Sanitary conditions improvement of West Siberian cities at the end of 19th - beginning of the 20th century

The article is devoted to the problems of sanitary accomplishment of cities of Western Siberia and ways of their decision by local governments and citizens. The consequences of modernization such as urbanization, complication of construction and planning, development of social infrastructure influenced various aspects of social life in West Siberian region at the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th centuries. The sanitary condition of urban environment deteriorated. In terms of urbanization increase, intensive migration and mass epidemics in the indicated period, local authorities faced the problems of sanitary conditions improvement and health protection of locals. They tried to solve them both with the help of increase of budget expenses, issuing proper orders and with reference to public initiative when it came to urban cleanliness and order as well as sanitary instruction of citizens, organization of strict supervision of urban environment condition. An instructive example of that was the cholera epidemic in 1892, which was the reason of death of thousands of people and at the same time showed the importance of following sanitary and hygienic rules for prevention of mass epidemics. The result of the cooperation between local authorities and citizens was positive changes in sanitary condition improvement at the local level: marshes drained, city squares and parks appeared, people tried to make central streets and squares cleaner, waste dumps taken under control.In 1900s running water system was set in a number of cities including Tyumen, Omsk and Tomsk, sewerage system was improved and some laboratories appeared that controlled the quality of drinking water. Though, positive changes in sanitary condition were recorded in big cities only (Tyumen, Omsk, Barnaul, Novonikolaevsk, Tomsk), other smaller cities remained almost unchanged.