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Humanitarian sciences in Siberia

2019 year, number

GOVERNMENTAL AGRONOMY IN SIBERIA (1892-1917): ACHIEVEMENTS AND FAILURES

V.M. Rynkov
Institute of History SB RAS, 8, Nikolaev Str., Novosibirsk, 630090, Russian Federation
Keywords: агрономические службы, зерновое производство, животноводство, опытное дело, сельскохозяйственное образование и просвещение, agronomic services, grain production, animal husbandry, experimental farm, agricultural education and enlightenment

Abstract

Rapid rural population growth in Siberia, and mainly agricultural nature of its development prompted rural economy’s rationalization. Siberian agronomic services solved the task. The article deals with the history of creation, dynamics of development, main directions and results of governmental agronomy service’s activity based on the analysis of Soviet and contemporary Russian historiography, a complex of statistical and reporting data. Established in 1892, the government agronomic service served the needs only of old-settlers’ villages. Several separate agronomic organizations appeared in the following years working in the resettlement areas, and Cossack territories. In 1910-1912, the government took steps to consolidate agronomists from different government departments into united governorate and regional organizations. The main activities were pest control, creating experimental and demonstration farms, spreading agricultural knowledge. Statistic data show that human resources and financing of governmental agronomy in Siberia developed faster compared with European part of Russia. This made it possible to address the backlog related to the later establishment of government agronomy. Shortcomings in the work remained, but they were associated with objective factors of huge and sparsely populated Siberian territories. Weak impact on the peasantry was the most important problem of agronomic work. The rational organization of economy did not become the desire of the broad masses of rural population.