On History of Tobolsk Telephone Network (1895-1918)

The beginning of the use of the telephone in Siberia as a means of public use dates back to the 1880s-1890s. The rapid development of industry and urbanization required the installation of operational communications within cities. Urban telephone networks were needed, first of all, by entrepreneurs and government agencies, that is, those on whom the socio-economic development of West Siberian cities depended to a large extent. Tobolsk wasn’t exception here. Although Tobolsk was already the former capital of Siberia, nevertheless, it remained a provincial city (since 1796) and one of the trading centers of Western Siberia. In 1897 the population of the Tobolsk province was more than 1.4 million people, of which the urban population was more than 87 thousand inhabitants. The history of telephone installation in such Siberian cities as Omsk, Tomsk, Novonikolaevsk, Barnaul and Irkutsk has already been covered in a number of works by such authors as N.M. Dmitrienko, V.V. Vorozhbitov, O.N. Razumov and others. In addition, E.V. Shvab and V.A. Morev devoted their works directly to the history of the creation and development of the Tobolsk telephone network. Nevertheless, there are still “blank spots” in the issue of studying the history of telephone installation in Tobolsk. In this regard, the purpose of this article is to identify the main milestones in the history of the emergence and development of telephone communications in Tobolsk, as well as to clarify some facts regarding the initiators of the opening of the Tobolsk telephone network, preparations for its installation, characteristics of its equipment, as well as the number of subscribers in period between the end of the 19^th and the beginning of the 20^th century. The main sources used in this article are the documents of the Historical Archive of the Omsk Region. The most valuable for this article is the case No. 48 from the fund F. 120 “Office of the Omsk postal and telegraph district (18641920)”. This case is devoted directly to the installation of telephones in Tobolsk in 1895-1918. It provides technical information about the structure of the network for administrative use, the number and list of subscribers in the first year of the network (1895) and the reasons for the planned reorganization of the network (1918). In addition, the documents of this case shed light on the history of the discussion of the need to open a public telephone network in Tobolsk. The author found that telephone communication in Tobolsk began to develop thanks to the city authorities. Wealthy citizens also felt the need for a public telephone network. The author found out that the Tobolsk merchants filed an application for a telephone communication in Tobolsk with the opening of a central station at the post and telegraph office. However, only in 1908 the opening of the public telephone network supposedly took place in Tobolsk. At the beginning of the 20^th century, in terms of the number of subscribers, it was inferior to the networks of such Siberian cities as Irkutsk, Tomsk, Omsk, Novonikolaevsk, Barnaul and Biysk. Historians have yet to find out how the Tobolsk telephone network developed in subsequent years. Perhaps the Tobolsk and Tyumen archives will be able to provide assistance in these researches. The author declares no conflicts of interests.

Keywords

Authors

References