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Merchants of the Steppe Region in the second half of the XIX – early XX centuries: Entrepreneurship and Charity
Authors: Ainur Zh. Gabdulina, Kuralay Sh. Aubakirova, Raushan D. Akhmetova, Gulnur A. Abenova
Number of views: 221
The work examines the entrepreneurial and charitable activities of the merchants on the territory the Steppe Land. Attention is paid to the process of creating water trade routes in region, as well as related infrastructure.
The archival materials of the Central State Archives to the Republic of Kazakhstan (Almaty, Kazakhstan), some of which were introduced into scientific circulation for first time, are of great importance into work. In addition, documents from the Semey Museum of History and Local Lore (Semey, Kazakhstan) were used. Archival sources represent departmental correspondence and reports, including documents to the Semipalatinsk customs, reports of the Councils to various societies and committees, as well as letters from regional officials. Materials of periodicals were also used as sources, the newspapers “Semipalatinskaya Zhizn”, “Semipalatinsk Oblastnye Vedomosti”, “Sibirskaya Zhizn”, “Semipalatinskiy Listok”, “Tobolsk Oblast Vedomosti” and others.
In order to create a general picture to the everyday life of merchants during research, general scientific and special historical research methods were used. Among general scientific methods, generalizing, analytical and logical methods were applied. From the category of special historical methods, the authors were guided by systemic-structural, historical-retrospective, historical-genetic, as well as historical-typological methods.
In conclusion, the authors note that the contribution of the Russian merchants to the development of the region was extensive, merchants stood at the foundation the Upper Irtysh Shipping Company, a printing house, a newspaper, the largest distilleries and breweries in Central Asia and Western Siberia, a steam flour mill, private gold mining, a railway, water supply, telephone, electricity and etc., thereby creating the basis of capitalist relations in the region. In addition, the merchants spent significant funds on social projects for the creation of public schools and parochial schools, for churches and hospitals. All this together gave a significant boost to the birth of a local generation to scientific intelligentsia.