Metadata: Commission to Draft an Ethnographic Map of Russia
Collection
- Country:
- Russia
- Holding institution:
- Russian Geographic Society
- Holding institution (official language):
- Русское географическое общество
- Postal address:
- 190000, Russia, St. Petersburg, per. Grivtsova, d. 10, litera A
- Phone number:
- (812) 315-62-82
- Web address:
- http://www.rgo.ru/ru
- Email:
- rgo@rgo.ru
- Reference number:
- Category 24
- Title:
- Commission to Draft an Ethnographic Map of Russia
- Title (official language):
- Комиссия по составлению этнографической карты России
- Creator/accumulator:
- Commission to Draft an Ethnographic Map of Russia
- Date(s):
- 1910/1919
- Language:
- Russian
- Extent:
- 107 storage units
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Scope and content:
- The category contains descriptions of the housing, utensils, tools, and various customs of the inhabitants of particular provinces, counties, and rural areas of Russia, printed typographically on narrow strips of heavyweight paper or cardboard; some of the materials are in folders indicating specifically which province the material was collected in; and there are materials for which it has not been established which provinces they pertain to. Folders with names of provinces mainly contain descriptions pertaining only to “Great Russians,” including in provinces within the Pale of Settlement. Presented separately is information on each rural area [volost’] collected into a single file comprising paper forms filled in by hand; indicated for each rural area is the number of population centres; plants and factories; shops and stores; water- and windmills; fairs; and temples, chapels, and houses of worship of various confessions, and in particular, materials sent from the Volhynia province cite information on the number of synagogues and Jewish houses of worship for the Bronska and Gorokhovy rural areas of Vladimir county, the Berezov and Gorodnitsa rural areas of Novograd-Volynskii county, the Berestechko rural area of Dubno county, the Belogorodka rural area of Zaslavl’ county, etc.
- Archival history:
- The Russian Geographic Society (RGO) was founded by imperial decree of Emperor Nicholas I and on recommendation of Interior Minister L. A. Perovskii on 6 (18) August 1845. The idea to establish the society was conceived by Admiral Baron F. P. Litke (subsequently head of the Imperial Academy of Sciences), tutor of Grand Prince Konstantin Nikolaevich, the future first chairman of the RGO. The mission of the RGO was to “assemble and direct the best young minds of Russia toward a comprehensive study of their native land.” The RGO combined specialists in geography and allied sciences, as well as travel enthusiasts, ethnographers, and public figures. In the course of its activities it was renamed on several occasions: from 1845-50, it was called the Russian Geographic Society (RGO); from 1850-1917, the Imperial Russian Geographic Society (IRGO); from 1917-25, the Russian Geographic Society (RGO); from 1925-38, the State Geographic Society (GGO); from 1938-92, the Geographic Society of the USSR (the All-Union Geographic Society; VGO); from 1992-95, the Russian Geographic Society; and from 1995 to the present, the All-Russian Public Organization “Russian Geographic Society” (VOO “RGO”). At different times, the society has been headed by representatives of the royal family, famous travellers, researchers, and statesmen. The hundreds of expeditions organised by the society have played an important role in the colonisation of the Arctic, Siberia, the Far East, Central Asia, Australia, and the world’s oceans and seas. Honorary members of the IRGO / RGO have included statesmen, public figures, and scientists of Russia – P. P. Semenov-Tian-Shanskii, Count S. Iu. Witte, N. I. Vavilov, V. I. Vernadskii, Baron F. P. Vrangel’, A. M. Gorchakov, V. I. Dal’, V. A. Obruchev – as well as Leopold II of Belgium, the Ottoman Sultan Abdul-Hamid, Carl Gustaf XVI of Sweden, King Oscar II of Norway, Shah Naser al-Din Shah Qajar of Persia, Baron Ferdinand Richthofen, Roald Amundsen, Fridtjof Nansen, and Thor Heyerdahl. Since 2009, the president of the Russian Geographic Society has been RF Defense Minister S. K. Shoigu. In 2010, the RGO Board of Trustees was established; it is headed by RF Pres. Vladimir Putin.
- Administrative/biographical history:
- The idea of producing an ethnographic map of Russia was proposed by P. I. Keppen. In 1851, the Imperial Russian Geographic Society published his “Ethnographic Map of European Russia.” In 1910, work was begun to prepare the publication of a new version of the map, and a special commission was organised for this purpose. In the course of its work, it drafted new survey sheets (questionnaires) including questions for the detailed description of the housing, clothing, utensils, and customs (familial, legal, and social) of the “tribes” inhabiting the European part of the empire. The survey forms were distributed throughout the provinces, from which the Imperial Russian Geographic Society in return received descriptions in accordance with the questions posed. Received separately was statistical information on each province, county, and rural area [volost’]. The commission continued to operate until 1918; it prepared a new version of the ethnographic map of this part of Russia; and when activities of this commission of the Russian Geographic Society ceased, its functions were transferred to the Commission to Study the Tribal Makeup of the Population in Russia, established by the Academy of Sciences in 1917.
- Access points: locations:
- Russia
- St Petersburg
- Vladimir county
- Volhynia province
- Subject terms:
- Ethnography
- Pale of Settlement
- Synagogues
- System of arrangement:
- The category includes a single inventory (in five sections) systematised according to the format-thematic principle.
- Finding aids:
- An inventory is available.
- Yerusha Network member:
- Jewish Theological Seminary
