Transport development of the Far East of the Russian Empire in the views of the authorities (based on the most humble reports of the Amur Governors-General)
Konstantin D. Leonov, Postgraduate Student
Institute of History, Archaeology and Ethnology Far-Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Vladivostok, Russia, leonkotja@yandex.ru, https://orcid.org/0009-0004-2111-4418
Abstract
The article examines the views of the Russian Imperial authorities on the transport development of the Russian Far East in 1884—1903, as reflected in the most humble reports of the Amur Governors-General and the imperial commendations to them. The article analyzes the general views of the first three representatives of the Tsar in the region on the prospects for the regional development, and presents the views of the government and the administration of the Governor-General on the transport development of the region. These views are examined for specific modes of transport: rail, sea, river, and horse-drawn. It is concluded that the views of the central and local authorities on the use of transport for the development of the region were quite similar. It is noted that the goals of this development were political, while the primary means were economic, with the state as the key actor.
Keywords
Russian Far East, Amur Governorate-General, turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, railways, water transport, the most humble reports of the governors-general, the imperial commendations.
For citation:
Leonov K. D. Transport development of the Far East of the Russian Empire in the views of the authorities (based on the most humble reports of the Amur Governors-General). Vestnik of Orenburg State Pedagogical University. Electronic Scientific Journal, 2025, no. 4 (56), pp. 136—149. DOI: https://doi.org/10.32516/2303-9922.2025.56.9.
1. Barannikova A. O. Vzglyady predstavitelei regional’noi vlasti na obespechenie natsional’nykh interesov Rossii na Dal’nem Vostoke: vtoraya polovina XIX — pervaya chetvert’ XX v.: dis. … kand. ist. nauk [Views of regional government representatives on ensuring Russia’s national interests in the Far East. Second half of the 19th — first quarter of the 20th century. Cand. Dis.]. Vladivostok, 2018. 207 p. (In Russian)
2. Vsepoddanneishii otchet Priamurskogo general-gubernatora general-leitenanta Dukhovskogo. 1893, 1894 i 1895 gody [Most humble report of the Amur Region Governor-General, Lieutenant-General Dukhovskoy. 1893, 1894, and 1895]. St. Petersburg, Tip. Yu. N. Erlikh Publ., 1895. 172 p. (In Russian)
3. Vsepoddanneishii otchet Priamurskogo general-gubernatora general-leitenanta Dukhovskogo. 1896—1897 gody [The most humble report of the Amur Region Governor-General, Lieutenant General Dukhovskoy. 1896—1897]. St. Petersburg, Tip. Yu. N. Erlikh Publ., 1898. 95 p. (In Russian)
4. Vsepoddanneishii otchet Priamurskogo general-gubernatora generala ot infanterii Grodekova. 1898—1900 gody [The most humble report of the Amur Region Governor-General, Infantry General Grodekov. 1898—1900]. Khabarovsk, Tip. Kantselyarii priamurskogo general-gubernatora Publ., 1901. 148 p. (In Russian)
5. Gertsen A. I. Amerika i Rossiya [America and Russia]. Sobranie sochinenii: v 30 t. [Collected works. In 30 vols]. Moscow, Akademia nauk SSSR Publ., 1960, vol. 19, pp. 139—140. (In Russian)
6. Gladkii D. V. Vsepoddanneishie otchety general-gubernatorov Priamurskogo kraya kak istochnik po istorii gosudarstvennoi politiki v otnoshenii kitaiskogo naseleniya na Dal’nem Vostoke Rossii (1884—1917 gg.) [The most humble reports of the governors-general of the Amur region as a source on the history of state policy towards the Chinese population in the Russian Far East (1884—1917)]. Vestnik Dal’nevostochnoi gosudarstvennoi nauchnoi biblioteki, 2024, no. 4 (105), pp. 130—134. (In Russian)
7. Dameshek L. M., Dameshek I. L. Sotsial’nyi portret general-gubernatorskogo korpusa Aziatskoi Rossii v svete odnogo yubileya (k 210-letiyu so dnya rozhdeniya general-gubernatora Vostochnoi Sibiri grafa N. N. Murav’eva-Amurskogo) [Social portrait of governor-general’s corps of Asian Russia in the light of the jubilee (to the 210th anniversary of the birth of governor-general in the Eastern Siberia, count N. N. Murav’ev-Amurskiy)]. Vestnik Buryatskogo nauchnogo tsentra Sibirskogo otdeleniya Rossiiskoi akademii nauk — Bulletin of the Buryat Scientific Center of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 2019, no. 3 (35), pp. 10—23. DOI: 10.31554/2222-9175-2019-35-10-23. (In Russian)
8. Matkhanova N. P., Rodigina N. N. Vsepoddanneishie otchety kak istochnik dlya izucheniya predstavlenii sibirskikh general-gubernatorov vtoroi poloviny XIX stoletiya o regione [Loyal reports as a source to study Siberian general-governors’ views on the region in the second half of the XIX century]. Gumanitarnye nauki v Sibiri — Humanitarian Sciences in Siberia, 2019, vol. 26, no. 1, pp. 45—51. DOI: 10.15372/HSS20190108. (In Russian)
9. Matkhanova N. P., Rodigina N. N. Obraz Sibiri v otchetakh general-gubernatorov vtoroi poloviny XIX v. [The image of Siberia in the reports of Governors-General in the second half of the 19th century]. Quaestio Rossica, 2019, vol. 7, no. 3, pp. 835—850. DOI: 10.15826/qr.2019.3.411. (In Russian)
10. Matkhanova N. P., Rodigina N. N. “Priamur’e ne Sibir’”: reprezentatsiya otlichii Sibiri i Dal’nego Vostoka v otchetakh general-gubernatorov vtoroi poloviny XIX v. [“Amur region is not Siberia”: Representation of differences between Siberia and the Far East in the reports of governors-general in the second half of the 19th century]. Vestnik Tomskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta — Tomsk State University Journal, 2021, no. 463, pp. 117—124. DOI: 10.17223/15617793/463/15. (In Russian)
11. Medvedev K. A. Proekty osvoeniya Dal’nego Vostoka v rossiiskoi obshchestvennoi mysli: konets XIX — nachalo XX v. : dis. … kand. ist. nauk [Projects for the development of the Far East as Russian social idea: late 19th — early 20th centuries. Cand. Dis.]. Moscow, 2021. 263 p. (In Russian)
12. Rossiiskii gosudarstvennyi istoricheskii arkhiv [Russian State Historical Archives]. F. 1276. Op. 4. D. 38.
13. Rossiiskii gosudarstvennyi istoricheskii arkhiv Dal’nego Vostoka [Russian State Historical Archive of the Far East] (RGIA DV). F. 1. Op. 1. D. 1383.
14. RGIA DV. F. 702. Op. 1. D. 174.
15. RGIA DV. F. 702. Op. 1. D. 304.
16. RGIA DV. F. 702. Op. 7. D. 11.
17. RGIA DV. F. 702. Op. 7. D. 45.
18. Svod vysochaishikh otmetok po vsepoddanneishim otchetam general-gubernatorov, gubernatorov, voennykh gubernatorov i gradonachal’nikov [Collection of the imperial commendations to the most humble reports of governors-general, governors, military governors, and city mayors]. (St. Petersburg, Gos. tip. Publ.), 1896. 253 p. (In Russian)
19. Svod vysochaishikh otmetok po vsepoddanneishim otchetam za 1881—1890 gg. general-gubernatorov, gubernatorov, nachal’nikov oblastei i gradonachal’nikov [Collection of the imperial commendations to the most humble reports for 1881—1890 of governors-general, governors, heads of regions, and city mayors]. (St. Petersburg, Gos. tip. Publ.), 1893. 522 p. (In Russian)
20. Smykovskii A. V. Rechnoi transport yuga Dal’nego Vostoka Rossii vo vtoroi polovine XIX — nachale XX veka: dis. … kand. ist. nauk [River transport in the south of Russian Far East in the second half of the 19th — early 20th centuries. Cand. Dis.]. Blagoveshchensk, 2012. 222 p. (In Russian)