Born by the Revolution: The Professional Community of Historians of Asian Russia in the Grip of the Civil War

The history of higher education, science, and academia in the Asian part of Russia has been extensively covered in historiography. Historians have focused on various aspects of these phenomena in connection with social, cultural, economic, as well as political and ideological processes. In most cases, these processes have been approached from two different perspectives. The first one focuses on the center-periphery relations and entails a comparison of the provincial processes with what was happening in the center of Russia. The second concentrates on regional and local processes, including at the micro level. However, the period of the Revolution of 1917 and the Civil War (1918-1920) in the history of Asiatic Russia is of particular importance for the scientific and educational complex of the region in general and for its social sciences and humanities segment, in particular. The authors' focus is history. Historical research itself, education, science, and the corporation of historians in the paradigm of that period played the most important structure-forming roles. The political, ideological, and sociocultural implications of historical research (the formation of the historical consciousness, civic and political identity and culture, ideological attitudes, moral values, patriotism) are difficult to overestimate. In the period of uncertainty of the development of both the country as a whole and its Asiatic periphery (when the outcome of the armed confrontation was not obvious to anyone), the role of historians in different spheres of the state and society grows, they become important actors of key processes, epitomized by the so-called "third the role of universities". The study of these aspects of historians' activities, the mechanisms of their interaction, the influence on the system of social interactions and other aspects, foregrounds this new trend in historical research. The work is written on the basis of a wide range of historical sources: official documents and materials (laws and regulations on the organization of higher education and science); archival materials (most of them are first introduced into academic discourse) - organizational, administrative records that reflect daily activities of universities and research institutions; materials of regional and local periodicals; sources of personal origin; historiography of the Asiatic periphery. In the course of the study, the authors come to the conclusion that the initiative to develop historical research, academic institutions, strengthen the "third role" of universities and scientific communities was generated both "bottom-up" and "top-down". Both historians and public legal entities, that is authorities at all levels, benefited in these relations.

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