Article
Article name Gold Mining in Western Transbaikalia in 1880–1920: Regional Specific Features
Authors Kal’mina L.V.Doctor of History, Associate Professor kalminal@gmail.com
Plekhanova A.M.Doctor of History, Associate Professor plehanova.am@mail.ru
Bibliographic description
Section
DOI
UDK 94(571.54)
Article type
Annotation One of the specific features of mining industry in Western Transbaikalia was that private entrepreneurship played the main role in the making and development of gold mining from the very outset. By stimulating manufacturing of goods necessary for gold mining and promoting expansion of the domestic market, the gold mining industry contributed to the economic development of Western Transbaikalia. However, in prerevolutionary period it failed to become the kernel in developing economic interrelations. The instances of modernization of this industry in pre-revolutionary period were merely sporadic. With the establishment of the Soviet power, the state being badly in need of replenishment of gold and currency reserves had to allow concession of gold-bearing zones to private entrepreneurs and businesses. Weak mechanization of gold mining processes characteristic of this branch of industry continued in the 1920s. This was connected not only with the remoteness of gold mines, but also with the unwillingness of private entrepreneurs to modernize the industry caused by the unstable Soviet policy toward private business and capital. Nevertheless, private entrepreneurship played a significant role in the recovery of gold mining industry of Buryatia and in the increase of the material resources of the state. By the late 1920s? the practice of limiting private capital was replaced by the policy of its displacement and eradication. The study has shown that despite different ideological foundation gold mining in pre-revolutionary period and in the 1920s shared some common features, such as a stake on private funds, alteration of reporting documents on the volume of gold mining in order to minimize taxation and extensive placer workings without significant mechanization of the mining process.
Key words Western Transbaikalia, Buryat-Mongolian ASSR, gold mining, modernization, private entrepreneurship
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Full articleGold Mining in Western Transbaikalia in 1880–1920: Regional Specific Features