Agricultural development of Siberia and the “Wild West”: a comparative analysis
https://doi.org/10.21285/2415-8739-2023-1-129-136
Abstract
The article discusses several aspects related to the agricultural development of vast territories in the United States (“Wild West”) and in Russia (Siberia and the Far East): the goals of colonization; issues of land ownership, government assistance in organizing resettlement, the composition of settlers, travel to sites and preparation of resettlement sites. Essentially the same tasks (strategic consolidation in the annexed territories and the introduction of new lands into agricultural circulation in order to increase state revenues) are solved by different systems in different ways. How to make the underdeveloped outskirts an integral part of the state? Such a task is solved not by the army, but by the people living on this land, and as the more of them the more productive their economy, the stronger in all respects the lands of the “frontier” are assigned to the state. The analysis makes it possible to comprehend and identify similarities and differences, as well as the role of states in resolving these issues and the results of the activities of the officials of US and Russian Empire. The agrarian development of the territories of the “Wild West” was carried out at the expense of poor farmers with the consolidation of private ownership of land, and the development of the territories of Siberia and the Far East at the expense of the state policy of supporting immigrants and state ownership of land. The scale of national efforts is impressive: in March 1917, the Russian Resettlement Administration reported on 98 soil expeditions for 1908-1914 and on the survey of one fifth of the territory of Siberia. The state policy to consolidate the border areas in both systems was successful, the territories remained in the composition of the states. The article reveals the methods and details the agricultural development of the “frontier” lands.
About the Author
O. M. Bobyleva
Irkutsk State Transport University
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Ol’ga M. Bobyleva, Cand. Sci. (History), Associate Professor of the Department of Philosophy and Social Sciences and Humanities
15, Chernyshevsky St., Irkutsk 664074
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