Archival Journeys
Are Archives Burning in Ulan-Ude?
2024-11-16 12:39
The Archive of Buryatia in Ulan-Ude is located in the courtyard of the republican administration on Lenin Square (home to the largest statue of the leader’s head). Nearby stands the building of the re...
Lamb Sacrifice in the Shamanic Mountains
2024-11-16 12:15
In the Shamanic Mountains near Ulan-Ude, I accidentally came across a lamb sacrifice site. What kind of cult was this? See more
Flying East: Archival Research and Fieldwork in Transbaikalia
2024-11-15 20:13
I enjoy flying eastward. The night on the way passes quickly, and after several flights over Siberia, you begin to recognize landmarks without needing a map. One of my projects in Transbaikalia combin...
Naval Archive in Gatchina: A Living Monument of the Soviet Era with a Wealth of Collections
2024-11-11 00:02
An interesting place — the Naval Archive in Gatchina. It is a branch of the Ministry of Defense archive. A living reserve of the Soviet era, much like the Central Archive of the Ministry of Defense, b...
Recording the Vanishing Oral Toponymy of Rural Russia
2024-11-08 01:40
Alongside the aerial photography and the creation of the map base, we recorded oral microtoponymy. This was fascinating! Place names, especially hydronyms, carry traces of history and echoes of ancien...
Creating a High-Resolution Historical Map: Aerial Photography Over the Kaluga-Alexin Canyon
2024-11-08 01:30
Recently, I wrote about a project involving aerial photography from an An-2 plane over the Kaluga-Alexin Canyon. For this area, I managed to obtain 1:10,000 scale maps, created in the early 1960s, whi...
Flight Through Time: Mapping 17th-Century Toponyms from an Old An-2
2024-11-07 12:01
The plane I rented for aerial photography was old, and even the experienced pilot spoke about the flight with some hesitation. It was a battered An-2 from 1956. The project was fascinating: mapping th...
