The Minister of Agriculture and State Property’s Note On His Trip to the Black Sea Caucasian Coast in 1894

• Published in: Историко-географический журнал
• Main Author: G. N. Shumkin
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Young Historians Of The Urals 2023-01-01
• Subjects: a. s. ermolov; caucasus; black sea coast; black sea province; colonization
• Online Access: https://hist-geo.ru/en/2023/12/08/shumkin-g-n-zapiska-ministra-zemledeliya-i-gosudarstvennyh-imushhestv-o-poezdke-na-chernomorskoe-poberezhe-kavkaza-v-1894-g/

The published document is a report on the first trip of A.S. Ermolov as the Minister of Agriculture and State Property to the regions of the Russian Empire. The route of this trip ran through the territories of regions that had relatively recently been annexed to the Russian Empire — along the Black Sea Caucasian coast, Transcaucasia, Transcaspian region and Turkestan Region. Of all these regions, Ermolov found the most difficult situation on the Black Sea coast. The note from a third person describes his impressions of the trip to the Caucasus, sets forth the problems of the region, indicates the probable causes that led to their occurrence, and outlines a program for the socio-economic development of the region. With this note, the Minister of Agriculture and State Property drew the attention of Nicholas II to the difficult socio-economic situation of the Black Sea coast and thereby initiated the preparation and implementation of a whole complex of administrative and socio-economic measures, during which the Black Sea Province was formed, the policy of settling the region with peasants from the central provinces of Russia was activated, the support for «high» agricultural culture was organized, the foundations of the resort business were laid, the transport infrastructure was modernized. The reforms carried out determined the main directions of socio-economic development of the region in the 20th — early 21st centuries. The publication of the source is preceded by an introductory article, which outlines the range of tasks assigned to the Ministry of Agriculture and State Property, as well as the results of the transformations carried out in the Caucasus on the initiative of A. S. Ermolov.