Administrative and Territorial Division of the Former Altai Region in 1917–1919

Abstract

The Altai Region with its enormous reserves of minerals, timber, and fossil fuels played a major role in the Civil War in Russia. The article describes its administrative and territorial division after the February Revolution of 1917. The author used unpublished archival documents and newspaper publications to reconstruct the process of disintegration that the Altai economic and territorial complex underwent in 1917–1919. The historical-genetic and historical-systemic methods made it possible to describe how the forest and mining territories dwindled during the abovementioned period. Although the first division plans dated back to the autumn of 1917, the actual transfer of forestry and lease areas to the neighboring provinces began as late as in the spring of 1918 and was completed in late 1919. As a result, one third of the administrative and economic units of the former Altai Region went to the neighboring departments of agriculture and state property, and the boundaries of the Altai mining district shrank significantly. Despite the fact that the region changed hands several times during the Civil War, every new government followed the same course on reducing the subordinate area in order to converge the economic and administrative boundaries of the provinces. However, the changes in power, partisan war, and rural disturbances slowed this process down. The transformations depended mainly on local initiatives while the central government was aware of the real situation in the districts.

Keywords

• administrative-territorial division
• land and forestry economy
• mining economy
• borders
• revolution
• civil war
• altai district