Научные исследования Европейской части арктических территорий во второй половине XIX - начале XX в. как часть программы модернизации Европейского Севера России

Abstract

The article discusses main stages of scientific research of the arctic territories of the European North in the second half of the 19th – early 20th century. Drawing on historical sources and published literature, it concludes that the nature of research changed due to requirements of the time. It is known that the second half of the 19th – early 20th century was a time when society faced the task of expanding its reproduction base, which stimulated development of new spaces, introduction of new means of transport, and active inclusion of population and regions in production relations. The speed and efficiency of the developing commercial interactions between the territories came to the fore. Overcoming institutional and technical backwardness of the country and its territories involved a consistent expansion of the “effective national territory” by means of market development, spatial mobility of the main factors of production, capital, labor, and transport infrastructure improvement. The spatial expansion played a special part. The arctic zone of the North of European Russia presented great opportunities due its unique natural resources, and also prospects of solving geopolitical problems. This should have contributed to a new qualitative growth of production and transition to a new stage of development. Scientific research of the European part of the arctic territories, which was carried out at the time, was a part of the program of modernization of the North of European Russia, which unfolded on the pan-European scale. It was supported by the reorganization of administrative-territorial structure based on traditional structures of grass-roots management and prompted growing interest in the periphery as a source of resources for the growing economy; scientific research of the arctic territories intensified, as it became practical. Thanks to scientific research, the development of the Arctic territories became dynamic, which speeded up the integration of the region (in our case, the Komi krai) into the national space.