fly.away.fairy said:
Hey! I have to analyse a source for its usefulness for a historian and its purpose etc... about the fall of the romanov dynasty. Its 22 lines(written) for each source...
My first source i think would be : His charecter is the source of all our misfortunes. his outstanding weakness is a lack of wilpower" It was written by Sergei Witte. But no date and not sed where it was published.
How can i analyse it?
these are the things you should always write about when analysing sources
type: exact from speech? not sure ..
origin: Russia, 1900+ He was a important figure in Russia during that time
Motive: Sergei was given the role of finance minster. As a result of this Russia saw great economic growth. He was then given the role of chairman in 1905 and thus he would have made decisions about the civil-unrest that Russia was facing during time. Thus his motive of writing this source can based on expressing his resentments and feelings of the Tsar and what he thinks is going to happen to Russia as a result of his sucession. During that period Russia was finally getting into modern times but since the Tsar succeded and his large flaws were evident, Sergei may have felt that Russia was going to go backwards again and wanted to inform people about it.
audience: general public?
perspective: inform people about the flaws of the Tsar? express what he felt about the Tsar?
Reliability: well without a date and no information of when it was published it is kind of hard to assume that it is quite reliable as anyone may could have written it under his name. Besides that he was a person in power, he would have personally worked, knew and talked to Tsar. He was practically involved in the affairs of Russia and made decisions regarding it. Thus if the source was backed up by furthur evidence it could be considered as being reliable as it provides a perspective of someone whom had personal contact with the Tsar and thus would have gotten a feel of the man himself.
usefulness: Sergei Witte lived during the time of the period Nicholas Tsar II was in power and practically worked with him. Thus the source can be useful to historians studying the Tsar as it provides a perspective of what people thought about him at the time.
a tip is that if there is no date or no information about where your source was published i suggest you research the person who wrote the source. find out the time he lived, where he came from and what might have influenced his perspective on writing what he thought about the Tsar.
generally sources are very easy to anaylse once you know do a lot of them. hope that helps and if you need anymore help just pm me =]
