Synopsis
Municipal and Regional Identities in Mid-Eighteenth Century Arkhangel'sk: Vasilii V. Krestinin and the Society for Historical Investigations
In the late eighteenth century, Arkhangel'sk townsman (meshchanin) and local chronicler Vasilii Vasil’evich Krestinin argued that his town was the capital of the Russian North. As such, he placed it within a concept of regional identity that was developed during the Enlightenment, which emphasized civil history as a civic duty that must be performed for the sake of the city and the region. This civil history was closely linked to economics, and Arkhangel'sk's preeminence in trade was the core of Krestinin's argument for its status as the capital of the Russian North. Krestinin never envisioned the Russian North as self-sufficient. Instead, he saw it as one of many regions within Russia. Its preeminence was due to its economic vitality, and the role of Arkhangel'sk as capital of the region was primarily to organize and conduct domestic and foreign trade, not to serve as a religious or political centre.
Krestinin envisioned the town of Arkhangel'sk, Russia's main window to the West prior to the foundation of St Petersburg, as the capital of the Russian North. Arkhangel'sk had developed along the Dvina River and was oriented to foreign and domestic trade. The Dvina flowed through deep forests and intricately carved wooden villages. It was one of the main waterways of the Russian North and often was cited as that region's defining feature. Trade, rather than agriculture, was of key importance to the residents of the Russian North. Indeed, merchants dominated the town government of Arkhangel'sk and Krestinin's conflict with them led to his imprisonment and, ultimately, to his death.
For Krestinin, the economic history of the region and its experience of urban self-government gave it an important role to play in the new civil history of Russia, which was beginning to focus on trade and national wealth rather than religion. Krestinin also created two voluntary associations that we know of, placing him within a newly emerging civil society in Russia. In 1759, Krestinin founded the first historical society in Russia – the Society for Historical Investigations – which collected manuscript materials for the Academy of Sciences but was involved in a conflict with the Arkhangel'sk municipal government over access to archives and led to criticisms of town officials by the society's members. I argue that Krestinin positioned his voluntary association between the institutions of the townspeople in Arkhangel'sk and the Academy of Sciences to create an early, though fragile, instance of civil society.
Krestinin's work can be divided into three periods. The first period is from 1759, with the founding of the Society for Historical Investigations, to 1775, when the merchants took control of key posad institutions as a result of Catherine's Statute on Provincial Administration. The second is from 1775 to 1785, when Krestinin had a secure position and wrote most of his important works. Finally, the third, from 1785 to 1795, saw Krestinin hounded by Archangel’sk’s merchants, which ultimately led to his death.
In the first period of Krestinin's work, he and several other townsmen founded the Society for Historical Investigations in Arkhangel'sk in 1759. The Society was the first historical voluntary association in Russia, which had its origins in the strong sense of local identity in the Russian North and the work of the Academy of Sciences. The peripheral position of Arkhangel'sk may well be part of the reason why it was the site of the first such voluntary association, as many foreigners were resident in the town, and ideas were exchanged along with goods. The border with Norway was very close, and Krestinin was able to compare Russian and Norwegian societies.
In addition, Arkhangel'sk was an important economic centre, and this became the core of Krestinin's claims about Arkhangel'sk. In this way, he was drawing upon the new emphasis that the Academy of Sciences, and M. V. Lomonosov in particular, placed upon local economic statistics. The Academy fostered a sense of regional identity within a broader imperial framework through its work in creating a network of educated provincial intellectuals. The Academy provided Krestinin with an alternative source of patronage and identity as a scholar in addition to being an enrolled townsman, although it could not protect him from the anger of the municipal authorities.
The second period of Krestinin's work encompasses the period between 1775, when Arkhangel’sk merchants took control of the magistracy, to 1785, when he finished his main work, The Short History of the Town of Arkhangel'sk. This work provided a political history of the Arkhangel'sk posad and the struggles within it. From 1779 to 1785, Krestinin published three books and many articles with the Academy of Sciences. It was his most productive period of scholarship, during which Krestinin was secure in his post as an elder of the townspeople and clerk for the townspeople's office, of which he was also the archivist. This office became the centre of the townspeople's political activity. During this period, he provided the most extensive discussion of his views on regional history, which developed out of a struggle between the townspeople and the merchants. While the merchants ignored regional history, Krestinin used it as a weapon in his battle to defend the townspeople against the merchants. He aligned the townspeople with the Dvina people (narod) in order to underline their shared interests and greater contribution to the economic vitality of the region.
During the third period of his life, from 1786 to 1795, Krestinin faced a mounting barrage of threats, both to his scholarship and his position as an elder of the townspeople. Despite the increasing pressure from 1786 onwards, Krestinin still managed to write local history and battle against merchant control of the posad. The final act of Krestinin's work and life began in 1794, when a new general-governor, Petr Petrovich Konovitsyn, arrived who sided with the magistracy in its running dispute with Krestinin. In that year, Krestinin completed a new work on the unfair collection of taxes from the townspeople and created a voluntary association of townspeople in protest. The magistracy and the governor-general moved against Krestinin, and he died in 1795, after being arrested for not taking proper care of official seals and for his unauthorized use of archives.
The Academy of Sciences provided a larger institutional framework for Krestinin's work, allowing him to connect with the highest level of scholars, but it could not protect him from the anger of the provincial authorities. Krestinin, driven by a politically active vision of municipal and regional history, established the first historical voluntary association in Russia. After the dissolution of the society, Krestinin continued to pursue municipal and regional history, even (or perhaps especially) when it angered the municipal government and the merchant elite. Towards the end of his life, Krestinin increasingly focused on the politically sensitive recent history of Arkhangel’sk and even attempted to create another voluntary association of townspeople to take the actions that the merchant elite were unwilling to take to return the town to its former glory. The voluntary associations provided a means to spread Krestinin’s views of municipal and regional history in the face of an increasingly hostile and influential section of local society.
- Susan Smith-Peter, College of Staten Island, City University of New York (USA)
Susan.SmithPeter@csi.cuny.edu
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