Organization of Hunting and Fishing Industry in Transbaikalia in 1919–1922

Abstract

The subject of the research is the making of hunting and fishing economy sector on the territory of Transbaikalia region in the first post-revolutionary years. Particular attention is paid to the issues of setting organizational and technical tasks for the creation of the fishing and hunting industry and its management system in 1919–1922. In 1919 the Omsk Government of Alexander V. Kolchak made an attempt of complex restructuring of the hunting and fishing economy sector on the vast territory of Western and Eastern Siberia, including Transbaikalia; in this connection special hunting zones, administratively adhered to the richest raw lands, were allocated. However, the reforms carried out during the Civil War were faced with a lack of funds and other resources to implement them in any successful way. By 1920 only the Irkutsk-Transbaikalia hunting zone was left, which became part of the Far Eastern Republic (DVR). It was the only one in Siberia and the Far East, actually the pioneer in organization of proper hunting economy on territories, where even the concept of normative-legal base for regulation of seasonal harvesting was absent. However, the broadly conceived reform programme in the industry was not implemented due to political instability and economic decline. The management of the fishing and hunting industry was guided by decrees of the overthrown Omsk government, while the Far Eastern Republic government had neither the will nor the capacity to deal with pressing, but currently overshadowed, economic issues.