The Northern Sea Route: National Patriotism and Business Interests

Abstract

This article analyzes a campaign to involve Russian and foreign sailors in discovering a sea route to Siberia. The campaign was launched in the 1860s–1870s by M. K. Sidorov, a Siberian gold miner and public figure (1823–1887). Sidorov’s recruiting campaign is a perfect example of an attempt to establish cooperation between segments of the imperial periphery in the realm of a private commercial project while avoiding direct participation of the imperial center. Sidorov acted as a third party in the communication between the imperial authorities and local communities, successfully pitching himself as an independent, albeit not always successful, actor. The window of opportunity for the enterprising Siberian industrialist opened due to the Great Reforms of the 1860s, which launched the process of a dynamic and multifaceted transformation of the Empire. This process was gradually encompassing the most remote borderland territories of the Empire, including those in the North. But, unlike businessmen from different classes who perceived these territories as a source of enrichment (export of timber, graphite, sea-hunting industry, fisheries, etc.), the imperial center treated its vast northern territorial possessions as a burden and did not want to invest in their development. In the 1860s–1870s, the transportation infrastructure of the northern borderland or the Empire developed largely due to specialists from Great Britain, the United Kingdoms of Sweden and Norway, Finland, the Governorate of Livonia, and Estonia. The northern periphery of the Russian Empire was increasingly falling under foreign influence, which caused concern for private entrepreneurs and government officials. A way to replace foreign sailors was training indigenous peoples of the Russian North in maritime affairs.