Игнатович-Быховской председателю Сибирского революционного комитета И.Н. Смирнову // Вестник архивиста. 2019. № 3. С. 778–795

PY - 2019

Y1 - 2019

N2 - This publication introduces into scientific use and analyzes three documents found in a file in the declassified series in the fond of the Siberian Revolutionary Committee stored in the State Archive of the Novosibirsk Region. These documents are personal letters written by N. Ya. Bykhovsky and I. I. Ignatovich-Bykhovskaya in Irkutsk in summer 1921. They were well-known researchers and social and political figures. N. Ya. Bykhovsky was a professional revolutionary. For nearly twenty years, he was a member of the SR party and one of the party outstanding publicists; he was elected a member of the party Central committee. His wife, I. I. Ignatovich-Bykhovskaya, also a member of the SR party, had by 1921 abandoned political activity and was engaged mainly in teaching and studying the history of Russian peasantry of the 19th century. The letters are addressed to the chairman of the Siberian Revolutionary Committee I. N. Smimov, who was then a candidate member of the Central Committee of the RCP(B) and belonged to the Bolshevist elite. N. Ya. Bykhovsky and I. I. Ignatovich-Bykhovskaya had to write to I. N. Smirnov repeatedly, because mid June 1921 N. Ya. Bykhovsky had been arrested in Irkutsk by the order of the plenipotentiary representative of All-Union Extraordinary Commission for Siberia I. P. Pavlunovsky. The arrest was made despite guarantees that I. N. Smirnov had given shortly before in Omsk, when he had met N. Ya. Bykhovsky twice. The letters were attempts to find out, why N. Ya. Bykhovsky had been arrested, even though he had been no longer involved in party and political work. The Bykhovskys offered several explanations of what had happened. However, the explanation of I. P. Pavlunovsky seems the most likely: as he said cynically to I. I. Ignatovich-Bykhovskaya, in certain moments of political life of the country, active and influential public figures "must be imprisoned." A shrewd historian will also find in the published letters other interesting data on political mentality and culture of the Bolsheviks, Soviet reality, and everyday life in the early 1920s.

AB - This publication introduces into scientific use and analyzes three documents found in a file in the declassified series in the fond of the Siberian Revolutionary Committee stored in the State Archive of the Novosibirsk Region. These documents are personal letters written by N. Ya. Bykhovsky and I. I. Ignatovich-Bykhovskaya in Irkutsk in summer 1921. They were well-known researchers and social and political figures. N. Ya. Bykhovsky was a professional revolutionary. For nearly twenty years, he was a member of the SR party and one of the party outstanding publicists; he was elected a member of the party Central committee. His wife, I. I. Ignatovich-Bykhovskaya, also a member of the SR party, had by 1921 abandoned political activity and was engaged mainly in teaching and studying the history of Russian peasantry of the 19th century. The letters are addressed to the chairman of the Siberian Revolutionary Committee I. N. Smimov, who was then a candidate member of the Central Committee of the RCP(B) and belonged to the Bolshevist elite. N. Ya. Bykhovsky and I. I. Ignatovich-Bykhovskaya had to write to I. N. Smirnov repeatedly, because mid June 1921 N. Ya. Bykhovsky had been arrested in Irkutsk by the order of the plenipotentiary representative of All-Union Extraordinary Commission for Siberia I. P. Pavlunovsky. The arrest was made despite guarantees that I. N. Smirnov had given shortly before in Omsk, when he had met N. Ya. Bykhovsky twice. The letters were attempts to find out, why N. Ya. Bykhovsky had been arrested, even though he had been no longer involved in party and political work. The Bykhovskys offered several explanations of what had happened. However, the explanation of I. P. Pavlunovsky seems the most likely: as he said cynically to I. I. Ignatovich-Bykhovskaya, in certain moments of political life of the country, active and influential public figures "must be imprisoned." A shrewd historian will also find in the published letters other interesting data on political mentality and culture of the Bolsheviks, Soviet reality, and everyday life in the early 1920s.

KW - Epistolary sources

KW - Soviet power

KW - chairman of the Siberian Revolutionary Committee I. N. Smirnov

KW - professor N. Ya. Bykhovsky

KW - I. I. Ignatovich-Bykhovskaya

KW - university

KW - institute

KW - I. P. V Pavlunovsky

KW - All-Union Extraordinary Commission for Siberia

KW - arrest

KW - prison

KW - prosecution

U2 - 10.28995/2073-0101-2019-3-778-795

DO - 10.28995/2073-0101-2019-3-778-795

M3 - Article

SP - 778

EP - 795

JO - Herald of an archivist

JF - Herald of an archivist

SN - 2073-0101

IS - 3

ER -