«I am back to my Psekups possession». life and activity of I.D. Popko in the office of commander of the Psekupsky regiment (1864 – 1871)

Abstract

The article is devoted to some facts of the office and public life of the famous general of the Kuban Cossack troops, one of the first historians of the Black Sea of the XIX century - Ivan Diomidovich Popko, the author of books and articles on the history of the Black Sea, Kuban, and Tersk Cossacks, literary works in an eventful «Psekup» period of his military service from 1864 to 1871. A lot of works on the life of the general were published. They concern many aspects of his biography, but in most cases everything published, ranging from biography and ending with cultural and writing activities, is based on official sources and documents, periodic press. They allowed the authors of research to quite comprehensively highlight the life of the hero of the article. However, the history of the life of the general was far from being studied until the end, there is still painstaking work to specify many facts of his life.
The more interesting it is to learn about some aspects of his life from what is called the first-hand source, his personal letters. In the State Archive of the Stavropol Territory in the Foundation 377 Case No. 7 is kept. The case contains collected letters addressed to a close friend of General, Vasily Fedorovich Zolotarenko in St. Petersburg. Among them there were 12 letters written by the historian to a friend to any commander of the Psekupsky regiment of the Kuban Cossack troops, in the period from 1864 to 1871. It is these letters that served a source base for writing this article. Letters illuminate some aspects of both service and private life I.D. Popko, as well as give a valuable opportunity to familiarize themselves and further study the history of military, administrative and cultural and educational activities of the first historian of the Black Sea in the Trans-Kuban region.