“We can and we must”: The scientificity of trade-union history-writing in the Soviet Union in the 1920s
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.4467/2543702XSHS.19.008.11014Keywords:
history-writing, citizen science, trade unions, The USSR, Marxism, the 1920s, archeography, IstprofAbstract
In the 1920s, the young Soviet Republic, rejecting the old social system, turned to the study of the past. Instead of engaging with professional historians, the new regime initiated a whole range of large-scale participatory projects incorporated into political and public institutions to produce new, revolutionary history. In this article, instead of approaching this topic in terms of ideology and memory I put it in the context of history of science. Focusing on the case of trade unions, I suggest considering the early Soviet non-academic history-writing as a form of radical citizen science. Even though trade unionists had no special education, they dared to use scientific methods in their research that ended with positive results. This story allows us to question the opposition between amateurs and professionals in the field of citizen science.
References
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The Central State Archive of St. Petersburg, fond 6276 Leningradskii Oblastnoi Sovet Professional’nykh Soiuzov.
The State Archive of the Russian Federation, fond 6935 Komissiia po Izucheniiu Istorii Professional’nogo Dvizhenia pri Vsesoiuznom Tsentral’nom Sovete Professional’nykh Soiuzov.
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