Tatyana Igorevna Troshina,
Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor, Lomonosov Northern Arctic Federal University, Arkhangelsk, Russia; Northern State Medical University, Arkhangelsk, Russia, е-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Revolutionary Enthusiasm as a Trigger for the Implementation of Development Projects in Russia’s Northern Regions
DOI: 10.31518/2618-9100-2023-6-17
The main theses of the article were formulated in connection with the anniversary events dedicated to the memory of the enthusiast of economic development of the Russian North and Siberia M.K. Sidorov. The comprehension of the difficult path to the practical implementation of his projects for the economic uplift of remote northern territories convinces us that modernization, industrialization, provision of the Far North with a developed transport infrastructure are only possible with maximum state support. In difficult times, the North and Siberia with their valuable natural resources become especially important, and the state is ready to spend large amounts of money to utilize them. At the same time, each of such projects requires many years of scientific and technical development, which, as the study of the process of generation and development of the ideas underlying them shows, was carried out mainly by the creative energy of the people inhabiting the northern territories, and their individual outstanding representatives, who, on their own initiative and often at their own expense, developed these projects. They were initially conceived as having a delayed result, since they concerned remote and sparsely populated regions. In addition, their high cost did not allow for their implementation with private funds; state support was needed. Many of these projects did not receive not only funding, but even permission from the authorities to implement them, being recognized as untimely and unrealistic. However, due to political and economic circumstances, when the northern territories regained vital importance for the country, these projects were given a chance to be realized. This was the case during the years of the Northern War, the Continental Blockade, and the First World War. The Revolution of 1917 created special conditions for the creativity of the masses, including the reanimation of projects created by people like M.K. Sidorov and other entrepreneurs whose initiative was unsolicited in their time. Difficulties of political and economic nature did not allow these projects to be fully realized. Some of them were put into practice during the period of socialist industrialization (in the 1930s), others are waiting for “their time”, and this is the relevance of such historical studies in the field of history of economic ideas. The article is based on a comprehensive analysis of a variety of sources, primarily synchronous publications and archival materials.
Publishing: 28/12/2023
The article has been received by the editor on 28/04/2023
How to cite: Troshina T.I. Revolutionary Enthusiasm as a Trigger for the Implementation of Development Projects in Russia’s Northern Regions // Historical Courier, 2023, No. 6 (32), pp. 226–236. [Available online: http://istkurier.ru/data/2023/ISTKURIER-2023-6-17.pdf]
Links: Issue 6 2023
The research is supported by the Russian Science Foundation (RSF), project No. 22-18-20061 “Foreign Concessions in the Arkhangelsk Province: Regional Experience of Foreign Economic Contacts under the Isolation of Soviet Russia”, https://rscf.ru/project/22-18-20061/
Keywords: northern territories of Russia; specifics of Russian economic modernization; people’s initiative; M.K. Sidorov; economic projects for the revival and rise of the North; the Petrov era; socialist industrialization; World War I; the Great Russian Revolution