The efforts of S.D. and P.S. Sheremetev in the preservation and consolidation of estate archives during the early post-revolutionary period

Abstract

The article focuses on the dedicated work of the Sheremetev family – the historians Sergei Dmitrievich and his son Pavel Sergeevich – in locating and identifying Russia’s estate archives to preserve them. The Sheremetev family traces its origins to the old Moscow nobility.

As the owner of major documentary collections in the villages of Mikhailovskoye, Ostafyevo, Kuskovo and Ostankino, which reflected the history and culture of Russia, Sergei Dmitrievich became a scholar of estate culture, describing these estates as “cultural nests of Russia.” The Sheremetevs also initiated the creation of the Repository of Private Archives, which was opened in 1919, after the death of Sergei Dmitrievich. Staff members of the Repository of Private Archives travelled across Russia, rescuing perishing private archives, primarily estate and family archives. Pavel Sergeevich became one of the heads of the Repository of Private Archives (together with A.M. Fokin). The article examines his activities in searching for, identifying, rescuing and preserving archives, as reflected in his undated memorandum “On Private Archives,” in which he effectively set out a programme for organising the collection of private, primarily estate, archives during the Civil War in Russia. The article also analyses P.S. Sheremetev’s work in the Moscow Regional Archival Administration (MOUAD) as an archivist of the 2^nd Moscow Division of the 4th Section (Public Education) of the Unified State Archival Fund.