Research narratives devoted to the life history of the legendary Siberian, traveler, ethnographer, folklorist, public figure Grigori Nikolaevich Potanin (1835–1920) and problems of preserving the memory of him are considered. The steady plot of these narratives is presented, connected with the reburial of the ashes of the famous Siberian and the memorable signs put on his graves. The features of the collective memory policy in the Soviet period and the attitude of the authorities towards necropolises in the central parts of the Soviet cities are noted. The conclusion is made about the phenomenon of public consciousness, interpreting the practice of reburial and transfer of the graves of historical characters. Tomsk urban legends and myths devoted to the problems of preserving the memory of Potanin in the Soviet period are analyzed. It is noted that the medium of their origin and existence is the faculty corporation of Tomsk State University. The epistolary source of the first half of the 1920s, a private letter from a student from Tomsk S. Semenov to a prominent figure in Soviet culture of Siberia V. D. Wegman, is introduced into scientific circulation and published. It is published in accordance with the academic standards of the archaeography. This letter has been preserved in the collection of the party collection of the State Archives of the Novosibirsk Region, among the documents of the personal Wegman archive, seized by the Chekists during his arrest in 1936. It is established that the author of the message was a student at the Tomsk Institute of Technology, who asked Wegman to assist in obtaining scholarships from “Kuzbasstrust”. The Tomsk student’s message contains the previously unknown text of the epitaph on the grave cross of G. N. Potanin, installed in the cemetery of the Tomsk St. John the Baptist Convent. As a result of a comparative analysis of different types of sources, the time was fixed when this epitaph was on the cross.

Petrov Stanislav Gennadievich, Candidate of Sciences (History), Associate Professor, Senior Researcher, Sector of Archeography and Source Studies, Institute of History SB RAS, 8, Nikolaev st., Novosibirsk, 630090, Russian Federation, tel.: 8(383)330-36-71, e-mail: petrov_istochnik@mail.ru

Petrov S.G. On the Epitaph on the Grave Cross of G. N. Potanin. The Bulletin of Irkutsk State University. Series History, 2019, vol. 29, pp. 117-125. https://doi.org/10.26516/2222-9124.2019.29.117 (in Russian)

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