Sergei Rasskasov
Siberian cities were formed as administrative units through late XVII – early XIX century. Representation of the power, military capabilities and authorities’ superiority was the main function of any city in Siberia under Muscovite Tsardom as well as early Russian Empire. These administrative units magnetized other types of settle – merchant and post road free settlements (torgovyye i yamskiye slobody), ethnic communities, and rarely industrial localities (zavody). Otherwise any city distinct by military facilities was a center of a cluster for different population groups practicing mixed types of activity at different localities. If the core of Russian Empire experienced first trends of industrialization in different ways, then Siberia faced new forms of social organization along with railway construction in the last third of the XIX century. This wave of ‘railway capitalism’ affects most of the Siberian cities uniformly – old clusters of settlements merged in one entity with new important market and industrial functions. Historical population data and plans of cities development are expected to show main trends and center-periphery particularities of the process.
