Historical rumorology in the works of B. I. Kolonitskii: The study of society’s paternalistic complexes in 1914-1917 (from “political pornography” to “tragic erotics”)

Abstract

The article deals with the contribution of B. I. Kolonitskii to the development of historical rumorology. He is noted for his merit in conducting a comprehensive source study of political cases brought under Article 103 of the Criminal Code, containing mass rumors, the conclusion about the “horizontal” nature of rumor spreading, classification of cases of insulting members of the tsar’s family as “carnival”, “political”, “religious”, “accidental”, study of power scenarios during the war years. Moreover, unlike the famous book by R. Wortman, Kolonitskii goes further and studies how these scenarios were refracted in the minds of contemporaries. The author of the article notes that the complex relationship between subjects and the emperor testifies to the development of a “paternalistic complex” as one of the manifestations of the conflict between tradition and modernity in the early twentieth century.