I personally know him as an honest and capable official..."

For the first time, on the basis of archival documents, an attempt is made to recreate a brief biography of the Yakutsk provincial government official in the second half of the 19th - early 20th centuries D.I. Melikov. At various times he occupied the post of Prosecutor of Yakutsk Oblast, investigator, adviser to the regional government, a member of the Yakutia District Court, attorney; he served as vice-governor. But it is not possible to describe in detail all his activities in one article, so the author makes an emphasis on an expeditionary event headed by Melikov, important at that time for Yakutia: the opening of the Kolyma-Gizhiginskiy tract aimed at establishing links between Sredne-Kolymsk and the coast of the Sea of Okhotsk through the nearby Gizhiga (Gizhiginsk). Why was this particular official with a high rank for the province involved in this event? The importance of it was to establish a cheaper, closer and more accessible path from the village Gizhiga to the city Sredne-Kolymsk, located on the Kolyma River, at the state level rather than at the private one as merchants had previously done. At the same time, an audit was to show the real situation on the ground. What caused this necessity? It was the fact that the distance from Gizhiga to Yakutsk was 2315 miles of an arduous journey, and from there to Sredne-Kolymsk slightly more than 1000. Thus, reducing the distance was an opportunity to reduce the cost of delivery of goods in the Kolyma region and the fare from 14 to 5 and even 2 rubles per pood. That would give an opportunity for people to purchase products and goods at lower prices. With the construction of the road, delivery of goods from Gizhiga to Sredne-Kolymsk could be about 5 times cheaper than bringing them from Yakutsk across Siberia. The issue of establishing this way was also important as due to the severe climatic and environmental conditions the population of the Kolyma region was not able to engage in vegetable growing and arable farming. The scope of their activities consisted of cattle breeding, hunting and fishing. Melikov could negotiate a contract for transportation with the administration of Gizhiginsk, Primorye and uluses in the face of their elders. Thus, through the description of the person the article presents an official belonging to the class of Russian bureaucracy. On his example, the author revised the previously established notions about the indifferent bureaucracy endowed only with negative colors. This attitude was greatly contributed to by the dominant Soviet ideology that distorted the real state of affairs. It considered bureaucracy as a tool of the autocratic state, the spokesman of class interests and did not take into account the individual person, which obviously controverted archival documents. The documents suggest that having professional skills in the field of law, Melikov helped to strengthen the state, justice, international relations and made a major contribution to the development of the culture of Yakutia.

Keywords

Authors

References