“The young and the old alike profiteer on whatever is available”: the town markets in the “white” Siberia (1918–1919)

The article referring to Siberia’s periodical press of 1918–1919 for the first time in the national historiography analyses the situation on the consumer market and the common market practices of the townspeople in Siberia, with the emphasis on free trade and entrepreneurship. It is revealed that the Siberian anti-Bolshevik governments were unable to regulate commodity-money circulation in the interests of the population, to overcome trade deficits, inflation and speculation which caused the massive involvement of Siberian townspeople in the profiteering on food products and manufactured goods, some of them doing it for the sake of sheer profit while the others trying to physically survive.