Siberian tract
The Siberian tract ( Сибирский тракт ; Sibirsky trakt ), also known as the Moscow tract ( Московский тракт , Moskovsky trakt ) in Siberia , was an old military and trade route that led across Siberia and reached the Pacific Ocean at Vladivostok . For the sake of simplicity, the term tea road is also used at times .
In November 1689, the Russian Tsar issued a decree calling for a road connection to Siberia to be built. This order was made possible by the signing of the Nerchinsk Treaty , which resolved territorial disputes between China and Russia. With these issues resolved, older tea trade routes were moved further north, where they could be more controlled by Russia or China. In fact, construction began in 1730 and was completed in the middle of the 18th century. Even today, various highways in Siberia follow the old course of the Siberian tract more or less closely. Arterial roads from larger cities also have names that are officially or colloquially based on this designation ("Irkutsk Trakt", "Moscow Tract", etc.).
Its importance as a trade route declined when other modes of transport took over. In 1860, the Beijing Convention between the Qing Dynasty and the Western powers opened the Chinese seaports. With the completion of the Siberian Railway in 1905, horse transport became superfluous and the trade route shifted from the former junction of the Kjachta tea road to Nizhny Novgorod .
Routing
The Siberian tract began at Tyumen and led via Ischim , Tjukalinsk , Omsk , and Kainsk (today's Kuibyshev ) to Kolyvan , where it crossed the Ob . After 1611 km Tomsk was reached. The streets of Orenburg , Akmolinsk (today's Kazakh capital Nur-Sultan (until 2019 Astana) ) and Semipalatinsk also meet in Omsk , while a street leads from Tomsk to Barnaul . During the navigation period, the goods traveled the Tyumen-Tomsk route on waterways on the Tura , Tobol , Irtysh , Ob and Tom rivers .
The eastern half of the Siberian tract began in Tomsk and led via Mariinsk , Achinsk , Krasnoyarsk , Kansk , Nizhneudinsk to Irkutsk (1,663 km). At Krasnoyarsk the roads from Yeniseisk and Minusinsk converged . From Irkutsk the main route led around Lake Baikal to Verkhne-Udinsk (today's Ulan-Ude ), from where the southern route led to Kjachta on the Chinese border, and the northern route to Chita , Stretensk (today's Sretensk ), then on the Shilka and the Amur via Blagoweschensk , Chabarowka (today's Chabarowsk ), to Nikolayevsk or from Chabarowka on the Ussuri and Sungari to Vladivostok.
The total distance from Tyumen to Vladivostok on this route was 7,793 km.
meaning
The Siberian tract was of great importance for the settlement of Siberia and the development of its agricultural potential and raw materials. It was the first modern long-distance traffic route that enabled a continuous west-east connection through large parts of Russia. Its importance as the main traffic axis in Siberia decreased with the completion of the Trans-Siberian Railway (1905).
literature
- Martha Avery: The Tea Road. China and Russia meet across the steppe. China Intercontinental Press, Beijing 2003, ISBN 7-508-50380-5 .
Individual evidence
- ^ Jörg Stadelbauer: The development of Siberia. Spatial structural patterns of a historical process. In: Gert Leptin (ed.): Siberia: a Russian and Soviet development problem (= Eastern European research. Vol. 17). Berlin-Verlag Spitz, Berlin 1986, ISBN 3-87061-260-6 , pp. 11–33, here p. 24 (PDF; 2.2 MB).
