Military shipbuilding in the Volga region (XVIII-early XX centuries) in Russian historiography

Abstract

The article is devoted to the problem of the emergence and development of the industrial base of military shipbuilding in pre-revolutionary Russia in the Volga region. Its purpose is to analyze the work of domestic researchers on this problem, to identify on this basis the features of the shipbuilding industry in the region, to create a complete picture of its formation and development. The study was conducted within the framework of the individual periods proposed by the author, the grounds for which were both fluctuations in Russia's foreign policy in the Caspian Sea region and changes in the technical and technological aspects of shipbuilding itself. Special attention is paid to the emergence and activities of two major centers of Volga shipbuilding – the admiralty in Kazan and Astrakhan, attention is paid to the development of their production infrastructure, as well as their personnel and logistical support. The research uses both general philosophical methods of analysis and ascent from the concrete to the abstract, as well as special historical methods: chronological, periodization and comparative historical. It is revealed that organized state military shipbuilding in the Volga region arose both to implement the goals of Russia's eastern policy and to meet the needs for shipbuilding materials of the fleet being built on the Baltic Sea. The limited foreign policy goals in the Caspian Sea region predetermined the specific appearance of the shipbuilding industry formed in the Volga region. The conclusion is made about the commensurate development of the shipbuilding base in the Volga region to the level of threats to Russia's national security that existed in the Caspian Sea region during the period under study. It is emphasized that a specific feature of the shipbuilding industry's production and logistics infrastructure in the Volga region was its focus on providing strategic materials to other shipbuilding centers in Russia, primarily those working in the interests of the Baltic Fleet. The problems and issues of the history of military shipbuilding in the Volga region that require further study are shown.