Artel and pokrut of Murmansk fishery in the estimates of Russian researchers of the second half of the XIX - early XX century

The article considers the problem of studying employment practices of artel and pokrut utilized at Murmansk fishery in the second half of the XIX - early XX century. These practices were thorougly studied by the researches of the period in focus. Interconnections between the scientists’ interests about this problem and the processes of colonization and economic development of the Barents Sea coast in the second half of the XIX century are considered. The main trend in the study is characterized by multiple negative characteristics of the artel and pokrut practices, which were seen as a tool of poor peasants’ enslavement by more affluent ones.