Social and political life in Siberia at the end of the 19th century - the beginning of the 20^th century: representation in the encyclopedia format

The author aims to identify the role and the place of the Encyclopedic dictionary “Social and Political Life in Siberia at the end of the 19th century - the beginning of the 20th century” (Novosibirsk, 2019) in the historiography of the social and political issues of the region. The analysis of the composition, structure, and the content of the Dictionary is based, on the one hand, on the retrospective overview of information and knowledge accumulated in the research works in this field, and, on the other hand, on addressing the characteristics of an encyclopedia as a specific genre of scientific and popular-science literature. The publication of the Encyclopedic dictionary is viewed as the first and generally successful experience of integration of the results of study of various aspects of political and social life in Siberia in the face of major social transformations. The main merits of this collective work are the following: 1) the multifaceted approach to historical reconstruction of the social and political situation in the region; 2) prominent historical and anthropological dimension that is shown in the vast amount of biographical information on key figures of the period; 3) focusing not only on major political processes but also on some local episodes and nuances that filled the social space of the region with unique content; 4) attention of the authors to “non-political” elements of people's life (such as charity, art, science, education, culture, leisure, etc.) which draws an adequate image of the social and cultural background. To present the information, the authors have chosen a format that is fully compliant with the requirements and canons of the encyclopedic genre. Representativeness, authenticity and verifiability of the data from the Dictionary are out of the question. It should be emphasized that the Dictionary has a scientific character. It is shown, in particular, in the high-quality historiographic reviews on all key topics and problems of the social and political life of the region. As a result, the reader has an opportunity to get an overview of the current state of the scientific comprehension and understanding of the problems that the Dictionary touches upon. As a whole, the analysis of the methodological basis, structure, and the content of the articles of the Encyclopedic dictionary provides valuable insights on the importance of the Dictionary as the summary of studying of the social and political processes in Siberia, and as a point for outlining the possible vectors and prospects for the future research.

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