The economy of the population of the Surgut Ob basin in the beginning of the 19th century through the eyes of a private zemsky commissar

Abstract

A previously unpublished document is presented, containing information about the subsistence activities of the inhabitants of the Middle Ob River basin, which was prepared in 1805 by a Surgut private commissar. The document was intended for the completion of a gubernatorial report to the Minister of Internal Affairs. It is interesting as one of the early experiences of characterising economic activities of the Russian and indigenous populations of North-West Siberia by local officials, as well as due to the lack of documents comparable with this one in terms of the content for the period from 1740 to 1881 for the respective region. Active involvement of administrators of the district and provincial levels in the collation of systematic information about the territorial and ethnic diversity is considered as a process of the formation of a new model of self-cognition by the Empire and collection of information by the centre for making managemental decisions. It replaced the practice of retrieving the information from foreign travellers and members of academic expeditions. The source being published is subjected to critical historical-ethnographic analysis from the point of view of completeness, relevance, and uniqueness of the data contained, and it is annotated. The discovered document contains little-known information about the consumption by the indigenous inhabitants of the Middle Ob of Calla palustris root, which they called ‘kas’ (‘khas’), as an alternative staple food when there was a shortage of fish and bread.

Keywords

• tobolsk gubernia
• middle ob region
• materials of the governor's reports
• socio-economic characteristics
• russians and siberian natives