The study is devoted to the activities of Mikhail Mikhailovich Speransky and his role in solving the problems of governance and the economic development of Siberia. The period of his governor- generalship in 1819–1821 based on 19th-century sources is considered. The article examines the features and cause-effect relations of Speransky’s implementation of the Siberian reform, and analyzes the administrative and economic aspects of innovations in the Siberian provinces. Selected scientific sources show that Siberian merchants, members of city administrations, were the driving force behind the “Siberian institution’s” priority of stimulating economic relations; they fostered city development and trade with Russian minorities and bordering states. It is shown that Speransky helped local merchants in every way, which was expressed in the establishment of general rules of free internal trade, limiting the influence of local officials, allowing trade with representatives of indigenous peoples. The results have expanded the understanding of Speransky’s activities, allowed to evaluate his role in the Siberian reform of 1821 in the development of government and economic relations of Siberia in a new way.

The relevance of the article is associated with the heated discussion of the historical fate of the Russian statehood by society. The purpose of the study is to consider the issue of confrontation between the autocratic power and the radical opposition on the example of Surgut. The author analyzed the reasons for the clash between political exiles and the local administration, which went down in history as the “Surgut- sky protest”. It is shown that the autocratic power in the person of its representatives both in the centre and locally provoked conflicts with exiled “political criminals” by their sometimes excessively cruel actions. In turn, it undermined the image of the Russian government abroad and greatly increased the number of dis- satisfied people inside the country, which was one of the key reasons for the fall of the Russian monarchy.

The purpose of the study is to examine the process of oil industry management system formation in the last third of the 19th and early 20th centuries. In the second half of the 19th century the mining and oil industry were mainly under control of the Department of Mining, which was regularly reorganized and renamed. As a result, in the last third of the 19th and early 20th centuries the system of government authorities, carrying out executive and administrative activities in the oil industry, was built up in rather structured manner, and competences at all levels were clearly differentiated. A strictly defined list of normative acts established relations in this sphere. The author concludes that specialists, experts and officials were actively involved in the development of the industry. It is revealed that the activities of subordinate educational institutions were supported and regulated. Systematic changes in the regulatory framework were due to constant coordination and attempts to solve problems with industrialists.

The article is devoted to the study of the activities of Mambetali Serdalin, an outstanding representative of the Kazakh intelligentsia of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Particular attention is paid to Serdalin’s protest against the reforms, expressed by him in official correspondence and formalized in the report “On the exploitation of the steppes of Western Siberia through cattle-breeding culture”. The author of the article analyzed the social and political context in which the events took place, as well as the causes and consequences of the conflict between traditional steppe societies and the new reforms. Serdalin’s speeches and journalistic activities reveal his role in preserving the cultural and economic foundations of a nomadic society and his influence on public consciousness and the political processes of that time. The article will be useful to historians, sociologists and anyone interested in the interaction of traditional and modern systems, as well as the peculiarities of the struggle to preserve cultural identity in the face of radical change.

The article analyzes the activities of the All-Russian Conference and the Conference of Tomsk Railways on Transport Development in the early 20th century as a new form of cooperation: central executive power, regional authorities, self-government bodies, corporate and individual entrepreneurs, public organizations. The primary attention is paid to the projects of communication routes related to the northwestern part of Siberia and their prospects for social and economic development. Only as part of a large-scale Northern Sea Route and Ob-Yenisei Waterway Canal project did the executive power take an interest in the Ob North during the early 20th century. At the same time, the business world of Siberia, independently or with administrative support, sought to put together new river transport routes. Differences in the positions of the authorities and the business world concerned both the goals of transport projects and the expected results, taking into account the duration of their implementation.

The work is intended to provide a comprehensive understanding of the social processes of the turning point for Russia, the Civil War, in the territory of the modern Khanty -Mansi Autonomous Okrug – Yugra. It describes the results of the study of documentary sources of the fund of Municipal Archive of Surgut, mostly represented by organizational, administrative and report documents, reflecting the state of medical care for the population of the Surgut uyezd in the context of the completion of the active phase of military confrontation between supporters and opponents of Soviet power in 1919–1920. The author draws conclusions about the features of medical care for Surgut city and uyezd residents during this period.

Despite several scientific works on zoning in the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Repub- lic (including Siberia), local implementation issues of the Gosplan project, particularly territorial delimitation, remain poorly researched. The study examines the processes within which the Siberian authorities discussed the topic of the Western border of the projected area hand in glove with interested parties. The article shows the complexity of determining the status of the disputed territories between Siberia and the Urals, which arose long before zoning began. It is noted that, based on the firm position of the Ural authorities and the decision of the central authorities, the whole Tyumen gubernia, including the Tobolsk North and Ishim uyezd, went to the Ural region created in 1923. The reasons for the impossibility, as well as the difficulty, of creating the West Siberian region after 1923 are revealed.

The article analyses official photographs of West Siberian cities during the Great Patriotic War period, which shaped the identity of the Soviet people through visual representations. The author pro- poses the interpretation of visual representations, reveals the specifics of photographs as historical sources and justifies the choice of methodology for working with them, indicates their official nature and signifi- cance for the formation of images of the war in the Siberian population. Consi dering the representations of the Great Patriotic War in the photographs of the Western Siberia cities, the author concludes about their influence on the formation of the Soviet concept of collective identity in the period of 1941 –1945.

The article features the historiographical situation and reveals the degree of knowledge of the fish farming in four national okrugs of the Siberian North during the Great Patriotic War: Khanty-Mansi, Yamalo-Nenets, Evenk and Taymyr. The study features of the topic for the national okrugs of the northern part of Western and Eastern Siberia are highlighted. The dynamics of fish catch of Evenk and Taymyr national okrugs, the volumes of production in the four national okrugs and their specific weight in the fish catch of the eastern regions of the country and the USSR are established.

The article analyses the process of settlement of the geological exploratory expedition of Farman K. Salmanov, which had arrived in Surgut. The main goal of the research is to scientifically reflect the process of civil and industrial construction on the eastern edge of the Chernyi Mys, initiating the subsequent intensive urban development. The publications of Surgut local historians Ivan P. Zakharov and Flegont Ya. This study considers the publications of Surgut local historians Ivan P. Zakharov and Flegont Ya. Pokazaniev, memoirs of Farman K. Salmanov, and documentary sources. General scientific and specific-historical methods of research are applied. The author reveals the importance of the activity and personality of the Yugansk oil exploratory expedition chief Farman K. Salmanov in the organisation and management of construction works. It is noted that the efforts of the construction teams formed by him built important industrial and social facilities for urban infrastructure in the first half of the 1960s.

The author analyzed the actions of deputies and activists of the city of Surgut in matters of improvement. The analysis revealed that the problems of urban improvement were reduced to a conflict between city deputies and heads of local enterprises. The heads abused their power and refused to respond to the decisions of the city executive committee aimed at improving the city. To get out of this situation, the deputies of the local city council developed practices for influencing the heads of enterprises of republican subordination: involving the population in collective improvement, appealing to the regional committee (obkom), regional executive committee (oblispolkom). These actions did not have much success, which can be explained by the specifics of administrative and industrial management. Enterprise heads believed that only the USSR Ministries overseeing their industries held authority over them. Despite the active struggle for im- provement, the city council failed to achieve its goals. At the same time, the achievement of the Surgut deputies was to draw attention to the problem of “management” of enterprise heads among local residents and regional functionaries.

The aim of the article is to show the process of natural resources exploration as a clash between traditional and modernisation models of development of the North of Siberia on the example of the ecological history of Yugra in the 20th century. The methods of historical research, source analysis and synthesis were used to achieve this aim.

Evidence shows this process was most active in the North of Western Siberia, specifically in Yugra, between 1960–1975. The inclusion of biological resources in the new economic context is studied. Characterising the institutional basis of use and protection, the author answered questions on how the significance of biological resources changed for national and regional economic and political institutions, the expert com- munity, and the local population. The large-scale development of the extractive industry negatively affected the development of Yugra’s biological resources in 1960–1975. The industries that relied on the use of biological resources lost their independent economic significance, being completely subjected to the objectives and needs, first of all, of the oil industry. Fishing, hunting, forestry became auxiliary in the economy of Yugra. Effectively developing the biological resources of the Siberian North and preserving the natural environment of the region required developing a regional policy in all its aspects: economic, scientific, ecological, etc. This task remained uncompleted during the Soviet period. The present stage of the North’s development requires consideration of this historical experience.

Based on the analysis of archival sources and the discourse analysis of the social and political agenda during perestroika, the author shows an unsuccessful attempt to reform the system of Councils of People’s Deputies. The country’s leadership hoped for this modernization, planning to return self-governing principles and increase trust in the Soviet government. The country’s leadership hoped for this modernization, planning to return self-governing principles and increase trust in the Soviet government. However, the elections held in the context of the political crisis demonstrated that citizens still perceived the Councils as one of the parts of the communist regime. In the new conditions, they were compelled to compete for resources with party committees and their own executive committees, and the new decision-making centers, namely administrations, ultimately prevailed. The modernized Councils failed to take advantage of the historical chance to implement the declared slogan “All power to the Soviets!”