Afanasy Shchapov
Encyclopedia
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
) (May 10(17).1830 – February 27(10.3).1876) was a Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n historian accused of "Siberian nationalism" and persecuted by tsarist authorities.
Life
Afanasiy Shchapov was born in the village of Anga some 210 miles from IrkutskIrkutsk
Irkutsk is a city and the administrative center of Irkutsk Oblast, Russia, one of the largest cities in Siberia. Population: .-History:In 1652, Ivan Pokhabov built a zimovye near the site of Irkutsk for gold trading and for the collection of fur taxes from the Buryats. In 1661, Yakov Pokhabov...
, into a family of a Russian sexton
Sexton (office)
A sexton is a church, congregation or synagogue officer charged with the maintenance of its buildings and/or the surrounding graveyard. In smaller places of worship, this office is often combined with that of verger...
and Buryat
Buryats
The Buryats or Buriyads , numbering approximately 436,000, are the largest ethnic minority group in Siberia and are mainly concentrated in their homeland, the Buryat Republic, a federal subject of Russia...
woman. Educated in Irkutsk
Irkutsk
Irkutsk is a city and the administrative center of Irkutsk Oblast, Russia, one of the largest cities in Siberia. Population: .-History:In 1652, Ivan Pokhabov built a zimovye near the site of Irkutsk for gold trading and for the collection of fur taxes from the Buryats. In 1661, Yakov Pokhabov...
, he moved to Kazan
Kazan
Kazan is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Tatarstan, Russia. With a population of 1,143,546 , it is the eighth most populous city in Russia. Kazan lies at the confluence of the Volga and Kazanka Rivers in European Russia. In April 2009, the Russian Patent Office granted Kazan the...
and became a student at Kazan Theological Academy (1852–1856). Upon receiving his Bachelor's degree
Bachelor's degree
A bachelor's degree is usually an academic degree awarded for an undergraduate course or major that generally lasts for three or four years, but can range anywhere from two to six years depending on the region of the world...
, Shchapov began to deliver lectures on Russian history at his alma mater
Alma mater
Alma mater , pronounced ), was used in ancient Rome as a title for various mother goddesses, especially Ceres or Cybele, and in Christianity for the Virgin Mary.-General term:...
(1856–1860) and later at Kazan University (1860–1861). He also studied the Solovetsky Monastery
Solovetsky Monastery
Solovetsky Monastery was the greatest citadel of Christianity in the Russian North before being turned into a special Soviet prison and labor camp , which served as a prototype for the GULag system. Situated on the Solovetsky Islands in the White Sea, the monastery braved many changes of fortune...
library, which had been evacuated during the Crimean War
Crimean War
The Crimean War was a conflict fought between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the French Empire, the British Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Sardinia. The war was part of a long-running contest between the major European powers for influence over territories of the declining...
to Kazan. Fascinated with the Solovetsky Uprising, Shchapov started writing articles about the Raskol
Raskol
Raskol |schism]]') was the event of splitting of the Russian Orthodox Church into an official church and the Old Believers movement in mid-17th century, triggered by the reforms of Patriarch Nikon in 1653, aiming to establish uniformity between the Greek and Russian church practices.-The Raskol:...
and Old Believers
Old Believers
In the context of Russian Orthodox church history, the Old Believers separated after 1666 from the official Russian Orthodox Church as a protest against church reforms introduced by Patriarch Nikon between 1652–66...
. On April 16, 1861, he delivered a revolutionary speech dedicated to the victims of the Bezdna Unrest
Bezdna Unrest
1861 Bezdna Unrest or Bezdna Peasant Revolt was an unrest of former serfs after the Emancipation reform of 1861 in Russia in April, 1861. The events took place in the Spassky Uyezd of Kazan Governorate and the center of unrest was a village of Biznä .The leader of the unrest was a literate peasant...
, after which he was arrested and escorted to St.Petersburg. After the investigation, Shchapov was dismissed as a teacher and appointed to the Ministry of the Interior as an official in charge of the sectarian affairs. In 1862, he was discharged and placed under police surveillance.
Afanasiy Shchapov was a contributor for many Russian magazine
Magazine
Magazines, periodicals, glossies or serials are publications, generally published on a regular schedule, containing a variety of articles. They are generally financed by advertising, by a purchase price, by pre-paid magazine subscriptions, or all three...
s, such as Отечественные записки (Notes on Fatherland), Русское слово (Russian Word), Время (Time), Век (Century), and others. In 1864, he was exile
Exile
Exile means to be away from one's home , while either being explicitly refused permission to return and/or being threatened with imprisonment or death upon return...
d to his native village and then Irkutsk on suspicion of his connections with Alexander Hertzen and Nikolai Ogaryov. In the summer of 1865, Shchapov was arrested in connection with the so-called Siberian oblastniks affair. After his release, he worked in a number of magazines, including Дело (Cause), Записки Сибирского отдела РГО (Notes of the Siberian Department of the Russian Geographic Society), and others. In 1866, Shchapov took part in an expedition to the Turukhansk
Turukhansk
Turukhansk is a village in Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia. It is located 1474 km north of Krasnoyarsk, at the confluence of the Yenisei and Lower Tunguska rivers. The Turukhan River joins the Yenisei about 20 km northwest. Population: 4,849 ; 8,900 ; 200...
regions as an ethnographer, organized by the Siberian Department of the Russian Geographic Society. Afanasiy Shchapov died of tuberculosis
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
in 1876.
Ideas
Afanasiy Shchapov authored many works on the history of sectarianismSectarianism
Sectarianism, according to one definition, is bigotry, discrimination or hatred arising from attaching importance to perceived differences between subdivisions within a group, such as between different denominations of a religion, class, regional or factions of a political movement.The ideological...
and Raskol
Raskol
Raskol |schism]]') was the event of splitting of the Russian Orthodox Church into an official church and the Old Believers movement in mid-17th century, triggered by the reforms of Patriarch Nikon in 1653, aiming to establish uniformity between the Greek and Russian church practices.-The Raskol:...
, which he viewed as a manifestation of popular protest against social oppression. In 1856-1864, influenced by Grigory Yeliseyev and Stepan Yeshevsky, he came forward as a supporter of the so-called "zemstvo
Zemstvo
Zemstvo was a form of local government that was instituted during the great liberal reforms performed in Imperial Russia by Alexander II of Russia. The idea of the zemstvo was elaborated by Nikolay Milyutin, and the first zemstvo laws were put into effect in 1864...
-oblast
Oblast
Oblast is a type of administrative division in Slavic countries, including some countries of the former Soviet Union. The word "oblast" is a loanword in English, but it is nevertheless often translated as "area", "zone", "province", or "region"...
theory" (земско-областническая теория), viewing Russian history as an interaction process between certain "oblasts". Shchapov's focus on geography
Geography
Geography is the science that studies the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth. A literal translation would be "to describe or write about the Earth". The first person to use the word "geography" was Eratosthenes...
and economics
Economics
Economics is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek from + , hence "rules of the house"...
as two principal agencies in history is thought to have heralded the next generation of Russian historians, as represented by Vasily Klyuchevsky
Vasily Klyuchevsky
Vasily Osipovich Klyuchevsky dominated Russian historiography at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. He is still regarded as one of three most reputable Russian historians, alongside Nikolay Karamzin and Sergey Solovyov.-Early life:...
, Paul Vinogradoff
Paul Vinogradoff
Sir Paul Vinogradoff November 1854, Kostroma, Russia– 19 December 1925, Paris, France) was a highly reputable Anglo-Russian historian-medievalist.-Career:...
, and Michael Rostovtzeff
Michael Rostovtzeff
Mikhail Ivanovich Rostovtzeff, or Rostovtsev was one of the 20th century's foremost authorities on ancient Greek, Iranian, and Roman history....
. Since geographical conditions of various Russian lands differed enormously, Shchapov scorned the possibility of writing a general history of Russia. He held that Sibiryaks were ethnically distinct from the rest of Russian nation, as their character was shaped by rugged nature of inhospitable land they lived in and by the adventurous and enterprising spirit of the Old Believers who had been the original settlers of Siberia.