Civil war in Altay according to memoirs of S. V. Sazanov

Abstract

The episodes proposed in the article from the memoirs of Sergei Vasilievich Sazanov refer to 1918–1921 and cover the details of Sazanov’s life in Altai during the Civil War. The presented «ego-document» reveals the everyday life of the Civil War, given through the prism of perception of an ordinary participant in the events, in this case, a peasant-otkhodnik of the Tambov province. The memoirs of S. V. Sazanov are valuable as they show the transformation of an ordinary, civilian person in the conditions of hostilities. The choice of one of the opposing sides (mostly forced), the manifestation of human qualities in extreme circumstances, the interweaving of domestic, everyday (work for the family) and emergency (the arrival of a punitive force, the threat of execution, etc.) are the content of the presented episodes from the memoirs. It makes these materials a valuable historical source, and publication can help in developing layers of historical problems that were previously ignored by historiography. The publication of memoirs is preceded by an introductory article, which presents a brief biography of S. V. Sazanov and reveals the value of memoirs for military anthropology.