Formation of Activities for the Identification and Preservation of the Historical and Cultural Heritage of Siberia in the Pre-Revolutionary Period

Abstract

The article is devoted to the identification and determination of the scientific significance of objects of historical and cultural heritage in Siberia in the pre-revolutionary period. The attitude to heritage is considered in the context of the analysis of the formation of the cultural and information environment. If in the 17th century. knowledge about pre-Russian Siberia was extremely scarce and fragmentary, and its heritage was interested only in terms of the value of the metals from which things were made, looted from ancient burial grounds, then after the decrees of Peter 1, the identification and study of the material remains of the past begins. The idea of the need to preserve the historical and cultural monuments of not only the peoples of Siberia, but also the Russian period was concretized and refined throughout the 19th century. The author examines the changes in the perception of the authorities and society about the significance of these material evidences of the Russian colonization of the trans-Ural territories by the example of the Siberian wooden fortresses. Most of the work on the identification and study of Siberian antiquities was carried out by the efforts of individual enthusiasts trying to preserve their remains in home collections and museums. The monuments of Siberian architecture, primarily wooden architecture, were in a deplorable state.