Siberian Region Research Articles

Экономическая безопасность в приграничных регионах Сибири

Russia has a huge area of border regions, which, on the one hand, have opportunities to establish business cooperation with a neighboring state, but, on the other hand, are forced to respond to the risks of a border location. The problems of cross-border cooperation are of particular relevance today for the regions of the Siberian Federal District, since in the context of the activation of the Asian direction of Russia's foreign economic strategy, the role of cooperation between the Siberian regions with the regions of Kazakhstan, Mongolia and China is increasing. The purpose of the article is to assess the economic security of the border regions of Siberia - the Omsk and Novosibirsk regions, the Altai Territory and the republics of Altai and Tyva - in terms of compliance with the key criteria of cross-border location - population, border facilities, trade turnover structure, etc. The article highlights the main signs of economic security of the border region, formulates its quantitative and qualitative characteristics, identifies potential threats and risks that require the formation of a special system of economic security of the border region. The author makes a division between potential and actual threats to economic security, examines the channels of influence of social and economic development of the border regions of the neighboring country on the economic security of the Siberian regions. The article presents a comparative analysis of the border regions of the Siberian Federal District on key parameters of economic security, on the basis of which trends and problems of regional development were identified. In the final part of the article, the author formulated promising directions for establishing cross-border cooperation between the regions of Siberia and the regions of neighboring states in the current conditions, and made recommendations for the development of border regions.

General characteristic of illegal online stores located in the Siberian region and specializing in the illegal sale of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances

General characteristic of illegal online stores located in the Siberian region and specializing in the illegal sale of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances

Гендерные особенности биоэлементного статуса у подростков с ожирением, проживающих в Сибирском регионе

Objective. To identify the gender-related characteristics of bioelement status in Siberian adolescents with obesity. Patients and methods. The study included 240 adolescents aged 12 to 17 years living in the Siberian Region, predominantly in Irkutsk. The adolescents participating in the study were divided into groups with exogenous constitutional obesity (23 boys and 99 girls) and control groups with normal body weight (34 boys and 84 girls). Adolescents in the study and control groups were comparable in terms of age and presence of comorbidities. Parameters of bioelement homeostasis were determined by serum biochemistry and included the measurement of potassium, sodium, calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, chlorine, copper, zinc, and iron. Results. The analysis revealed the following serum values in Siberian adolescents relative to the reference range: in boys, the levels of magnesium were elevated by 3.65%, zinc – by 3.83%, phosphorus concentrations were decreased by 1.57%; in girls, the content of sodium was elevated by 0.27%, magnesium – by 7.31%, zinc – by 11.73%, calcium concentrations were decreased by 0.86%. In the presence of obesity, boys demonstrated an increase in phosphorus concentrations (p = 0.0001), while girls showed mixed bioelementosis in the form of elevated phosphorus concentrations (p = 0.001), decreased zinc (p = 0.039) and iron (p = 0.043). Gender-related differences in obese adolescents included higher potassium levels in males (p = 0.033). Conclusion. The prevention and correction of bioelement homeostatic disorders in the presence of obesity in Siberian adolescents requires a gender-differentiated approach. Key words: bioelements, gender differences, obesity, nutrition, adolescents

Отражение художественной жизни Сибири в публикациях Г. Н. Потанина по вопросам искусства

The article analyzes the literary and journalistic activities of the key pre-revolutionary period for the city of Tomsk, the ideologist of Siberian regionalism, ethnographer and public figure Grigory Nikolaevich Potanin, concerning the regional aspect of artistic life. The materials of pre-revolutionary periodicals are used as sources. The author sets himself the task of identifying the features of G. N. Potanin ideas on Siberian regionalism (a local variant of regionalism) in texts on issues of art. It is noted that in his texts Grigory Potanin is trying to systematize the artistic heritage of Siberia, singles out the names of famous painters who came from the region, analyzes the creative heritage of Vasily Surikov. Grigory Potanin insists on the need to create art galleries in the region and regularly hold exhibitions of paintings, graphics and sculpture in order to increase the level of artistic taste among the population, and as a result, general education. The author also mentions that Grigory Potanin pays attention to the work of not only professional artists, but also masters of arts and crafts, urging the motifs drawn from local flora and fauna in ornaments. Being an ethnographer, Grigory Potanin does not miss the opportunity to talk about the life of the indigenous population of Altai on the examples of a number of paintings and graphic works by local artists, such as Grigory Gurkin, Lidia Bazanova and others. Accordingly, the great importance of Grigory Potanin contributes to the development of the local intelligentsia in Tomsk, largely linking the factors influencing this process with the establishment of higher educational institutions in the city. The ideologist of regionalism considers it necessary to culturally bring the commonalty and the intelligentsia closer together and zealously experiences the outflow of the intelligentsia from the city. It can be stated that the ideas expressed by Grigory Potanin on the pages of the Tomsk press had a huge impact on his contemporaries. Perhaps, in other historical circumstances, the regional ideology could take deeper roots in Siberia. Today we can only respect the literary heritage of Grigory Potanin and keep the memory of him as a man who sincerely loved his native land and sought to enrich it culturally.

ЭКОЛОГО-ЭКОНОМИЧЕСКАЯ ОЦЕНКА РАЗВИТИЯ РЕГИОНОВ СИБИРИ С ПОЗИЦИЙ КОНЦЕПЦИИ «ЗЕЛЕНОЙ» ЭКОНОМИКИ

The concept of green economy is relatively new among the existing models for the socio-economic development of countries and regions. It is developed by the international community within the framework of sustainable development ideology. The purpose of our study is to assess the development dynamics of Siberian regions over the past 30 years taking into account the ecological capacity of this development and the prospects for implementing the principles of green economy. To this end, we used index, mathematical-statistical, and comparative geographical methods of research. The green economy development of Siberian regions was assessed on the basis of calculating the ecological capacity indicators and the decoupling coefficient – a quantitative tool for measuring the relationship between economic growth, resource consumption, and environmental pollution. As the study showed, in all regions of Siberia, the decoupling effect on major indicators of statistically accountable environmental pollution corresponds to the general Russian trends. Compared to the early 1990s, the indicators of environmental intensity of economic growth have dropped by several times. However, in Kemerovo and Tomsk Oblasts (regions) as well as in Krasnoyarsk Krai these indices remain high. Another negative aspect is energy-intensive GRP in Siberian regions, which exceeds the average Russian level by 1.2–4.6 times, especially in Kemerovo and Irkutsk Oblasts as well as in the Republics of Khakassia and Tyva. The observed structural shifts in the economy, namely an increase in the share of the non-manufacturing sector, enhance the opportunities for ‘green growth’ in the regions through the development of less carbon-intensive industries. At the same time, the implementation of the green economy principles is only at the initial stage. Based on the assessment of the regional development dynamics and its ecological capacity, we propose a differentiated approach to be used to improve the environmental and economic sustainability of Siberian regions.

«Погружаясь в онтологию тюремных застенок»: общественно-политические идеи Н. М. Ядринцева о местах заключения и ссыльнопоселенцах на страницах дореволюционных изданий «Дело» и «Неделя»

The publication is devoted to the reconstruction of social and political ideas of N. M. Yadrintsev in the field of problems of penitentiary policy. The authors emphasize the current political journalism of the ideologist of the Siberian regionalism, presented in the pre-revolutionary publications Delo and Nedelya. The purpose of the study is to show that it was on the pages of these central publications that the Siberian intellectual for the first time in his ideological and political heritage multilaterally reflected on exile as a punishment and widely discussed the “prison issue”. The article establishes that the founder of Siberian democratic regionalism consistently and systematically outlined a set of problematic issues and pain points of the state penitentiary policy of pre-revolutionary Russia already at an early stage of his ideological and political work. It is also shown that, within the framework of cooperation with democratic St. Petersburg publications, N. M. Yadrintsev shared with the reader his own observations and thoughts about the correctional and colonization significance of exile. Trying to substantiate the thesis of the inexpediency of exile to Siberia, the educator on the pages of the "Case" gave a detailed analysis of the historical sketch of Russian exile. Also, the ideologist of regionalism emphasized that solitary confinement, especially long-term one, only coarsens the criminal.

Bioenergy component of seeds and green mass of indian pea in various growing conditions

The article is devoted to the analysis of the results of studying cultivars of indian pea (Lathyrus sativus L.) under the conditions of the Nizhnevolzhsky (Saratov) and West Siberian (Omsk) regions of the Russian Federation. Indianpea serves a variety of purposes: compound feed, forage, an alternative source of protein for the population, due to the high protein content in seeds and mature leaves. In the arid conditions of the Russian Federation, the indianpea is able to occupy its own agronomic niche and become an additional source of replenishing cheap protein and improving the quality of the forage base. In this connection, a study of four varieties of the indianpea breeding of the 1Russian Research Institute for Sorghum and Maize "Rossorgo" (Racheika, Zhemchuzhina, Elena, Mramornya) was carried out according to economically valuable parameters, data were obtained on the biochemical composition of seeds and green mass, and an assessment was carried out on bioenergetic parameters. The influence of factors “A”, “B” and their interaction “AB” on the manifestation of signs was noted. According to the results of a two-factor analysis of variance, it follows that the factor of growing conditions (A) has the greatest influence on the seed yield index – 64.2%, and the yield of green mass - the genotype factor (B) - 59.5%. The study revealed a high protein content in seeds (28.3-31.1%) and green mass (21.0-26.3%). Determination of the biochemical composition makes it possible to evaluate varieties in terms of gross energy output with seeds and green mass. According to the parameters of the bioenergetic efficiency of seeds, the best indicators were found in the varieties Elena and Zhemchuzhina. Variety Elena was distinguished by the highest content of total energy in the green mass of 48.0-94.8 GJ/ha. Variety Zhemchuzhina was characterized by the maximum content of total energy in the grown seed crop – 26.0-29.3 GJ/ha, the largest increment in gross energy – 12.6 GJ/ha and the highest energy efficiency coefficient of all four varieties – 1.94.

Потенциал развития экспорта российской и казахстанской агропродукции в Китай

Due to their vast territory suitable for agriculture, surplus production of agricultural products and geographical proximity to the northern and western provinces of China, Russia and Kazakhstan can take significant positions in the growing Chinese market. The development of international transport corridors with access to China will contribute to the increase of the competitive capabilities of the two countries and the growth of export volumes. In this context, the interstate railway corridor with Dostyk border station (Kazakhstan) as a connecting link seems very promising. The development of this direction of agro-logistics will contribute to the inclusion of Siberian and Ural regions of the Russian Federation in international trade, will be an important factor in the international role of the Republic of Kazakhstan by attracting transit cargo from Russia. The transport corridor through Dostyk is also relevant in the context of sanctions against Russia and the need to reorient trade flows with unfriendly countries to other directions. The article identifies the types of agricultural products and regions of the cargo area that are the most promising for exports from Russia and Kazakhstan through Dostyk. To assess the potential for the development of this transport corridor, the analysis of agricultural cargo export flows from Russia and Kazakhstan to China in terms of ports and border crossings is presented, the problems and bottlenecks of agro-export logistics of Russia and Kazakhstan are studied, the economic efficiency of traditional railway and container transportation is compared, and the competitiveness of Russian agricultural products supplies to China through Dostyk in comparison with other logistics directions is estimated. The findings indicate that the regions of the cargo zone of Russia and Kazakhstan have high shipping potential for railway deliveries to China through Dostyk. However, its implementation is possible under a number of conditions: changes in railway transportation tariffs and removal of export restrictions, while intensifying negotiations between countries with China to reduce the level of customs and administrative barriers.

Catching-up regional strategy as a tool to reduce spatial inequality

The article is devoted to the problem of spatial inequality of regions caused by centripetal or centrifugal forces because of agglomeration effects and interaction costs. It corresponds with the main idea of new economic geography. A differentiated approach to regional development strategizing is proposed in the study as a tool for reducing the level of spatial imbalance. Herein the use of technological arbitrage (catching-up) strategy is proposed for peripheral regions by strengthening interregional interaction. In the paper, two hypotheses are investigated: (1) The economic growth of territories, caused by industry diversification, positive externalities from Research and Development, the quality of human capital, which are typical of the ?center? type of regions and (2) The formation of a unified macroeconomic space is possible due to strategies of technological arbitrage (catchingup strategy) for peripheral regions. Its implementation is possible through innovation, industrial-technological, and trade-technological complementarity development of peripheral regions with the central regions. The research methods are: panel regression with fixed effects, Data Envelopment Analysis method, and Malmquist Productivity Index, paired interregional complementarity indices. The study focuses on 10 regions of Siberian Federal District in the Russia, which differ in scale, structure, and level of innovative economic development. The study results confirm the possibility of reducing the level of spatial inequality using catching-up strategies and innovation complementarity of the regions. These strategies proved only for technical efficiency leading regions with high index of complementarity. In regions with a low complementarity index and different industry profile, large-scale interregional cooperation has not been confirmed.

Первый в Сибири: к 80-летию иркутского диссертационного совета по истории

The review gives a positive assessment of the monograph, which represents the 80- year development of the Dissertation Council in Historical Sciences at the ISU. The authors examined the history of the Council in the context of the state policy implementation in the field of science and education. The monograph presents a broad biographical base, supplemented by personal memoirs of council members. It is highlighted that the authors have convincingly proved the leading role of the Council in the training of highly qualified personnel for the Siberian region.

СОВРЕМЕННЫЕ СОЦИОКУЛЬТУРНЫЕ ПРОЦЕССЫ В СИБИРИ

The author examines in his report the main changes that have taken place in self-consciousness, material and spiritual culture, relations between the peoples of Western and Eastern Siberia. She analyzes the sociocultural dynamics from the end of the 20t hcentury until now. Identifes the main factors that caused a particular variability and plurality of identity (national, ethnic, civil, regional, religious) among the modern population of the Siberian region. Active contacts of different peoples, religions, cultures contributed to the formation of a special socio-cultural diversity, but did not exclude the traditional elements of their mentality and culture.

Массовые церковные источники Барнаульского духовного правления второй половины XVIII – начала XIX вв.: особенности сохранности материалов в архивах Сибири

This article examines issues of mass sources preservation of the Barnaul Spiritual Commissioned Government (BSG) of the second half of the 18th – early 19th century. The object of the study is confession sheets and parish books of 24 BSG parishes, deposited in the archives of Siberia: the State Archive of the Tomsk Region (GATO), the State Archive of the Altai Krai (GAAK), and the State Archive of the Novosibirsk Region (GANO). The BSG within its present borders covers the territory of the Altai Krai, the Republic of Altai, and some districts of the Tomsk, Kemerovo, Novosibirsk regions and the Republic of Kazakhstan. Despite extensive historiography on the institution of the Orthodox Church in Siberia, there are almost no works on the development of parish system of the West Siberian region, on characteristics of demographic processes, and peculiarities of mass sources preservation of the second half of the 18th – early 19th century. It is concluded that during the initial period of the BSG work (1750–54), mass documentation was poorly preserved (there exist occasional registers for individual parishes). The majority of confession sheets were deposited in the GATO after 1755. The level of source preservation can be assessed as high (although uneven in different parishes): in the general approximation, losses of documents amount to 9.3% of the chronological duration. There are more frequent temporary gaps in preservation of documents for parishes that were transferred from one spiritual government to another. Dispersion of the documentary complex over various fonds of the GATO is low. The GATO demonstrates good preservation of confessional sheets, in the GAAK their representation is poor, and they are absent in the GANO. The BSG parish books are dispersed in various archives of Siberia and in various fonds of these archives. The main collection of the BSG sources has been preserved in three fonds of the GATO (56 archival files). The loss of documents in this archive amount to 26.7% of the chronological duration. For some parishes, the proportion of source losses is even greater. The materials of the GANO (43 archival files) and GAAK partially fill in data gaps. However, even in these archives, files differ in their completeness. Thus, in the GAAK, the array of BSG sources has been preserved with small gaps only for 5–8 parishes, mostly after 1802. In all three Siberian archives there are sources for a later period (19th – early 20th century), but these are outside the scope of our research.

Литературный истерн как художественное открытие П. К. Белецкого

The study explores genre genesis of “literary eastern”, formed in the work of P. K. Beletsky at the beginning of the 1910s, ahead of the appearance of its cinematic twin, in cultural and historical aspects. The Russian writer, who, to a certain extent, took into account the experience of creators of the Western westerns, created an “archaic” of the genre type of eastern that received further development in Russian literature and culture. The genre specificity of such works of Beletsky, traditionally defined as “novel” in the writer’s metapoetics, is manifested in the creation of a “frontier” situation, a narrative expression of cultural interaction between “civilization” and the “wild” world of the uncharted Eastern Siberian region of Russia. Unlike Western westerns, the Russian version of this type of literary work embodies the idea of achieving “common good” rather than individual egoistic success with the prospects of socially progressive and humanistic transformations. Beletsky's eastern laid the traditions of a large epic form, tracing back to the constructions of the novel type, characterized by a pronounced novelistic task, contamination of intensive (acuity of action, action scenes) and extensive (description of everyday life, wide distribution of the action) principles of constructing the plot, the homogeneousness of artistic situations, “scenaricity”, “cinematographic frameness”, ethical polarization in the character system, determination to depict “exceptional” characters and circumstances. The poetics of Beletsky’s literary eastern had an impact on the formation of “narrative formulas” of the corresponding cinema genre.

«Особый путь» литературы Сибири? (Опыт реконструкции историософских и литературно-критических источников сибирского областничества)

An attempt is presented to reconstruct the historiosophical and literary-critical sources of Grigory Potanin’s article “A novel and a story in Siberia.” This article is key to the literary criticism of the “senior” regionalists. Consideration is given to two phenomena: 1) the Russian literature of the 19th century, regarded as “incorrect” as it was forced to evolve rapidly due to the lagging in its development (the consequence of the forced modernization of Russia), and 2) Western European literature, regarded “normal” and supplying the Russian literature with forms seen as models. These two phenomena were reproduced several decades later on a more local scale though less consistently: 1) Russian literature, having become “normative” for the Russian reader by the 1870s, and 2) the literature of Siberia lagging in its development compared to Russian literature. The leaders of Siberian regionalism would speak about the “specialness” of Siberia when comparing it both with Russia and Europe, with this “specialness” requiring a special representation. Considering criticism as an institution that “supervises” literature, Potanin, as his associate and friend Yadrintsev, suggested a radical thesis about the absence of literature in Siberia in his article. At the same time, relying on Karamzin’s article “Why are there few author talents in Russia?” and the first “Philosophical Letter” by Chaadaev, Potanin joins the discourse of the “shortage” of literature generated by several Russian critics of the first third of the 19th century. Potanin’s thought follows the paradigm formed in literary criticism and historiosophical discourse of this period.

Монголия: внешняя торговля и развитие инфраструктуры

The paper reveals the modern specifics of the economy and plans for the development of infrastructure in Mongolia. The influence of anti-COVID restrictions on foreign trade is being studied. It is shown that the problems of export and raw material development and inland Mongolian isolation in the face of restrictions on crossing the border with China for vehicles were exacerbated by the poor development of the railway network. As a result of these restrictions, coal production and exports from Mongolia to China more than halved in 2020–2021. Together with the fall in coal prices in 2020 and the collapse in the services sector, this led to the deepest recession in the Mongolian economy since 1992. Plans for the development of international transport and energy corridors through Mongolia are being considered. Based on actual data, the insignificant role of Mongolia in the dynamically growing transit of container cargo in the direction of China–Europe–China is shown. The unsatisfactory condition of the Trans-Mongolian Railway and the absence of railways in a number of promising directions of freight flows prevent the full realization of the transit potential of Mongolian freight traffic. In connection with Russia’s reorientation of export flows to Asia, the Eastern Railway Corridor stands out as a promising corridor through Mongolia. A strategically significant initiative, which in the context of anti-Russian sanctions will seriously strengthen economic cooperation in the regional triangle Russia-Mongolia-China, is the plan to build a Soyuz-Vostok transit gas pipeline through Mongolia. This project will allow redirecting gas supplies from the West Siberian region of Russia, previously supplied to Europe, directly to the capital region of China. Mongolia is also interested in the implementation of this large-scale project, which seeks to obtain new opportunities for economic development. The implementation of these infrastructure development plans will allow Mongolia to not only take advantage of its location between Russia and China and strengthen the economic base for cooperation with them, but also, in general, lay the foundation for economic diversification and deeper integration into the global economic system.

Система расселения Монголии и ее опорный каркас: особенности, динамика, эффекты

The peculiarities of the hierarchy of administrative-territorial division and the system of settlements of Mongolia are revealed. Somons (330 in total) – the second level of this division - were accepted as the initial territorial units of the study. The dynamics for 1980-2021 of the population of the country as a whole is considered, the trends of changes in the number and proportion of urban (including Ulaanbaatar) and rural (including nomadic) populations are clarified. It is established that the main demographic indicators of Mongolia are significantly more favorable than similar indicators of neighboring Siberian regions of Russia. A significant differentiation of population dynamics by somons and urban settlements over the past two decades has been revealed. It is determined that in conditions of constant natural population growth, an important contribution to the formation of its territorial structure was made by the migration factor, primarily migration from rural areas to the capital and individual aimag centers. The basic framework of settlement is highlighted, which is formed by the capital and the centers of the aimags (as nodal elements) and the railways connecting them and the main national paved roads (as linear elements). A high effect of the importance of linear elements of the frame (highways) has been established for the concentration of the population of Mongolia. At the same time, the size of the effect of saving actual distances in the framework of the country compared to the theoretical ones is insignificant, which indicates a relatively uniform placement of centers compared, for example, with a more heterogeneous Siberia. The main problems of the settlement system of Mongolia and its supporting framework are formulated, possible directions of their solution in the future are outlined.

ПУТЬ ДЛИНОЙ В СТОЛЕТИЕ: ОТ БЮЛЛЕТЕНЯ "СИБАРХИВ" 1920-Х ГГ. ДО НАУЧНО-ИСТОРИЧЕСКОГО ЖУРНАЛА СИБИРСКИХ АРХИВИСТОВ "СИБИРСКИЙ АРХИВ"

The article presents results of the analysis conducted on the basis of archival materials of the bulletin “Sibarchiv” – the first in Siberia periodic information archival publication, which played an extremely important role in establishing the information exchange of archival institutions in the vast territories of the Siberian Region, in popularizing archives, attracting them to scientific work. All three and a half years’ worth of issues of the bulletin are considered in detail and the most important topics and questions raised in it since 1928 highlighted. The outstanding role of V.D. Wegman, the head of the Sibarchive in saving documentary and archival materials from plunder and destruction, in organizing provincial archival departments, in attracting scientifically erudite, dedicated archiving specialists for work in the archives of Siberia is indicated. It is shown how the experience of the bulletin “Sibarchiv” turned out to be in demand by archivists of the late 20th century – early 21st century. The examples given in the article prove that modern versions of the periodic archival press – the bulletin “Novosibirsk Archival Bulletin” and the scientific and historical electronic journal “Siberian Archive” – have absorbed interesting and effective forms and methods of work from their predecessors, revived and preserved the best traditions, remained in line with the current concerns of the professional community of historians and archivists in Siberia.

Результаты использования геофизических данных для поисков перспективных зон ресурсов горючих ископаемых на территории Восточно-Сибирского гигантского мантийного плюма

The object of research of the article is the territory of the East Siberian geocon. The subject of the article is deposits of combustible minerals. The purpose of the article is to show the presence of a certain spatial relationship in the location of oil, gas, and coal deposits with the location of tectonic concentric structures fixed on the Earth’s surface by satellite data on the territory of the East Siberian region (East Siberian Geocon). A separate task of the article is an attempt to separate all tectonic concentric structures by diametrical dimensions, geological age of formation of rocks of their crystalline basement and the relationship of these structures with deposits of combustible minerals. As methods, methods of decoding satellite images and aeromagnetic methods were used to isolate tectonic concentric structures in the relief of surface and deeper layers of the Earth. The methodology of the search for deposits of combustible minerals is associated with the spatial and deep interrelation of tectonic concentric structures and the ancient mantle plumes forming them – sources of degassing of hydrocarbon fluids. As a result, a system of classification of spatial dimensions of all major types of tectonic concentric structures was developed based on numerous statistical measurements. In particular, it has been revealed that certain types of mineral deposits are confined to tectonic concentric structures. As an area of application, it can be assumed that the peripheral spatial location of large oil, gas, bitumen, and coal deposits is predicted relative to the central part of the Precambrian mantle plumes of the East Siberian region, forming tectonic concentric structures similar to the Kureyskoy and Enisey-Khatangskoy tectonic concentric structures, where oil and gas fields are concentrated and the Nizhne-Tungusskoy tectonic concentric structure, where coal deposits are concentrated.

Russification of the Indigenous Peoples of Siberia in the Orthodox Missionary Publicism of the Second Half of the 19th Century

In the second half of the 19th century the Russian Empire engaged in the active process of nation-building. Essential to it was the process of Russification, or the various forms of assimilation of ethnic minorities. This term is one of the controversial and ambiguous concepts in modern historical, social and cultural research. The article suggests a constructive approach to this issue which implies situational analysis of the process of Russification through specifying the conditions and actors of intercultural interaction. The article examines the understanding of Russification as an aspect of the process of Christianization, expressed by several prominent representatives of the Transbaikal and Altai missions. It focuses on the opinion of a Transbaikal missionary Veniamin (Blagonravov), who considered Russification a necessary condition for the success of preaching Christianity. Unlike in the western borderlands of the empire, where Russification took a distinct political and legal turn, in most cases in Siberia it occurred as a spontaneous process carried out through the interaction of the indigenous population with various social groups of the Russian people (artisans, government officials, exiles). Missionaries were among the most significant agents and mediators of the Russian language and culture in the region. At the same time, the conditions of interaction between missionaries and the indigenous population varied in different Siberian regions. The article reveals the differences in the understanding of the need for Russification in the process of Christianization of the local population by the missionaries and highlights the factors influencing the interpretation of the tasks and methods of missionary activity, in particular, the specifics of the local cultural situation, the degree of social organization of the indigenous peoples and the peculiarities of their traditional beliefs.

The Historical Statistics of the Altai Information System

In the era of the digital turn, it is becoming relevant to create information resources that provide researchers with not only background information about historical sources but also reliable historical data. At the all-Russian level, such resources come from library centres (National Electronic Library, Presidential Library), archival authorities (Central Fund Catalogue), and public organisations (Russian Historical Society, Russian Geographical Society). For some regions, this task remains new and requires modern approaches and solutions. The article provides a description of the information system for a set of statistical materials on the history of Altai in the nineteenth – the first half of the twentieth centuries kept in central and regional libraries, archives, digitised publications, and collections with the possibility of versatile search and analysis of historical data. On the one hand, the chronological boundaries of the materials included in the database depend on the formation of the foundations of regular statistics in the mid-nineteenth century, and, on the other hand, on the establishment of Altai Krai within its present-day boundaries in 1937. The territorial framework of the study covers the borders of Altai as a historical region, which was included in the period under review in such administrative-territorial formations as Tomsk and Altai provinces and Siberian and West Siberian regions. The study employs a systematic approach, examining various types of statistical data as elements of a single set of sources on the history of Altai in the nineteenth – first half of the twentieth centuries. In its IT aspect, the study relies on database technology, both a tool and a result of the study. The Historical Statistics of Altai information system was created under the control of MySQL and consists of directories and four main modules: storage, sources, tags, and documents. The authors examine database architecture, logical structure, and data characteristics of the modules. The information system on the historical statistics of Altai will make it possible to solve some of the heuristic tasks related to the search and use of archival, museum, and library funds, including familiarisation with historical sources and their preliminary analysis in remote access mode. As a result, it will significantly expand research opportunities.