ECONOMIC “DISCOVERIES” IN CRIMEA IN WORKS BY V. F. ZUYEV AND C. L. HABLITZ: “DEFECT IN DESCRIPTION”

Abstract

The problem of adequate and reliable evaluation of the economic and social potential of re-gions plays a key role in the successful actions of state authorities on their economic development. The historical retrospective shows that incorrect evaluation of economic potential and erroneous shaping of perspective branches may hinder the economic and social development of the region.The works on Crimea by Vasilii Zuyev and Carl Hablitz are well-known in historiogra-phy. However, researchers are usually interested in the “illustrative” materials of theses works, which concerned the “natural history” of the peninsula; fl ora, fauna, geographic and geological peculiarities. The author analyses the works by Zuyev and Hablits from the point of view of their practical use and profi t for the regional economy at the initial stage of the region integra-tion into all-Russia economic space. The author has found that the data on Crimea collected by Zuyev and Hablitz were rather superfi cial, with incorrect evaluations of the region’s economic potential and its natural re-sources, with overestimation of its benefi ts in comparison with risks and objective diffi culties of economic transformations. In spite of their obvious shortcomings, these works were published and widely spread among the literate audience, thus shaping a fair public opinion regarding the economic perspectives of the region among the potential colonists of Crimea: Russian land-owners, offi cials, retired military men, and others.The author comes to the conclusion that these researches often contained factual errors, thus giving readers and potential colonists incorrect ideas of the economic and natural wealth of this region.

Keywords

• Российская империя
• Крым
• В.Ф. Зуев
• К.И. Габлиц
• научные описания
• экономика