“…The work of the representative has always been consistent with the government of the Buryat Republic, in full accordance with the general policy and the directives received from the Central Executive Committee and the Council of People’s Commissars”. Concerning the publication of the book by B.Ts. Zhalsanova, L.V. Kuras, E.Yu. Shapoval “At the origins of federalism. History of the representative office of the Buryat-Mongol Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic at the RSFSR Central Executive Committee through the documents of the State Archives of the Buryat Republic” (Irkutsk, 2022. 540 p.)

The article analyses the publication of the document collection related to the history of the foundation, development and the evolution of the Buryat-Mongol representative office in the 1920s – 1930s. The edition includes 127 documents that were found by the authors-compilers at the State Archives of the Russian Federation and the State Archives of the Buryat Republic. To date, it is the only publication that helps to fully uncover all the complex activities of the Buryat-Mongol national representative office in the first decades after the formation of the Buryat-Mongol Republic. The published historical sources made it possible to profoundly and thoroughly bring to light many issues and stories of that eventful period in the activities of the People’s Commissariat for Nationalities (Narkomnats) of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR), and also in the activities of the Department for Nationalities’ Affairs of the All-Russia Central Executive Committee (VTsIK) of the RSFSR. The period under discussion was characterized by a challenging, contradictory but purposeful transition from fragmentation to centralization and the formation of national representative missions. The aim of those state bodies was a political, social economic and cultural development of different nations of the country. The published documents reveal that the representative missions were given an important function in the implementation of the state national policy, the one they successfully accomplished their job. The publication of the archival documents enabled the re-establishment of the activities of the Buryat-Mongol representative office within the context of the history of our Motherland and also made it possible to attract the attention of researchers and the wide public to the key events in its history of Russia and to the whole of the history of the Buryat Republic.

1. Zhalsanova, B.Ts., Kuras, L.V. and Shapoval, E.Yu. (2018), “Documents of the State Archives of the Buryat Republic on the activities of the Buryat-Mongol representative office at the VTsIK RSFSR”, Vestnik Buryatskogo nauchnogo tsentra, vol. 30, no. 2, pp. 81–91.

2. Zhalsanova, B.Ts., Kuras, L.V. and Shapoval, E.Yu. (2018), “Documents of the State Archives of the Buryat Republic from Fund R-250 ‘The Buryat-Mongol representative office at the VTsIK RSFSR’ on the administrative-territorial formation of the Buryat-Mongol Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic in 1921–1925”, Vestnik Buryatskogo nauchnogo tsentra, vol. 32, no. 4, pp. 115–126.

3. Zhalsanova, B.Ts., Kuras, L.V. and Shapoval, E.Yu. (2018), “The Buryat-Mongol representative office at the VTsIK RSFSR. Stating the issue”, in Irkutskii istoriko-ekonomicheskii ezhegodnik [Irkutsk history and economy yearbook], Izdatel’stvo BGU, Irkutsk, Russia, pp. 449–455.

4. Zhalsanova, B.Ts., Kuras, L.V. and Shapoval, E.Yu. (2022), “Preface”, in Bazarov, B.V. (ed.), U istokov federalizma: istoriya predstavitel’stva Buryat-Mongol’skoi ASSR vo VTsIK RSFSR v dokumentakh Gosudarstvennogo arkhiva Respubliki Buryatiya. K 100-letiyu Respubliki Buryatiya [At the origins of federalism. History of the representative office of the Buryat-Mongol Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic at the RSFSR Central Executive Committee through the documents of the State Archives of the Buryat Republic. Marking the 100 anniversary of the Buryat Republic], Irkutsk, Russia.

5. Protasov, Е.Т. (2014), “Archival sources on the history of the Buryat state apparatus formation the 1920s – 1990s”, Vestnik Buryatskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta, no. 7, pp. 82–85.

6. Shapoval, E.Yu. (2018), “On the issue of the initial stage of the activities of the Buryat-Mongolian Representative Office at the All-Russia Central Executive Committee of the RSFSR (1921–1922)”, The bulletin of Irkutsk State University. Series “History”, vol. 25, pp. 75–84.