THE FIGURE OF KASHTAKSKY JAIL AND MINE FROM “CHOROGRAFIC DRAWINGS BOOK” BY S. U. REMEZOV

Abstract

In 1696, silver ore was found in Tomsk district on the river Kashtak. In 1697, Kashtaksky jail was built at this place and an attempt to establish ore extraction and silver melting from it was made. This work was carried out by Greek craftsmen headed by A. Levandian. Our knowledge of the history of Kashtaksky development was based on a very small number of sources published in the 19th century. To a considerable extent, these publications occurred at random and did not reflect all the issues of the history of that development. Meanwhile, there is a significant set of documents on Kashtaksky development that were copied by G. F. Miller in 1740 in Tomsk and Tobolsk archives which are now stored in the Achieve of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Saint-Petersburg Branch and in the Russian State Achieve of Ancient Documents. The location of silver ore by the river Kashtak is marked in “The Draft of Tomsk City Area”, a copy of which is available in all the three atlases by S. U. Remezov. The foldout to the drawing of the river Tom in the “Chorografic drawings book” by Remezov contained an unnamed drawing of a jail and a mine. The authors believe this drawing to be a genuine image of Kashtaksky jail and mine.

Keywords

• tomsk district
• kashtaksky mine
• kashtaksky jail