The Contribution of the Social Activists to the Popularization of the Northern Sea Route as a Factor in the Development of the Northern Territories of the Yenisei Province (Late XIX – Early XX Centuries)

In the last quarter of the 19th and early 20th centuries, the process of capitalist modernization was actively underway in the territory of the Yenisei province. Transport communications were an important factor in the development of trade relations. This article examines the efforts of the entrepreneurial elite of Yeniseisk to promote the use of the Northern Sea Route to expand opportunities for international trade through shipping on the Yenisei River and to develop production in the Yenisei District and Turukhansk Region. Based on archival and published sources, the motives and methods of activity of the Yenisei merchants in attracting public attention to the problems of intensifying commerce in the northern regions of the Yenisei province are analyzed. The author comes to the conclusion that despite the high interest and demonstration of an active position in the use of the Northern Sea Route, entrepreneurs and social activists failed to revive the northern trade. Yeniseisk gradually lost its importance as a trade and transport hub for the development of commerce and production in the Yenisei province and Siberia as a whole.