The Archival Sources for the Histoty of the Liquorstrade in the North-East of Russia in the Late XIX – Early XX Centuries (Funds of the National Archives of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia)

• Main Author: Oxana P. Kolomiets
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Sochi State University 2015-09-01
• Series: Bylye Gody
• Subjects: archival sources; trade relations; alcohol; the illegal sale of alcohol; indigenous people; Chukchi; merchants; American traders; government supervision; North-East of Russia
• Online Access: http://bg.sutr.ru/journals_n/1442665011.pdf

In the article the complex documents of the end XIX - the first quarter of the twentieth centuries is researched which are stored in the collections of the National Archives of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) (NARS (Ya) and concerned the sale of alcoholic beverages to indigenous people of the North-East of Russia. Documents have different safety and value of source, some of them shed light on the problem of the liquor trade in the late XIX - early XX centuries. Yakut and Kolyma merchants, American entrepreneurs were active in trade with the aboriginal population of the North-East of Russia including the Chukchi, Yukagirs, Eskimos. Legislation of the Russian Empire prohibited alcohol trade in resettlement sites of the indigenous population but the facts of illegal trade were repeatedly documented and analyzed by the administrative authorities. Using of the described above historical documents and taking into account available materials allow more deeply reveal the questions on the role of Russian merchants in the liquor trade, on the administrative regulation of wine and liquor market, on the specific actions of the authorities to solve the problem of indigenous alcohol takers including the Chukchi population. With the introduction of the new documentary sources in the research process it will be possible to explore the problem of liquor trade in the North-East of Russia in the late XIX - early XX centuries.