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Afanasiy Prokopievich Shchapov | |
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Афанасий Прокофьевич Щапов | |
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| Born | (5 October [N.S. 17 October] 1830 |
| Died | February 27 [ N.S.10 March] 1876 |
| Occupation | Historian |
Afanasiy Prokopievich Shchapov (Russian: Афанасий Прокофьевич Щапов) (5 October [N.S. 17 October] 1830 – February 27 [ N.S.10 March] 1876) was a Russian historian accused of "Siberian nationalism" and persecuted by tsarist authorities.
Afanasiy Shchapov was born in the village of Anga some 210 miles fromIrkutsk, into a family of a Russiansexton andBuryat peasant woman.[1] Educated inIrkutsk, he moved toKazan and became a student at Kazan Theological Academy (1852–1856). Upon receiving hisbachelor's degree, Shchapov began to deliver lectures on Russian history at hisalma mater (1856–1860) and later atKazan University (1860–1861). He also studied theSolovetsky Monastery library, which had been evacuated during theCrimean War to Kazan. Fascinated with theSolovetsky Uprising, Shchapov started writing articles about theRaskol andOld Believers. On April 16, 1861, he delivered a revolutionary speech dedicated to the victims of theBezdna Unrest, after which he was arrested and escorted toSaint Petersburg. After the investigation, Shchapov was dismissed as a teacher and appointed to theMinistry of the Interior as an official in charge of thesectarian affairs. In 1862, he was discharged and placed under police surveillance.
Afanasiy Shchapov was a contributor for many Russianmagazines, such asОтечественные записки (Notes on Fatherland),Русское слово (Russian Word),Время (Time),Век (Century), and others. In 1864, he wasexiled to his native village and then Irkutsk on suspicion of his connections withAlexander Hertzen andNikolai Ogarev. In the summer of 1865, Shchapov was arrested in connection with the so-calledSiberian oblastniks affair. After his release, he worked in a number of magazines, includingДело (Cause),Записки Сибирского отдела РГО (Notes of the Siberian Department of theRussian Geographic Society), and others. In 1866, Shchapov took part in an expedition to theTurukhansk regions as anethnographer, organized by the Siberian Department of the Russian Geographic Society. Afanasiy Shchapov died oftuberculosis in 1876.
Afanasiy Shchapov authored many works on the history ofsectarianism andRaskol, which he viewed as a manifestation of popular protest against social oppression. In 1856-1864, influenced byGrigory Yeliseyev andStepan Yeshevsky, he came forward as a supporter of the so-called "zemstvo-oblast theory" (земско-областническая теория), viewing Russian history as an interaction process between certain "oblasts". Shchapov's focus ongeography andeconomics as two principal agencies in history is thought to have heralded the next generation of Russian historians, as represented byVasily Klyuchevsky,Paul Vinogradoff, andMichael Rostovtzeff. 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.
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