Obscure Archival Sources on the Economic History of the Cossacks in the Second Half of the 19th Century

Abstract. Due to the peculiarities of office work in the Russian Empire, archival sources  on the economic history of the Cossacks of the second half of the XIX century were scattered across various regional and federal archives, as well as the manuscript departments of large libraries. Even within a single archive, they are usually contained in several funds and their allocation is dictated not by logic but rather the semi-random historical facts (for example, interest of a particular person in the economic problems of Cossacks). The author, based on his personal experience of archival research in the State archives of Rostov region, State archives of Krasnodar region, Russian state military and historical archive, Russian state historical archive, Department of manuscripts of Russian state library and Department of manuscripts of Russian national library, attempts to identify the most valuable files and foundations, including obscure ones. Author concludes that the most interesting materials on the economic history of Cossacks are generally unique in nature, including commissions’ materials on economic problems in the Cossack army, unpublished manuscripts of analytical notes, articles and official’s books, and even their private correspondence, containing personal opinions on economic issues. Thereby an exchange of experience among researchers addressing these problematics is particularly important.

Keywords: economic history, Russian Cossacks, archival search, N.A. Maslakovets, I.S. Ulyanov, D.A. Milyutin.