On Friday, while working at the research library (pictured here) of Tomsk State University (TSU, or ТГУ), I discovered that one of the questions scholars have raised about pre-revolutionary Tomsk revolves around its seemingly large number of pro-monarchist, ultra-nationalist organizations. 
For instance, A. P. Tolochko shows that Tomsk gubernaia had by far the largest number of pro-monarchist organizations in Siberia, and that the city of Tomsk itself likely had the largest number of individual members. If at the end of 1906, beginning of 1907 the Tobol’sk region had 1 such organization, the Tomsk region had 11, despite very similar economic situations in both parts of Western Siberia. [see A. P. Tolochko, “Territorial’noe razmeshchenie, chislennost’ i sotsial’nyi sostav chernosotennykh organizatsii v sibiri v nachal’nik XX v,” in Chelovok v Istorii, edited A. N. Zheravina et. al. (Tomsk: Tomsk University Press, 1999), 198-206.] Continue reading
Tag: Black Hundreds
Ignatii Dvernitskii, the monk and headmaster who was murdered by two of his students in May 1909 at 44 Lenin (then Pochtamtskaia ulitsa), was also editor of Sibirskaia pravda, or Siberian Truth, from mid-1908 until the March 14th issue of 1909. The paper began publishing in January 1908, and was the newspaper of the Tomsk chapter of the “Union of the Russian People,” a nationalist organization associated with the Black Hundreds. The paper itself was very anti-Semitic. Indeed, a headline from the fall of 1908, which then continues as a banner until Ignatii’s last issue (March 14), calls for the expulsion of all Jews (using the offensive term, zhid) from the Russian empire. I’m curious as to why Ignatii was removed as editor. The following issue, March 22nd, states that the shake-up was a decision of the Tomsk Union of the Russian People, and that the reasons for the decision would become clear. The call for the expulsion of the Jews ceases after Ignatii’s removal, but the paper itself maintains a very anti-Semitic focus. Furthermore, Sibirskaia zhizn’, the main Tomsk daily, mentions a “schism” in the Union of the Russian People in March 1909. Anyway, it’s curious. I thought I’d post an image of the paper’s banner, which includes the tagline, “Russia for the Russians.”
