Monarchic sentiments in the Russian society in early 20th century: the experience of studying the archival sources

The article contains source analysis of the contents of letters, addressed to the Master Council of the Union of Russian People (URP) and «Russian Banner» newspaper editorial office, which have been preserved in the State Archive of the Russian Federation. The author focuses on the issue of public sentiments in the Russian society after the revolutionary events of 1905-1907. The novelty of this study is related to the database development and search of the formal-quantitative methods of processing the content of Black Hundreds’ letters that increases their informative value. Letters addressed to the URP Master Council and the «Russian Banner» newspaper editorial office are mass-scaled and weakly structured sources. The information they contain is of «multi-layer» nature and is «intangible» within a particular document. The information becomes accessible on the level of the formal quantitative analysis of the whole bunch of letters. The article thoroughly describes the methodology of creating the database, its structure, informative value of archival materials selected that have provided basis for creating the database. This study has resulted in creation of the data base enabling to put together separate materials of the Archive Fund of the URP, to process the information of the whole block of historical sources and apply the formal quantitative analysis methods to the Black Hundreds’ letters for increasing their informative feedback. Thanks to the use of such database it became possible to reveal the peculiarities of monarchists’ public sentiments that are recorded in the sources and are not expressed in explicit forms. The database is a universal tool that can be applied for other blocks of sources, which allow to study public mood of citizens of the Russian Empire in the early 20 th century.