Patriotic traditions of Tomsk province population during the initial period of World War I (1914-1915)

The authors of the article study the formation and functioning of traditions. They are quite sure that traditions are an element of cultural heritage. The identification and characterization of patriotic traditions of Tomsk province inhabitants reveals a little-studied aspect of Russian history at the beginning of World War I. The solution of the tasks is based on authentic historical sources, such as periodicals, archival documents, and documentary publications. Analysis of the sources allows the authors to say that traditions in Tomsk province in 1914-1915 were just so as during the Patriotic War of 1812, as well as during the Crimean War and the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905. They mean church services and prayers for the glory of Russian weapons, processions and demonstrations under national flags. In July 1914, the inhabitants of Tomsk province were able to read the tsar's manifestos about Russia's entry into the war against Germany. Those documents motivated Russia's entry into the war as a defense of Russia's dignity and integrity, as a strengthening of its position among world powers. Of course, these statements had a strong impact on the patriotic mood of the population. Residents of Tomsk province cities and towns supported the beginning of the war, approved the idea of national unity in the face of the enemy. However, the unity was broken during the mobilization to the front. Peasants of the southern territories of Tomsk province, workers of Sudzhen coalmines protested against conscription to the army. They drank a lot, had scuffles. Peasant women who lost the main workers in their families grieved and cried. This was typical for the whole country in that time. It is important to say that it was for the first time in Russian history, when the authorities have taken measures of social protection of the population. Moreover, those measures had become a new patriotic tradition in Tomsk province. Tomsk governor Dudinsky suggested that local governments, public organizations, individuals could donate money and support soldiers' families. New measures to protect the population were implemented everywhere in Tomsk province. Families of men conscripted to war received monetary and labor assistance. Data for 1915 show that 35 new organizations were created in provincial cities and towns, and their members collected donations and passed them to those who need. They opened workshops where the wives of soldiers worked. Day shelters for the children of soldiers were organized. Rural gatherings made decisions to help soldiers' families to harvest. In conclusion, the authors note the patriotic rise of Tomsk province population at the beginning of World War I. This rise shaped the unity of social forces, made temporary oblivion of social contradictions. The strengthening of crisis phenomena in Russia suppressed patriotic sentiments. Nevertheless, the patriotic traditions that emerged during the World War I were preserved during the Revolution and the Civil War of 1917-1919. They supported social development in the post-revolutionary period.

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