Siberian Federal University

Issue

Journal of Siberian Federal University. Humanities & Social Sciences. 2018 11 (6)

Authors

Brumfield, William C.

Contact information

Brumfield, William C.: Tulane University New Orleans, Louisiana, USA;

Keywords

Architecture in Siberia; Chita; Nerchinsk; Albazin; Irkutsk; Lake Baikal; Ingoda River; Shilka River; Tsar Aleksei Mikhailovich; Peter Beketov; Afanasii Pashkov; Avvakum; Siberian Cossacks; Buriat people; Erofei Khabarov; Manchu Qing (Ch’ing) dynasty; Mikhail Butin; George Kennan; Siberia and the Exile System; Vasilii Kandinskii; Trans-Siberian Railway; Art nouveau design; style modern architecture; Aleksandr Vtorov; Chita synagogue; Ataman Grigorii Semenov

Abstract

The article places the architectural heritage of the Chita territory (now known as Zabaikalskii krai) with a historical context extending from the mid-seventeenth century to the Soviet period. After a survey of events that led to Russian expansion and consolidation in the area, the text focuses on the architectural history of two urban centers: Nerchinsk and Chita. Each town was closely connected with the China trade. The article notes the work of Mikhail Butin, an entrepreneur and author who created an extensive base of operations in Nerchinsk. Special attention is given to George Kennan’s notes on Nerchinsk in his two-volume work Siberia and the Exile System. Also included are Anton Chekhov’s impressions. The latter part of the article traces the rise of Chita with the rapid development of the Trans-Siberian Railway at the turn of the twentieth century. Also noted are events surrounding the revolutions of 1905 and 1917, as well as the Russian Civil War

Pages

874-902

Paper at repository of SibFU

https://elib.sfu-kras.ru/handle/2311/71670

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0).