Urbanization of the Western Siberia: in the Eyes of an Historian

Abstract

The author examines the main trend of historical urbanization process in Western Siberia over the centuries until the middle of the XX c. The emergence of first settlements on the territory of Western Siberia is shown, as well the process of their gradual transformation into urban. The main social and economic premises and conditions for urbanization in the region are identified. The features of the urbanization of the region at various stages of its historical development are revealed, the specifics of the network of cities formation are revealed. The impact of Stolypin resettlements on the urbanization processes is established, as well as the influence of Russian private capital, in particular of the construction of the Great Siberian Railway. The paper shows the features of Siberian urbanization during the Civil War and the new economic policy. Considerable attention is paid to the causes and drivers of the spur of growth in urban population in the Stalins modernization epoch. The author concludes that the accelerated industrialization served as a basis for fundamentally new phenomenon in the history of Siberian urbanization, the so-called quasi-urbanization.