Metamorphoses of family history: from the Sigitovs to the Elston-Biron

The article explores family history, the ways of its intergenerational transmission and transformation. Particular attention is paid to the functionality of autobiographical narratives in relation to the formation and consolidation of desired identity. The conducted study draws on in-depth interviews with representatives of two generations of the family of hereditary Semirechye Cossacks (born in 1930, 1955, and 1963), autobiographies, memoirs, photo documents, and artifacts. The ways of talking about their family history among the older and the middle generations are considered, and the transformation of mechanisms of intergenera-tional transfer of family knowledge and traditions is described. Through the interviews and analysis of artifacts produced by the head of the family, it is shown how during the crisis of state ideology the history of the family turns out to be the pivotal means of acquisition of a new identity for the family's middle generation. The cultivation of personal responsibility is expressed through the construction of so-called 'author genealogy' which enroots the Sigitov family in the events of the XVIII and the XIX centuries, and also through solidarity with repressed family members. If the distant past events are dealt with according to the apocryphal traditions of aristocratic families, in the XX century the victims of repressions are credited with the status of active resistance to the system, which gives them back the cherished status of an actor or subject of the historical process. The family history developed by the head of the family is supported by the family environment; it is translated, first of all, through gaming practices, is expressed in the production of artifacts, and is institutionalised through the change of the sons' family names (Elston-Biron).

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