Navy Lieutenant Ya. K. Tumanov’s Diaries of 1912 in the Context of his Autobiographical and Literary Heritage

The article is devoted to two volumes of diaries of Russian Navy officer Yazon Konstantinovich Tumanov (1883-1955) from the collection of the department of manuscripts of the National Library of Russia, which have not been introduced into scientific use. They cover the events of 1912, when Lieutenant Tumanov, as an inspector, was on board the gunboat Khivinets in the Mediterranean Sea. The diaries describe the realities of naval service and everyday life of the Navy on the eve of World War I: relations between officers, relations with lower ranks, daily service and entertainment, social life “on land,” as well as foreign policy and diplomatic events of the First Balkan War (1912-1913). Prince Ya.K. Tumanov, who emigrated to Latin America after the 1917 revolution, dedicated a number of literary works to these events, but it is the diaries that make it now possible to reconstruct the circumstances and names of the characters with accuracy. The discovered artifact is of particular significance as it is the only surviving diary of an officer who was on service in the Mediterranean Sea in the 1910s. The authors conclude that the value of Ya.K. Tumanov’s diaries lies in the fact that they contain informal information about Russian Navy officers and are an important source for the history of the Russian Navy and everyday life of officers on the eve of World War I.