Documentary memory and historical science: What past do archives preserve?

Abstract

Archives preserve documents that constitute the information resource of historical science. Perhaps, that is why in modern literature, in relation to the state archival fund, the concept of documentary memory is increasingly used, which is considered as a set of evidence about different aspects of historical reality recorded in documents. Documentary memory has a number of properties - systematicity and efficiency (immediacy of recording what is happening), incompleteness and selectivity. These properties can be innate (systematicity and immediacy) and acquired (incompleteness and selectivity). Acquired properties largely represent the result of the implementation of archival acquisition practices. Particular attention is paid to the characteristics of the thematic and specific structure of documentary memory. The composition of archival documents largely determines the topics of research and the methodological approaches used by historians, orienting them toward the study of official institutional history. Meanwhile, modern trends in the development of historical science are associated with the study of problems of everyday life, mentality, traditions, lifestyle, i. e. what is called “non-event” history. It is practically not reflected in archival arrays. Why did this happen? The author attempted to find answers to this question.