What a source is
Written, material, visual and oral evidence: how they differ and what each kind is able to tell us.
history through sources: a reference guide
History through sources: how we know about the past
Everything we know about the past rests on the traces it left behind: manuscripts, letters, objects, photographs, memories. This guide explains what kinds of traces there are, where they are kept, how to work out the age and author of a document, and why a single retelling does not prove that something happened. We write calmly, without politics, and give specific dates only where they are confirmed by reliable encyclopaedic sources.
We cannot see the past directly. But we can question carefully whatever it has left behind.
Four ways into the subject
Archives and documents
Why documents are grouped into collections, how finding aids work, and why reading rooms have strict rules.
Photographs as evidence (in Russian)
A photograph looks honest, yet it too has an author, an intention and a setting. Here is how to read an old picture.
Family history
Where to start looking for your ancestors: papers at home, questions for relatives, enquiries to archives and careful notes on what you find.
Guide sections
- History
How attitudes to evidence about the past changed, from ancient authors to the archival scholarship of the 19th century.
- Ideas
Key ideas for working with the past: source, testimony, attribution, dating, provenance, context.
- Figures
Herodotus, Thucydides, Ranke and the professions that archival work depends on.
- Sources
Types of sources, their strengths and weaknesses, and how to cite them.
- Analysis
Worked examples with a letter, a diary, a photograph and an old newspaper, plus our article catalogue.
- Timeline
Key dates in the history of sources: from antiquity to a modern archive law.
- FAQ
Short answers about this guide, archives, documents and family photographs.
How to test a story about the past in five steps
Find out where it comes from
Ask who first told the story and what they based it on. "Everybody knows" is not a source.
Separate the original from the retelling
An eyewitness account or a document from the time carries more weight than an article written many years later from other people's words.
Check the date and the place
Ask whether the event could really have happened then and there: do the season, street names, objects and customs mentioned fit?
Look for a second, independent confirmation
Find evidence that came about separately from the first. Two retellings of the same story are not independent.
Record your conclusion honestly
Separate what is confirmed, what is likely and what is still a guess. Notes like these will help both you and anyone who continues the search.
The essentials in brief
Are you an archive or a museum?
No. We do not hold documents or issue certificates. This is an independent guide that explains how work with sources is done and where you can turn on your own.
Do you write about politics?
No. The guide is about the method of historical knowledge: sources, archives, dating and checking information. There are no political topics or opinions here.
Where can I find documents about my family?
Start with papers at home and conversations with older relatives, then move on to the archives of the places where your ancestors lived and to written enquiries. In Russia, the keeping and use of archival documents is governed by Federal Law No. 125-FZ of 22 October 2004 "On Archival Affairs in the Russian Federation"; other countries have their own archive laws and national archives.
How can I spot a forgery?
Reliably, only through expert examination of the materials, the handwriting and the circumstances in which the document appeared. On your own you can notice warning signs: words from the wrong period, unsuitable paper, unclear origins. If in doubt, treat the item as unverified.
About the project
This domain once hosted a website on a political subject and later carried unrelated advertising. The current guide has no connection with either, does not reproduce their material and does not deal with politics. The name was kept along with the domain and has no particular meaning for us.
We explain how historians work with sources, and we write for readers without specialist training: people sorting through a family album, reading old letters or simply wanting to understand where the facts in textbooks come from.
This guide is not an archive, a museum or a research institution. We do not publish documents about specific people and we never invent dates or quotations: specific details here are verified, and everything else is described in general terms.
Related sections
- History
How attitudes to evidence about the past changed, from ancient authors to the archival scholarship of the 19th century.
- Sources
Types of sources, their strengths and weaknesses, and how to cite them.
- Analysis
Worked examples with a letter, a diary, a photograph and an old newspaper, plus our article catalogue.
- Old photos (in Russian)
An archived address: a step-by-step guide to reading an old photograph from a family album.
Sources
- Russian Federal Law No. 125-FZ "On Archival Affairs in the Russian Federation"
- UNESCO Memory of the World programme
- Encyclopaedic sources on historiography and the history of photography
Specific dates and facts in this guide come from encyclopaedic works and official programme descriptions; everything else is described in general terms. Dates for old documents are almost always approximate, and we try to state plainly how certain we are.