Evgeny Vladimirovich Pocherevin,
Candidate of Historical Sciences, The Shukshin Altai State University for Humanities and Pedagogy, Biysk, Russia, e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Imperial Projects in Siberia: a View from the Provinces
DOI: 10.31518/2618-9100-2021-5-13
Annotation. Imperial projects have made Russia a special geopolitical structure. In Siberia, they manifested themselves in the colonization of this region, its integration into the empire. Significant resources and efforts were made for this by the center. The article is devoted to the study of the contribution of the local zemstvo budgets of Siberia to the imperial projects of the late 19th – early 20th centuries. The author comes to the conclusion about the active participation of zemstvo budgets in large imperial projects. This conclusion is based on the study of office documents covering the process of drawing up and approving local three-year estimates. The construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway is the only event in which the Siberian budgets did not participate. Local budgets were deeply integrated into the process of imperial unification of judicial and administrative structures. Institutions to manage the peasants in Siberia were maintained by the provincial zemstvo taxes. Local budgets in Siberian regions played a significant role in the universal primary education project, funding the construction of school buildings and providing teacher salaries. Zemstvo budgets also took some part in providing foreign policy. The provision of material assistance to the families of the soldiers called up for the war and the transportation of the mobilized soldiers were financed from the zemstvo funds. Maintaining communication with the strategically important Usinsk border district was also the responsibility of the local administration. However, the practice of building and maintaining transport routes became the main point in the participation of regional budgets in the process of colonization of Siberia. All major tracts were built and maintained at the expense of the local population. Funds were regularly allocated from the East Siberian budgets for exploration and construction work. The main efforts and resources were directed towards maintaining the existing roads in good condition. Local authorities were forced to optimize costs, correlating the tax opportunities of the population and the needs of the transport infrastructure.
Publishing: 28/10/2021
The article has been received by the editor on 20/06/2021
How to cite: Pocherevin E.V. Imperial Projects in Siberia: a View from the Provinces // Historical Courier, 2021, No. 5 (19), pp. 155–164. [Available online: http://istkurier.ru/data/2021/ISTKURIER-2021-5-13.pdf]
Links: Issue 5 2021
Keywords: Siberia; zemstvo budgets; local economy; imperial projects; road infrastructure