In memory of Tamara Fyodorovna Izmestyeva (16.10.1941 – 02/19/2024)

Borodkin Leonid Iosifovich ORCID: 0000-0003-0422-1938 Doctor of History Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Professor, Head of the Department for Historical Information Science at Lomonosov Moscow State University 119991, Russia, Moscow, Lomonosovsky ave., 27k4, office G-454 borodkin-izh@mail.ru Other publications by this author     Valetov Timur Yakubovich ORCID: 0000-0002-1981-6144 PhD in History Associate Professor, Department of Historical Information Science, Lomonosov Moscow State University 119192,, Russia, Moscow, Lomonosovsky ave., 27 k4, office G-423 valetov@gmail.com Garskova Irina Markovna ORCID: 0000-0001-7877-6034 Doctor of History Associate professor, Lomonosov Moscow State University 119607, Russia, Moscow, Lomonosovsky ave., 27 k4, room G-423 irina.garskova@gmail.com Other publications by this author

Salomatina Sof'ya Aleksandrovna ORCID: 0000-0003-0748-6229 PhD in History Associate Professor, Department of Historical Information Science, Lomonosov Moscow State University 119192, Russia, Moscow region, Moscow, Lomonosovsky ave., 27 k4, office G-423 ssalomatina@gmail.com

On February 19, 2024, our colleague Tamara Fedorovna Izmestyeva, PhD in History, who worked at the History Department of Moscow University since 1969, passed away.

A graduate of the Faculty of Economics of Moscow State University, Tamara Fedorovna connected her scientific activity with the Faculty of History, became a quantifier historian, a well-known specialist in the field of economic history and historical informatics.

She began her scientific and teaching work at the Faculty of History as a junior researcher of the group on the application of quantitative methods and computers at the Department of Source Studies, then as a researcher and senior researcher at the interdepartmental Laboratory of Historical Informatics, transformed in 2004 into the Department of the same name.

Tamara Fedorovna Izmestyeva in 1992 became one of the founders of the Association "History and Computer" and the audit commission of the AIC.

Tamara Fyodorovna's research interests lay in the mainstream of both economic history and historical computer science. In 1981, she defended her dissertation "Russia in the European market system, the end of the XIX – beginning of the XX century (The experience of quantitative analysis)" ^[1] under the scientific supervision of I.D. Kovalchenko. In 1991, the publishing house of Moscow State University published a monograph based on the materials of her dissertation.

In 1996-2010. she took part in the implementation of RGNF grants, which were conducted by the department: "Building a model for the functioning of foreign corporations in Russia during the period of industrialization in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries" (1998), "Multifunctional information system "Evolution of labor relations in Russia: from pre–revolutionary industrialization to NEP" (2002-2004), "Workers' insurance in Russia: from capitalist industrialization to capitalist" (2002), "Labor relations during the period of Soviet industrialization: between coercion and stimulation" (2005), "Creation and development of an electronic resource "Dynamics of economic and social development of Russia in the XIX – early XX century.""

Tamara Fyodorovna's publications on economic history reflected her interests in the field of studying the foreign market of the Russian Empire (collective monograph "Mass sources on the socio-economic history of Russia during the period of capitalism", 1979; collection "Quantitative methods in the Humanities", 1981; collection "Materials of scientific readings in memory of Academician I.D. Kovalchenko", 1997), analysis of sources on the history of foreign and domestic trade in the late XIX – early XX centuries. (collection "Mathematical methods for studying mass sources", 1989), as well as studying the functioning of foreign corporations in Russia during the period of industrialization in the late XIX – early XX centuries. (the journal "Economic History. Review", 1998, issue 2; 1999, issue 3). Tamara Fedorovna introduced into research on economic history "economic tools": production functions, coefficients of structural shifts, financial and production characteristics of enterprises and sectors of Russian industry (collection "Circle of ideas: historical informatics on the threshold of the XXI century", 1999).

She has published many articles on the analysis of the coal mining industry of the Russian Empire, other sectors of the Russian economy, the integration of the Russian coal market and Russian coal imports, and on the problems of seasonal labor. Tamara Fyodorovna was also engaged in the analysis of foreign and domestic trade in Russia, the analysis of industrial census data. All these studies were conducted using statistical methods and database technology.

She owns many publications on both economic history and historical computer science in the journals "Economic History. Review" (1998, issue 2; 2000, issues 4 and 5; 2012, issue 16), "Newsletter of the Association "History and Computer"" (1991, 1993, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2006, 2008).

In the field of historical informatics, T.F. Izmestyeva paid much attention to the creation of historically oriented databases (collection "Computer and historical knowledge", Barnaul, 1994; collection "Methodological problems of historical science, Minsk, 1993; collection "Methodology of modern humanitarian research", Donetsk, 1991; collection "Industrial Heritage", Saransk, 2005) and other electronic resources, primarily on economic history (collection "Internet – a new information environment of historical science", Barnaul, 1998; collection "Economic reforms in Russia of the XIX–XX centuries. New approaches, methods and research technologies", 2011), source studies and methodological problems of working with mass statistical data (collection "Method in historical research", Minsk, 1991)

 Tamara Fyodorovna has repeatedly been a member of the organizing committees of the schools of seminars for young scientists on quantitative methods and information technologies (1984-1989), the series of international autumn schools "Historical Informatics - European Model" (1992-1996), the sections "Historical Informatics" of the international scientific conference of students, postgraduates and young scientists "Lomonosov" (2011-2014), Interuniversity student Olympiads in historical computer science. Since the beginning of the Association's existence, she has been a member of the organizing committees of many AIC conferences, led the work of sections on socio-economic and quantitative history at AIC conferences. She was a member of the editorial board of the Newsletter of the Association "History and Computer", served as the issuing editor of individual issues, participated in discussions and round tables.

She has made presentations on economic history and historical informatics at numerous conferences, including international ones, for example, at the International Congress on Economic History (Spain, Madrid, 1998, abstracts published in the journal "Domestic History, 1999, No. 4); the international conference "Integration of commodity markets in history" (Sweden, Lund, 1997); III European Conference on Social History (Netherlands, Amsterdam, 2000); international conference "Russia and the European Union" (Kaliningrad, 2003); at the international seminar of the European Association of Economic History "Market Integration from the Renaissance to the present day" (Italy, Lerici, 1993); international seminar on Economic history at the University of California (USA, Davis, 1995); Russian-Dutch seminar "The evolution of labor motivation in Russian industry in the late XIX – early XX centuries. (Moscow, 1999); International conferences and seminars of the History and Computing Association in Moscow (1996), Graz (Austria, 1993), Troms? (Norway, 2003).

 For many years, Tamara Fedorovna Izmestyeva taught classes on the course "Computer Science and Mathematics" with students of the Moscow State University Faculty of History, taught special courses at the Department of Historical Informatics; for several years she traveled to study with students at the Moscow State University branch in Sevastopol. Students have always appreciated her attention and kindness. She was a co-author and a member of the editorial board of a number of textbooks and teaching aids, including "Quantitative methods in historical research" (Moscow: Higher School, 1984), "The use of computer technology in the educational process at the Faculty of History" (Moscow, 1985), "Computer in historical research" (Moscow, 1986), "Historical Informatics" (Moscow: Mosgorarchiv, 1996), "Computerized statistical analysis for historians" (Moscow, 1999), "Informatics for Humanities" (Moscow: URAO, 1997), "Information Technologies for Historians" (Moscow, 2006).

Tamara Fedorovna has been an employee of the Department of Historical Informatics of the Faculty of History of Moscow State University since its foundation in 2004, took an active part in its formation and development.

In addition to studying science, she loved to travel, to visit different countries – both as a participant in international scientific conferences, interuniversity exchanges, and as a tourist, together with members of her extended family.

We remember Tamara Fedorovna not only as a highly qualified specialist, but also as a kind, reliable and responsive colleague, a person who is always ready to help others.

Farewell words from colleagues:

L.I. Borodkin. I would like to note the organic combination of two important qualities in Tamara Fedorona's professional activity – the desire to increase scientific knowledge and the desire to introduce this new knowledge into the educational process, to expand the methodological base for the training of our cathedral students. The teaching material of our manuals on statistical methods has always contained sections with examples of tables from her historical and economic research and a description of the methods of their analysis. I remember how, at the end of 2012, she brought a methodological article for publication in the journal Historical Informatics. This article considered the problem of the use of seasonal labor in the Donbas during the industrial wave of the early twentieth century. Using this example, Tamara Fedorovna showed the possibilities of a whole range of computerized methods for analyzing digitized historical time series, paying attention to the subtleties of working with such data. In this study, she expanded the scope of her interest in the problems of foreign trade, industrial development of late imperial Russia and its fuel base, turning to the social aspects of industrialization. I think I underestimated the importance of her work at the time. Today, in the context of the growing role of data science, the techniques of working with large arrays of historical statistics, databases created by Tamara Fedorovna in the course of specific historical research, are of new interest.

S.A. Salomatina. I remember her support in my scientific work. It's valuable when someone tries to tell you something about the case, and she knew how to do it. However, now I want to write about her contribution to science, as I see it. There was something in the texts of Tamara Fyodorovna's works that made me want to read them. This general impression was created by an interesting task, careful study of a large array of sources, and of course, quantification. Her texts bring really new scientific knowledge. At first, a series of studies on the history of the Produgl syndicate fell into my hands, as a result, I became convinced that without the results obtained by T.F., it is impossible to speculate on this topic. Later, I needed to look into the sources of grain prices at the end of the XIX century. So I began to read the monograph on her PhD thesis "Russia in the European market system. The end of the XIX – beginning of the XX century." There was also a lot of valuable information in the chapter on the history of prices written by her in the collective monograph "Mass sources on the socio-economic history of Russia during the period of capitalism". Her work has become a solid basis for me to further collect materials on the history of prices for my research projects. I always wanted her to write more. Now I want her texts to be used more widely in the study of the economic history of the Russian Empire, and we need to do everything in our power to make it so.

 T.Ya. Valets. Tamara Fyodorovna was a really warm person. When our department was formed, Tamara Fyodorovna was one of the senior colleagues who pulled the young (and very young) with them. And she was very good at providing support. She was always keenly interested in our news, and she was so vividly and unselfishly happy with every slightest success that these successes somehow already seemed not small at all, but quite decent, and she wanted to continue working and doing other useful things as soon as possible. Tamara Fyodorovna loved life and was happy to share this feeling, she seemed to be overflowing with optimism. She managed to make the world around her brighter.

I.M. Garskova. Tamara Fyodorovna was the very first of the veterans of our department to come to the Department of Source Studies of the Faculty of History. Ivan Dmitrievich Kovalchenko invited her as a specialist with a basic economic education and an interest in historical applications of economic theory, and he was not mistaken in his choice. No wonder he commissioned Tamara Fedorovna to write a chapter on the history of prices for a collective monograph on mass sources of the period of capitalism, as well as half the chapters of the section "Basic methods of mathematical and statistical analysis" in the textbook "Quantitative methods in historical research", published by the publishing house "Higher School" in 1984.

Tamara Fyodorovna's professionalism and qualifications were highly appreciated not only by domestic historians, cliometrists, but also by our foreign colleagues: Carol Leonard, Dan Field, Peter Lindert, Paul Gregory, Roger Ransom, Zhang Guangxiang. She found common ground with them not only at scientific seminars, but she developed truly friendly long–term relationships with many of them. One of the most important events of recent years for Tamara Fyodorovna and a great joy was the translation of her monograph into Chinese and publication in China.

Tamara Fyodorovna was a very modest, non-public person who loved science, reliable and fair in her dealings with people. We will miss her…

 Bright memory!

On behalf of the Department of Historical Informatics of the Faculty of History of Moscow State University

L.I. Borodkin, T.Ya. Valetov, I.M. Garskova, S.A. Salomatina

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