IMAGES OF THE FAR EASTERN COLONIZATION OF THE 19TH – 20TH CENTURIES (ON THE MATERIALS OF THE NIKOLAY KIRILOV ARCHIVE)

Abstract

Based on the archival materials of the famous researcher Nikolai Kirilov (1860–1921), the article examines the images of the colonization of the Far East at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. The focus of the work is on visual-anthropological materials and scientific essays created by the researcher during expeditions to Alaska, Primorye, Sakhalin, and Chukotka (1896–1904), as well as on the texts of his reports at interagency meetings on the colonization of the Lower Amur territories (1916). Analyzing Kirilov’s thematic documents in a historical and anthropological vein, the author traces the development of his colonization projects in comparison with the experiences of fellow researchers, and in connection with parallel processes in the colonization policy of Russia in the late imperial period. The key images of colonization identified by Kirilov – the economic and cultural «re-education» of indigenous peoples and the use of immigrants from Asian countries as intermediaries in the development of the region – were the most acute topics of discussions that took place in scientific and administrative circles during the studied time. However, the refractions of the images are found in the subsequent history of Russia – in the Soviet cultural centers, ethnic business initiatives of the post-Soviet period, and today's state programs. Based on the concept of the frontier as a «moving» border, as well as in the context of understanding the phenomenon of colonization as a universal process in its properties, a conclusion is made about the archives of pioneering researchers, including materials by Nikolai Kirilov, as multilayered sources for modern scholars in retrospective understanding and promising initiatives during the ongoing Far Eastern colonization.