Such Different Protozanovs: From Experience of a Comparative Biographic Reconstruction

In the article, on the basis of the sources first introduced in scientific discourse, fates of three historical characters of the end of the 19th-20th centuries united by one similar surname - Protozanov - are compared. Proceeding from one common feature of two persons - Alexander Konstantinovich Protozanov and Yakov Aleksandrovich Protazanov, i.e. their dislike for memoirs, a hypothesis has been made that they do not just have similar surnames, but belong to one family. The research is based on archival and other documentary sources: interviews published and taken personally by the author, correspondence, meetings and conversations. The author uses a wide range of the published documentary sources on the White Movement and the Russian emigration which allowed reconstructing the historical context. The aim of the article consists in comparison of Alexander's and Yakov's biographies, in identification of the common features of the biographies that explain the absence of tendencies to memoirs and the particular behavior models in the two men. The author has revealed that Alexander Protozanov was a relative of Taras Protozanov, a general of the Russian imperial army, a participant of the White Movement. This fact was disguised throughout Alexander's life, as well as names of his parents, their occupation. In order to prove the relationship of all three characters indirect evidence was used: the place of birth (Kiev), mentions in the biographies of two characters of inheritance from an "aunt" from Kiev, a secretive communication of the Protozanovs and Aristov (in Yakov's line proved as a family relation, in Alexander's line as a secretive "business" relation) and some other facts. Indirect evidence has allowed to assume the existence of a family relationship between Yakov Protazanov's and Alexander Protozanov's lines which goes back to the Kiev merchant and land owner Yakov Ivanovich Protozanov whose inheritance through his daughter Efrosinya was traced in the two lines at the beginning of the 20th century. The complexity of search of more detailed information, in the author's opinion, can be caused by set of purposefully created circumstances.

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