Sources on studying history of development of transport, communication and trade lines in Gorny Altaiin late 19th - first half of 20th century

A complete picture of regional development of communication lines is restored on archival sources. There are reports, orders, circulars,petitions, requests, correspondence, notes, and inquiries directly concerning the given theme. In the Russian state historical archive ofSt.-Petersburg we investigated the documents of funds containing reports, certificates, inquiries, conclusions, reports on industry andtrade conditions in the country. We found data concerning organization of trading business locally. The substantial data on reconstructionof the Chuysky mountain track into a wheel road and appendices to them have great importance in the data presented in annualreports of governors. These sources are valuable because they cover practically all aspects of social and economic life in the country. Indocuments of the State archive of Novosibirsk region the data on civil-engineering designs of the Chuysky Trakt, on disputes betweenthe Right-bank and Left-bank variants supporters were found. The state archive of administration of Biysk preserved various instructions,the plan of roadwork on the Ulalinsky Trakt, the report of the chief of road construction on the profits of roads construction. TheCommittee on Archives of the Altai Republic has the most considerable part of documents. These are orders on the Chuysky Trakt RoadManagement of the People's Commissariat of the Internal Affairs of the USSR, annual financial reports, orders on preparation of springevents on roads, various administrative questions, lists of employees of the road department. Among the published sources it is necessaryto allocate economic-statistical researches, reviews, results of expeditions, commercial and industrial calendars and yearbooks,statistical reports, etc. We took interesting materials from the press and from epistolary sources. In Tomsk Provincial Sheets, for example,there were messages on the fairs that took place in Biysk district during the considered time, with the description of the assortment,goods brought there and instructions of the prices for each kind of goods. The complex analysis of sources allows us to draw a conclusionon possibility to recreate the authentic history of establishment and development of communication and trade lines in Gorny Altaiin the second half of the 19th - first half of the 20th centuries and the influence of the new transport infrastructure on social and economicdevelopment of the region.

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