IDENTITY CRISES AND COPING MECHANISMS IN FAMILY DISCOURSE: THE EXPERIENCE OF BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES

Abstract

The proposed report deals with the analysis of the diary and memoirs of Nikolai Nikolayevich Beller Sr. (11 Jan 1901 – 29 Sept 1983), Samara scientist, oil chemist. Based on diaries of the period of the First World War and the Civil War (1914 – 1918) and fragments of memoirs of 1974, the difficulties of self-identity and the search for one's place in the history of homeland are shown; the context of the era and specific everyday information from the history of the family are compared. The family has an extensive archive fund that allows entering its information into the context of the era and extrapolating the conclusions, keeping in view the political history of the country as a whole. The presented materials convince of the relevance of continuing the search for answers to these difficult questions and leave a large and fertile field for further research on the topic. It is also worth noting that the author conducts detailed studies in a complex interdisciplinary field that covers such auxiliary scientific disciplines as genealogy, biography, prosopography, necropolis research, discourse analysis, etc. The collected information on more than four hundred persons related to the family history makes the research of the genus not only an intrafamily hobby, but also allows to extrapolate certain conclusions into the context of modern Russian history.