Studying the process of industrial revolution in Siberia

The article analyzes the historiography of the industrial revolution in Siberia during the Soviet and post-Soviet periods. The author first examines the development of the concept of the industrial revolution in Russia within Soviet historiography, a framework that remained largely unchanged in the post-Soviet era. Two key debates on this topic are identified: those of the 1920s-1930s and the 1940s-1970s. The first debate established the concept of Russia's industrial revolution that is widely accepted today and became foundational for major publications and textbooks on the history of the USSR. The main tenets of this concept are as follows: beginning in the 1830s-1840s, the industrial revolution in Russia concluded in the 1880s-1890s; the technological modernization of industry was accompanied by the sequential formation of a proletariat in light industry, transportation, and heavy industry. The starting point of the process was identified as the widespread introduction of machinery and steam engines in light industry and machine-building, while its completion was marked by the triumph of factory production in the main industrial sectors of European Russia and the formation of a factory proletariat. The second debate stemmed from an attempt by Academician S.G. Strumilin to push the chronology of the industrial revolution earlier, confining it to the 1830s-1850s. In the end, most historians supported the first, refined concept regarding the completion of Russia's industrial revolution. Historians of Siberia did not participate directly in these all-Union debates, with the exception of Z.G. Karpenko, who agreed with the 1850s as the start date for Siberia's industrial revolution but did not specify a date for its conclusion there. This viewpoint is reflected in the History of Siberia (1968). While preparing the History ofthe Working Class and Peasantry of Siberia, regional historians concluded that the industrial revolution in Siberia began in water transport in the 1840s and was largely completed during the new industrial upswing in transit transportation, processing industries, and partially in mining, though the formation of a Siberian industrial workforce remained incomplete. Subsequently, Siberian historians focused on resolving three key questions: 1) Did factory production triumph in the region's processing industries? 2) When did the technical revolution begin and end in the mining sectors of the region? 3) To what extent had the formation of industrial classes progressed? V.A. Skubnevsky demonstrated that the transition from manufacture to factory, which began in Siberia in the post-reform period, was completed in the main branches of local processing industry by the first decade of the 20th century. For Siberian extractive industry, the established thesis remained unchanged, which noted the transitional state of the sector from manufacture to factory at the beginning of the 20th century. A genuine technical revolution in mining was completed only in the 1920s-1930s with the introduction of coal-cutting machines, pneumatic drills, and explosives in the mines. The author declares no conflicts of interests.

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