Scientific genealogy in Samara in the early XX century (based on the letters of prince S.A. Khovansky to L.M. Savelov)

The article introduces for the first time into scholarly circulation the letters of the Samara genealogist and historian of the nobility, Prince S.A. Khovansky (1883–1941), which were addressed to the founder of scientific genealogy in Russia, L.M. Savelov (1868–1947). They are kept in the Department of Written Sources of the State Historical Museum, date back to 1910–1915, and represent a unique source on genealogical research in Samara in the early XX century. A comprehensive analysis of these ego-texts allows us to understand S.A. Khovansky’s collaboration with the Historical and Genealogical Society in Moscow, characterize his research on the history of his own family and archaeographic activities, and clarify the composition of the genealogical section of his personal library. The direct influence of L.M. Savelov’s views on the methodological position of S.A. Khovansky, especially noticeable during his work on a fundamental reference book on the genealogy of the Samara elite, begun in 1915 at the suggestion of the provincial marshal of the nobility, A.N. Naumov. This large-scale project was never completed due to political upheavals, but it was a landmark event in the history of regional scholarly genealogy, marking, together with the generational charts of S.A. Khovansky and A.A. Sivers, published in 1913, the genesis of systematic genealogical discourse. As epistolary sources attest, thanks to S.A. Khovansky’s regular contacts with L.M. In Samara, Savelov adopted the theoretical and methodological features of the Moscow genealogical school: a desire to study sources and expand the boundaries of genealogical research, an interest in all groups of the nobility, regardless of their noble origin and socio-economic status, and an understanding of regional nobility was integrated into the all-Russian process of developing genealogical knowledge.