«Sincere friend of Siberia» V. I. Semevsky

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to identify the diversity of social ties of the prominent historian-populist V. I. Semevsky (1848–1916) with the Siberian intelligentsia in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. For this, a wide range of both published and unpublished sources of personal origin is analyzed. The relationship between the historian and prominent representatives of the Siberian regionalism N. M. Yadrintsev, G. N. Potanin, the famous Irkutsk philanthropist I. M. Sibiryakov in the context of a research project related to the study of the situation of workers in Siberian gold mines. It is concluded that a research project to study the situation of workers in Siberian mines, proposed by I. M. Sibiryakov, V. I. Semevsky was not commercial, but was generated by the close acquaintance of the historian with the Siberian intelligentsia and Siberian life back in the early 1880s. It is noted that the study of the situation of mine workers was not purely scientific, but had a practical component in the context of the implementation of the «theory of small matters» in the form of the creation of the so-called Siberian capital to help people who lost their health in the process of work.