Social and economic development of the Cherdyn-Pechora area in XVIII - early XX centuries

The paper deals with transport, trade and cultural processes in the Kolva and Pechora basins during the 18 th -early 20 th centuries. The merchants from Cherdyn district of Perm province and the Pechora entrepreneurs of peasant origin played mail roles in the turnover of goods. The inclusion of regional material in the study of social processes after the reforms of the 1860s gives the integrity to the research. Until 1918, the merchants imported bread, hunting equipment, and various manufactured goods to Pechora and exported furs, leather, fish, bacon, grindstone. They attracted local peasants to transport loads with their horses from Cherdyn to the Pechora pier Yaksha. That occupation brought substantial wealth to peasants. In spring, bread and products were immersed to barges and transported across the Pechora area. In early 1880s, Sibiryakov paved trade route to Pechora from Tobolsk through the Ural Mountains. Because of the start of competition Governor of the Arkhangelsk province Golitsyn traveled to the Pechora basin. The paper presents the observations of the Governor and his justification of promising delivery of bread and goods from Cherdyn instead of Tobolsk. Financial business of the Cherdyn merchants was accompanied by an expression of their brass outlook. Crosses and chapels were built on the Pechora portage, and a church operated in Yaksha. The merchants brought the icons painted in Cherdyn and Perm to all newly built churches in Pustozersk district of Arkhangelsk province. The author concludes that the history of commercial business should not be seen only as receiving income for personal needs of merchants, but also as its use for the resettlement of Cherdyn and for charity.