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INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX OF ALTAI AND ITS IMPACT ON THE ENVIRONMENT IN THE PERIOD FROM THE SECOND HALF OF THE 18th CENTURY UNTIL EARLY 20th CENTURY

Irina Voloshinova

Abstract

Development of the mining industry has influenced the formation of the landscape throughout the history of mankind. In some cases, it can have disastrous consequences at both local and regional levels. Such situation arose in the south of the Western Siberia in the 18th - early 20th century. The research group focused on the manufacturing complex of Kolyvano-Voskresensky (until 1834, and Altaisky after that) mountain district which became not only the main supplier of fine silver for the Russian Empire, but also a potential source of a local environmental disaster. Man's rapacious attitude towards ribbon-like relict pine forests could have led to deforestation and local climate change. The analysis of statistical data of the second half of the 18th-19th centuries made it possible to determine the approximate scale of timber harvesting in the Altai and to characterize Russia's forest policy in this period. The article also identifies other negative consequences of the development of the industrial complex of Altai for environmental situation at the local and regional levels. The research is based both on publications by modern researchers and on archival documents which have been introduced into scientific use for the first time. The study shows that timely intervention of the state makes it possible to redirect the mining industry in an appropriate way and to avoid an environmental disaster.

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DOI resolver: doi.org/10.5593/sgem2019/5.2/s20.059

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