Development trends of service industry in Yakutia in the late XIX century

Abstract

The object of this research is the establishment of service industry in Yakutia, while the subject is its development trends in the second half of the XIX century. Attention is focused on examination of the documents from the National Archive of Sakha Republic (Yakutia), namely content of the documents of Yakut regional administration for the period from 1850s to 1900s, reports of the town governors of the Yakut region, and comparison with the existing research on the history of Yakutia of this period. The author explore the peculiarities of service industry as a social and historical process; determine natural-climatic and historical factors impacting the development of service sector in Yakutia; review social composition of the participants, as well as headmost services in Yakutia in the late XIX century. The conclusion is made that in the late XIX century, service sector in Yakutia was at its infancy, and characterized by a contradictory tendency, which on one hand combined limitedness of the content and types of services due to immaturity of the craft, state control and initiative in this sphere; and on the other –  engaged the representatives of different social groups, set vector towards the forming consumer requests, rudiments of legal culture and civil society. The author makes an assumption that due to the historical and political development of our country, the indicated contradiction was not resolved in subsequent periods and retains certain effect on the current state and development of service sector in Yakutia. The novelty of this work consists in attraction and examination of the extensive archival material that allows broadening the knowledge on the establishment of service sector in Yakutia.