Barguzin: Urban History (1783–1927)

Abstract

The article is devoted to the “urban” period of Barguzin (1783–1927) – one of the oldest settlements in the Republic of Buryatia. Its history has its own peculiarities, closely related to the marginal policy of the state. Founded as a prison settlement on the way of the Cossacks of the Russian Kingdom advancing to the East, Barguzin became one of the first strongholds of the “sovereign’s servants” on the territory of modern Buryatia. After the completion of the process of annexation of the Siberian territories, less than a third of all Siberian prisons – wooden fortresses – got a chance for further development due to their successful transport and geographical location, opportunities for economic development and patronage from the regional authorities. Barguzin was among them. The article for the first time considers the question of compliance of Barguzin with the status of the city throughout its “urban” history. Based on a wide source base, including archival documents introduced into scientific circulation for the first time, the author proves that Barguzin, even with a small population, in the chronological period under study corresponded to the criteria of the city highlighted by researchers: the diversity of the population occupations, a significant economic and political role in the region. Although Barguzin stayed only a few years as the administrative center of Western Transbaikalia, having retained the administrative status of a county town, it became the focus of the political, economic and cultural life of the region, the center of gold mining and a place of mass exile, including the political one, new cultural traditions having been brought to the urban way of life. The author states that Barguzin lost its positions at the end of the XIXth century which is explained by the decline in gold mining and remoteness from the Trans-Siberian railway. During the years of economic prosperity provided by gold mining, Barguzin did not create a material base that, with the depletion of gold placers, could fuel the city, and the remoteness from trade routes excluded a developed trade turnover that provided an influx of population. The loss of Barguzin urban status did not diminish the interest of researchers in its rich history. The basic principles and methods of historical research: objectivity, historicism, scientific, systematic, comparative analysis allowed us to identify cause-and-effect relationships, patterns, facts, features of Barguzin development due to both external and internal factors.