Archaeological Research of the Udinskiy Ostrog through the Lens of Historiography

The article illustrates a historiographical review of archaeological research on the Udinskiy Ostrog. As confirmed by archival documents, the city’s history began with a small winter settlement established by Cossacks from the detachment of junior com-manding officer (desyatnik) Osip Vasilyev in October 1665. From the middle of the following year, the settlement functioned as a center for collecting yasak (tribute), and this fact conventionally allows historians to consider 1666 as the founding year of Ulan-Ude. Archival records indicate that the ostrog itself emerged in 1679, and in 1688 the fortress underwent reconstruction by order of F. A. Golovin, head of the Russian embassy to China, after being informed of the approach of a Chinese diplo-matic mission with a large military contingent to Selenginsk. In 1775, following the establishment of Irkutsk Governorate, Udinsk was granted the right to be designated a city. Over time, the ostrog lost its military significance, while the urban territory ex-panded. In 1812, by decree of the Russian Emperor, the city authorities of Verkh-neudinsk were permitted to demolish the remaining structures of the Udinskiy Ostrog. After a long period, the site was placed under state protection in 1996 as an object of archaeological heritage. Archaeological work on the site began in the pre-revolutionary period, but it was episodic and methodologically imperfect. Significant archaeological materials were obtained through the excavations of L. V. Lbova (1987) and B.A. Bazarov (2016). It is noted that conducting archaeological research is complicated by the dense urban development surrounding the heritage site.