KREMLIN ON FIRE: 18TH CENTURY RUSSIA THROUGH THE TONGUES OF FLAME

Current research is an exploratory study investigating actions, socio-historical context
and characters of bureaucrats in an emergency situation of Trinity Fire in Moscow of
1737. Microhistory approach is applied to analysis of primary sources: the
interrogation reports produced by investigators over three years period following the
disaster. These dry formal documents act as windows into lives, beliefs and lies of the
bureaucrats and by proxy muscovite society of the times of Anna Ivanovna as a whole.
The resulting analysis then not only investigates formal procedures and duties related
to firefighting and civil service of the time, but provides commentary on how civil
servants of various social standing positioned themselves with regards to religion,
state and personal moral responsibility.