Interviews with Pyotr Vologodsky, prime minister of the anti-Bolshevik governments, as a historical source (30 June 1918 - 22 November 1919)

The key political figure in the East of Russia during the Civil War was Pyotr Vasilyevich Vologodsky (1863-1925), the chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Provisional Siberian Government, then the Provisional All-Russian Government and the Russian Government. He left an abundance of sources of information, diverse in form and content, about his activities as the prime minister. Among them, a special place is occupied by interviews published in numerous and diverse periodicals of that time. A study of the periodical press published on the territory controlled by the Provisional Siberian Government, the Provisional All-Russian Government and the Russian Government of Admiral Kolchak revealed a complex of interviews with Prime Minister Vologodsky. The author examined the circumstances of their publication and analyzed the subject matter and the main content of the texts. During the eighteen months in the position of the Chairman of the Council of Ministers, from 30 June 1918 to 22 November 1919, Vologodsky gave detailed political interviews to the Russian-language press at least 13 times and had at least five conversations with foreign correspondents. In addition, three political documents drawn up in the government and sanctioned by the Prime Minister were published in the form of an “interview with Pyotr Vologodsky”, as well as a series of socio-political articles by Andrei Adrianov. The author has established that the prime minister, mainly personally, without intermediaries, interacted with major influential socio-political periodicals that represented a wide ideological and political spectrum of the counter-revolution - from Social Revolutionaries to right-wing Cadets. At the same time, Vologodsky communicated more frequently and meaningfully with the editor of Sibirskaya zhizn' [Siberian Life] and the staff of Zarya [Dawn], who represented the so-called political “center” of the counter-revolution in Eastern Russia and personally supported the prime minister. Vologodsky gave key interviews in difficult political conditions, experiencing real or imaginary threats of resignation and the collapse of the Council of Ministers. In the mode of impulsive dialogue, he “responded” to the challenges of political opponents and “requested” the support of his proponents. Most of Vologodsky's interviews should be viewed primarily as a struggle for preserving the power of the Council of Ministers. In this context, publications in the press represent a complex of informative sources about the activities of the head of the anti-Bolshevik governments, including his opinions, political assessments and emotions relevant to that time, the level of understanding the situation, communication style and ways of using information.

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