The Work of the Resettlement Administration in the Uriankhai Region in the Early 20th Century in the Context of the Development of Russian-Tuvan Relations

Abstract

The article is devoted to the analysis of the work of the resettlement administration at the beginning of the twentieth century in the Uriankhai region (modern Republic of Tyva). The creation of a permanent resettlement management body on the territory of the former colony of China has become an important factor contributing to the strengthening of Russian-Tuvan economic ties. In foreign and domestic historiography, the issues of implementing tasks to streamline the colonization process in Uriankhai are considered in the context of a general analysis of the socio-political development of Russian-Tuvan ties, the solution of the “Uriankhai issue” in the diplomacy of Russia, China and Mongolia. In fact, there are no special studies devoted to the analysis of the work of the resettlement management bodies in the field. The purpose of this article is to analyze the activities of the Russian authorities to streamline the process of resettlement and improvement of the region in the early twentieth century. This topic is relevant in the context of the implementation of state support programs for the settlement of Siberia and the Far East. The article uses a microhistoric approach, a special method of source analysis, as well as general scientific methods of comparison, analysis, generalization and comparison of factual material, which made it possible to identify the general nature of the implementation of the tasks of resettlement management in border regions. The article is based on the materials of the Russian State Historical Archive, the State Archive of the Republic of Tyva, the State Archive of the Irkutsk region. China and Mongolia, seeking to strengthen their influence in the province after the establishment of the Russian protectorate, did not have their own mechanisms of political and economic influence, so most of the activities implemented by the Resettlement Department on the ground were perceived positively by the Tuvan population. This fact refutes the prevailing opinion of Soviet researchers about the purely "negative" impact of the tsarist government on the economic development of Tuva in the early twentieth century. The conflicts and contradictions arising between the resettlement official and the border commissioner, the local population, were not of a private nature, as is commonly believed in Russian historiography, but were due to the difference in the official positions of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Main Directorate of Land Management and Agriculture on the "Urianhai question"