The origin of Novonikolaevsk: land planning from 1893 to 1895

This article investigates the first two years of existence of the city of Novosibirsk. This period is extremely important in the history of the city due to the construction of the railway bridge over the Ob River, which results in the transformation of an uninhabited region into a lively town referred to as Krivoschekovsky. The newly discovered and previously used documents and maps from the archives of the General Directorate of the Altai Mining District provide new facts and information about the founding of Novosibirsk. In contrast to previously established views describing the first years of the settlement of Novonikolaevsk as spontaneous and uncontrolled, the new artifacts show that the development was done through careful planning by land surveyors. Land management was influenced by both the new settlers and the government institutions, in this case, by the General Directorate of the Altai Mining District. The most pressing issue of the settlement was the legitimate use of land and property rights so the land planning can link together numerous small events of the thriving city. From this perspective, the formation of the marketplaces, the implementation of trade and persistent attempts of the mining administration to evict peasants of the former Krivoschekovsky settlement are described in the article. The first step in the land use planning was the settlement layout. The article discusses the development and implementation of the first urban plan of the city. The plan "for the settlement of commoners and people of the merchant rank" was quickly developed by the officials of the Altai Mining District in the summer of 1894, and approved on September 20th, 1894, by the District Chief V.K. Boldyrev. The graphic representation of the plan was not found, but it can be reconstructed based on numerous items of correspondence and subsequent planning. This first plan laid the foundation for the further growth in the city's future. The article stresses the importance of this plan as a legal instrument; the approval of this document grants the legal status to the settlement that arose spontaneously on the Cabinet lands.

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