Zoya Veniaminovna Moshkina – Leading Scientist on the History of Political Hard Labor and Exile in Transbaikalia

The work is dedicated to the memory of Zoya Veniaminovna Moshkina, Doctor of Historical Sciences, a remarkable person, a teacher, a deep and demanding researcher of the history of political hard labor in Transbaikalia. For a long period of her activity in the field of science (about 30 years), about 100 scientific papers have been written, including a monograph, articles in journals reviewed by the Higher Attestation Commission, works on the results of participation in various All-Russian and regional conferences. Most of Zoya V. Moshkina’s scientific works are devoted to the history of political hard labor and exile in Transbaikalia (Nerchinsk penal servitude). Sudden death did not allow the scientist to create an updated systematic work on the history of penal servitude in Transbaikalia, which was planned for the near future. Systematization of the author’s works in various areas of research of the Nerchinsk political penal servitude, analysis of the problems and determination of the novelty of her research allow us to call Z.V. Moshkina a leading historian on the history of political penal servitude and exile in Transbaikalia. Zoya Moshkina’s scientific research was carried out at the junction of history, jurisprudence and psychology, it is not only regional in nature but also have all-Russian significance, since political hard labor in the second half of the XIXth century was mostly concentrated in the Nerchinsk mountain district in Transbaikalia. Zoya Moshkina’s works are a comprehensive study of the Nerchinsk political penal servitude (the organization of the management system of political convicts, the regulatory framework for the maintenance of this category of criminals, living conditions in penal servitude, the gender, age and social composition of political prisoners, the behavior of convicts in conditions of penal servitude, etc.). The works by Z. V. Moshkina reflect personal, historical-psychological, gender and sociological approaches relevant to modern historical science, the application of which in the history of political hard labor has made a significant scientific novelty. The problems of the Trans-Baikal historian’s research, new aspects of studying the problems of the Nerchinsk political penal servitude have become a scientific basis for a new generation of scientists.