Reforms of mail service in Western Siberia in the first third of the 19th century

The development of the communication system is one of the poorly explored themes in the history of the economic development of Siberia. In spite of the fact that K.V. Bazilevitch, A.P. Dolgushin, Ya.A. Yakovlev, Yu.K. Rassamahin, E.V. Shvab, V.A. Morev and V.V. Mirkin wrote about the history of mail service of Western Siberia, there are not many historical research works devoted to the history of post in Western Siberia in the first third of the 19th century. The aim of this article is to disclose the history of reformation of the Western Siberian mail service in the first third of the 19th century. The sources of the research are: decrees of Emperor Alexander I of 1804 and 1822, the List of the Populated Places of Tobolsk Province (1868-1869) and the documents from the State Archive of Tomsk Oblast. In 1800, according to a decree of Emperor Paul I the Siberian main post-office was founded in Tobolsk. In 1804, according to a decree of Emperor Alexander I Tobolsk Province was divided in two parts: Tomsk Province and Tobolsk Province. Most likely in 1804, the year of the province formation, Tomsk governmental post-office already existed. In 1822, according to a decree of Emperor Alexander I there was a prescription: to make payments for mail transportation in Siberia from overall post incomes; to cancel 30-kopeck capitation overall tax collections for land and water communications in Siberia since 1824, and to free coachmen of Tobolsk Province from post duties and include them in the class of governmental peasants. In 1830, in the reign of Emperor Nicholas I, five of the seven main post-offices (including the Siberian one) were abolished. Instead of them governmental post-offices were established in governmental cities. Russian postal establishments (except establishments related to Moscow and St Petersburg Provinces) were divided between eleven districts. Postal inspectors were at the head of the districts. In compliance with the new structure the governmental city Tobolsk became the centre of District XI. At the beginning of the 1830s, its own postal authorities appeared in Tomsk. The author makes a clarification in the history of mail service of Western Siberia. Thus, he established that a Russified native of a Swedish noble family, arctic explorer in past, M.M. Hedenstrom was not a postmaster in Tomsk as it is stated in some works. M.M. Hedenstrom was the first assistant of the postal inspector in District XI The assistant of the postal inspector checked postmasters of all grades starting with the governmental one. The author arrives at a conclusion that the reorganization of the postal system of Western Siberia in the first third of the 19th century was part of the All-Russian communication reforms. In the second half of the 19th century, subsequent changes in the administrative structure of Siberian mail service took place.

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