The life path of G.H. Bumagin

Importance. In 2024, G.H. Bumagin, secretary of the Leningrad and Novgorod regional Committees of the CPSU(b), who played a very important role in many events of the Battle for Leningrad, as well as in the restoration of the Novgorod region in the first post-war years and actively studying the activities of the partisans and underground workers of the Leningrad region in the last years of his life, will turn 120 years old. Now, there are no biographical fundamental works about him, and in books and articles, researchers most often described his work during the Great Patriotic War and in the first post-war years. The purpose of the study is to examine in detail his life path. Its tasks are to establish life periods and their chronological framework, to determine the criteria for choosing chronological frameworks, to describe each life period and its features, to establish the results and contribution of G.H. Bumagin to the events that he participated in.

Materials and Methods. The research is based on archival materials from the Central State Archive of Historical and Political Documents of St. Petersburg and the Novgorod Museum-Reserve. A descriptive-narrative, biographical methods, analysis and periodization are used for it.

Results and Discussion. Based on archival materials, it is possible to describe the formation of G.H. Bumagin as the party leader of the Leningrad region before the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War and the development of his career path. In addition, his work on the formation of the resistance movement in the first months of the Battle for Leningrad, the leadership of the Commission of the eastern districts of the Leningrad region and the leadership of the Novgorod region in the first post-war years is described.

Conclusion. G.H. Bumagin had a difficult fate. A guy from a poor family who lived almost halfstarved, made every effort to get out into the world. He decided to do this by serving in the Red Army. Thanks to her, he was able to develop a political career in Leningrad and became secretary of the Leningrad and then Novgorod Regional Party Committee. They tried to blacken his name during the Leningrad case. Even though he was imprisoned without any evidence, he endured adversity with his family and, after rehabilitation, adjusted his life. When he retired, he had another front of work – studying the Resistance movement, which he led in the first months of the war. His accumulated material and work experience were subsequently useful for compiling memoirs and reports on the history of the partisan and underground movements of the Leningrad, Novgorod and Pskov regions. He left valuable materials after his death, which formed the basis not only for this article, but also for other historical works. 

1. Demidov V.I., Kutuzov V.A. (compilers). (1990). Leningradskoe delo [Leningrad Case]. Leningrad, Lenizdat Publ., 413 p. (In Russ.) https://elibrary.ru/rtagrp

2. Kutuzov V.A. (2012). A.A. Zhdanov i Komissiya Obkoma VKP(b) po rukovodstvu severo-vostochnymi raionami Leningradskoi oblasti [A.A. Zhdanov and the Commission of the Regional Committee CPSU(b) on the leadership of the north-eastern regions of the Leningrad region]. Materialy nauchnoi konferentsii «Leningradskaya oblast’ v Velikoi Otechestvennoi voine» [Proceedings of Scientific Conference “Leningrad Region in the Great Patriotic War”]. St. Petersburg, pp. 97-107. (In Russ.) https://elibrary.ru/urbvir

3. Golotik S.I., Karpenko S.V., Krasovitskaya T.Yu., Minaev V.V. (2003). Rossiya na rubezhe XIX–XX vv. Vlast’, ehkonomika i obshchestvo [Russia at the turn of the 19th–20th centuries. Power, economy and society]. Novyi istoricheskii vestnik = New Historical Bulletin, no. 1 (9), pp. 221-271. (In Russ.) https://elibrary.ru/hzzuyx

4. Lapin V.V. (2019). Yudenich’s march on Petrograd in 1919 and the Soviet-Estonian war of 1918–1920 in historiography and historical memory. Materialy 12 Mezhdunarodnoi voenno-istoricheskoi konferentsii «Voennaya istoriya Rossii XIX–XX vekov» [Proceedings of the 12th International Military-Historical Conference “Military history of Russia in the 19th–20th Centuries”]. St. Petersburg, pp. 453-466. (In Russ.) https://elibrary.ru/opphxi

5. Vitushkin S.F. (2016). Kadry reshayut vse. Pervye sekretari obkoma KPSS i predsedateli oblispolkoma Novgorodskogo oblastnogo Soveta deputatov trudyashchikhsya (1944–1991) [Personnel decides everything. First secretaries of the regional committee of the CPSU and chairmen of the regional executive committee of the Novgorod regional Council of Working People's Deputies (1944–1991)]. Materialy 15 Ezhegodnoi nauchnoi konferentsii «Dokumental’noe nasledie Novgoroda i Novgorodskoi zemli. Problemy sokhraneniya i nauchnogo ispol’zovaniya» [Proceedings of the 15th Annual Scientific Conference “Documentary Heritage of Novgorod and Novgorod Land. Problems of Conservation and Scientific Use”]. Veliky Novgorod, pp. 112-117. (In Russ.) https://elibrary.ru/zhbsyh

6. Lomagin N.A. (2022). O problemakh organizatsii partizanskogo dvizheniya v Leningradskoi oblasti v 1941 godu [On the problems of organizing the partisan movement in the Leningrad region in 1941]. Materialy 3 Vserossiiskoi nauchnoi konferentsii «Velikaya Otechestvennaya voina v istorii i pamyati narodov Yuga Rossii: sobytiya, uchastniki, simvoly» [Proceeding of the 3rd All-Russian Scientific Conference “The Great Patriotic War in the History and Memory of the Peoples of the South of Russia: Events, Participants, Symbols”]. Rostov-on-Don, pp. 36-45. (In Russ.) https://elibrary.ru/awfxan

7. Kolotushkin V.G. (2018.). Rukovodstvo partizanskim dvizheniem na Novgorodskoi zemle v 1941–1942 gg. (K 75-letiyu Tsentral’nogo shtaba partizanskogo dvizheniya) [Leadership of the partisan movement on Novgorod land in 1941–1942. (To the 75th anniversary of the Central Headquarters of the Partisan Movement)]. Materialy 17 Ezhegodnoi nauchnoi konferentsii «Dokumental’noe nasledie Novgoroda i Novgorodskoi zemli. Problemy sokhraneniya i nauchnogo ispol’zovaniya» [Proceedings of the 17th Annual Scientific Conference “Documentary Heritage of Novgorod and Novgorod Land. Problems of Conservation and Scientific Use”]. Veliky Novgorod, pp. 158-173. (In Russ.) https://elibrary.ru/lwvzcx

8. Boldovskii K.A. (executive-compiler). (2019). Blokada v resheniyakh rukovodyashchikh partiinykh organov Leningrada. 1941–1944 gg. [Blockade in the Decisions of the Leading Party Bodies of Leningrad. 1941– 1944]. St. Petersburg, Saint-Petersburg State University Publ., pt 1: June 1941 – March 1942, 863 p. (In Russ.) https://elibrary.ru/yxroep

9. Serba V.Ya., Vasil’ev N.I., Kutepov V.M. (2020). Origin and development of the partisan movement in Russia. Nauchnyi vestnik Vol’skogo voennogo instituta material’nogo obespecheniya: voenno-nauchnyi zhurnal [Scientific Bulletin of the Volsky Military Institute of Material Support: Military Scientific Journal], no. 1 (53), pp. 5-9. (In Russ.) https://elibrary.ru/ltsygg

10. Vorob’ev D.A. (2023). Establishing legal base for underground movement of Leningrad region in second half of 1941. Uchenye zapiski NoVGU = Memoirs of NOVSU, no. 6 (51), pp. 614-625. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.34680/2411-7951.2023.6(51).614-625, https://elibrary.ru/fsvzhg

11. Skvortsov V.N., Abramov E.P., Bochkov E.A. (2014). Leningradskaya oblast’ v gody Velikoi Otechestvennoi voiny 1941–1945 gg. (k 70-letiyu osvobozhdeniya Leningradskoi oblasti ot fashistskoi okkupatsii) [Leningrad Region during the Great Patriotic War of 1941–1945. (to the 70th Anniversary of the Liberation of the Leningrad Region from Fascist Occupation)]. St. Petersburg, Pushkin Leningrad State University Publ., 271 p. (In Russ.) https://elibrary.ru/voacqx

12. Filimonov A.V. (2020). Revacuation of residents of the Pskov region (1944–1948). Izvestiya Saratovskogo universiteta. Novaya seriya. Seriya: Istoriya. Mezhdunarodnye otnosheniya = Izvestiya of Saratov University. History. International Relations, vol. 20, no. 4, pp. 464-471. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.18500/1819-4907-2020-20-4-464-471, https://elibrary.ru/csdkqm

13. Rashitova O.A. (2020). Leningradskaya eparkhiya v gody Velikoi Otechestvennoi voiny [Leningrad diocese during the Great Patriotic War]. Materialy Vserossiiskoi nauchnoi konferentsii, posvyashchaetsya 75-letiyu Pobedy v Velikoi Otechestvennoi voine «Leningradskaya bitva v Velikoi Otechestvennoi voine» [Proceedings of All-Russian Scientific Conference Dedicated to the 75th Anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War “The Battle of Leningrad in the Great Patriotic War”]. St. Petersburg, pp. 222-225. (In Russ.) https://elibrary.ru/lwoenl

14. Martynov V.L., Olifir D.I. (2018). Formirovanie territorii Leningradskoi oblasti [Formation of the territory of the Leningrad region]. Leningradskaya zemlya: kraevedcheskii al’manakh [Leningrad Land: Local History Almanac]. St. Petersburg, vol. 1, pp. 9-16. (In Russ.) https://elibrary.ru/xwiuwd

15. Pavlov M.Yu. (2015). Role of the secretary of the central committee of the all-union communist party (Bolsheviks) A.A. Kuznetsov in selection of the Leningrad party staff. Klio = Clio, no. 11 (107), pp. 169-175. (In Russ.) https://elibrary.ru/vbblcn

16. Sushkov A.V., Bedel’ A.E. (2018). “Leningrad Case”: on Smolny’s personnel policy in the early post-war years. Manuskript = Manuscript, no. 10 (96), pp. 60-68. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.30853/manuscript.2018- 10.11, https://elibrary.ru/yajdat

17. Vdovin A.I. (2019). The struggle in Stalin’s entourage for approaches to power in 1945–1953. Truth and fiction. Sto let Ural’skomu gosudarstvennomu yuridicheskomu universitetu (1918–2018 gg.): v 2 t. [One Hundred Years of the Ural State Law University (1918–2018): in 2 vols.]. Yekaterinburg, vol. 1, pp. 950- 977. (In Russ.) https://elibrary.ru/xletfn

18. Smirnov A.P. (compiler). (2009). Sud’by lyudei. «Leningradskoe delo» [The Destinies of People. “Leningrad Affair”]. St. Petersburg, Norma Publ., 224 p. https://elibrary.ru/qpqldx

19. Vorob’ev D.A. (2022). Report by P.R. Sheverdalkin “anti-fascist underground in suburban areas of Leningrad during the great patriotic war”. Mezhdunarodnyi zhurnal gumanitarnykh i estestvennykh nauk = International Journal of Humanities and Natural Sciences, no. 10-1 (73), pp. 38-46. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.24412/2500-1000-2022-10-1-38-46, https://elibrary.ru/tdgqod

20. Gavrilov P.A. (2021). Narod i ego geroi. Obrazy partizan Leningradskoi oblasti ot stalinizma do ottepeli [The people and their hero. Images of partisans of the Leningrad region from Stalinism to the Thaw]. Georgievskie chteniya. Sbornik trudov po voennoi istorii Otechestva [Georgievsky Readings. Collection of Works on the Military History of the Fatherland]. Moscow, pp. 553-570. (In Russ.) https://elibrary.ru/wxuybc