Gateway to Asia: how a border town turned into the Klondike and why its greatness is irretrievably gone

Usually a house is built from a stove, a city from a large reservoir, a fortress from the relief, and only the Buryat Kyakhta was built in the steppe, where a person would never settle of his own free will. The answer is simple: here was a border checkpoint on the Great Tea Road. For a long time, it was in this miniature town that all Russian trade with the Middle Kingdom took place. They say that the local residents were so rich that they had difficulty finding hired workers - no one wanted to serve their neighbor. But most importantly, caravans of great travelers who dared to explore mysterious Asia passed through Kyakhta.

City by royal decree

Kyakhta can be called the “brother” of St. Petersburg: both were built by the will of Peter the Great. The appearance of a city on the outskirts of the empire corresponded to the interests of the state. In the 17th century, diplomats undertook several reconnaissance expeditions and official embassies to China to establish the border and trade relations between Russia and the Middle Kingdom. In 1689, the states concluded the Treaty of Nerchinsk. Official trading has begun.

On July 5, 1725, Savva Raguzinsky was appointed plenipotentiary ambassador to China in St. Petersburg.

sava_vladislavic_raguzinski.jpeg

Savva Ragudzinsky.
Engraving. Author unknown. Source: wikipedia.org His candidacy was successful: he showed extraordinary talent as a diplomat, perseverance and statesmanship. In a short time, Raguzinsky established contacts with China, deftly maneuvering between Beijing nobles and cunning merchants.

On August 20, Russia and China signed an agreement called Burinsky, after the site of the Russian ambassador’s camp on the Bura River, which established the southern border. It went from Kyakhta to the upper reaches of the Yenisei to the west and to the Gorbitsa river to the east. 63 lighthouses were installed along the border as border markers. They looked peculiar: stone mounds in which they buried a note stating that there was a border here, in Russian and Chinese. And on both sides there was a neutral strip of land, having a width, “according to the convenience of local conditions, from 5 to 30 fathoms.”

The question of border security immediately arose. Raguzinsky assigned a large role to the Buryats, who were famous as excellent shooters, riders and “pathfinders” who were able to distinguish the tracks of horses and cattle crossing the border. On the initiative of Savva Lukich, 15 guards from the Buryats of the Selenga and Khorin clans were recruited to protect the Trans-Baikal borders of Russia.

Recommendations

Assumption Church in Kyakhta

Notes

1. ^ a b c d f g gram hour
   Resolution # 43
2. ^ a b
   Mark Mancall (1971).
   Russia and China: Their Diplomatic Relations to 1728 (Volume 61 of the Harvard East Asian Series, Center for East Asian Studies, Harvard University)
   . Harvard University Press. paragraph 263.
3. ^ a b
   Federal State Statistics Service of Russia (2011).
   “All-Russian Population Census 2010. Volume 1" [All-Russian Population Census 2010, vol. 1]. All-Russian Population Census 2010 [All-Russian Population Census 2010]
   (in Russian). Federal State Statistics Service.
4. "26. The size of the permanent population of the Russian Federation by municipalities as of January 1, 2022.” Federal State Statistics Service. Retrieved January 23, 2022.
5. ^ a b c d f
   Law No. 985-III
6. "On the calculation of time." Official Internet portal of legal information
   (in Russian). June 3, 2011. Retrieved January 19, 2022.
7. Post office. Information and computing center of OASU RPO. ( Post office
   ).
   Search for postal facilities ( Search for postal facilities
   ) (in Russian)
8. Federal State Statistics Service of Russia (May 21, 2004). “The population of Russia, the constituent entities of the Russian Federation as part of federal districts, urban settlements, urban settlements, settlements, settlements of 3 thousand or more people.” [Population of Russia, its federal districts, federal subjects, districts, urban settlements, rural settlements - administrative centers, rural settlements with a population of more than 3000 people] (XLS). All-Russian Population Census of 2002 [All-Russian Population Census of 2002]
   (in Russian).
9. “All-Union Population Census of 1989. The current population of the union and autonomous republics, autonomous regions and districts, territories, regions, urban settlements and villages. Trade between Russia and China through Kyakhta and Maimaichen,” in Mongolica-XI
   (St. Petersburg, 2013), With. 28, words. 1.
10. Li Baihao; Zhu Jianhua; Huang Li; Guo Jian (2005), “One Cultural Route for a Millennium: The Chinese Tea Route,” Proceedings of the Scientific Symposium on “Monuments and Objects in Their Surroundings—Cultural Heritage Conservation in Changing Cityscapes and Landscapes”
    (PDF), Xi'an, pp. 4
11. W. Bruce Lincoln. Conquering a Continent: Siberia and the Russians
    . Cornell University Press, 2007. Pp. 145.
12. Martha Avery, Tea Road, 2003, p. 135 and photograph
13. rbth.com
14. Clifford M. Fust, "The Muscovite and the Mandarin", 1969, index
15. Rolf Potts, Stuck in Siberia: In a little-known border town, our correspondent discovers the biggest obstacle to covering the next 4,000 miles: the train left without him.. ( Salon
    Magazine, 1999-11-10)
16. International Council for Philosophy and Humanistic Research (1996). Atlas of Intercultural Communication Languages ​​in the Pacific, Asia and the Americas, Volume 2, Part 1. (Volume 13, Trends in Linguistics, Documentation Series)
    . Walter de Gruyter. pp. 911–912. ISBN 3-11-013417-9.
17. "Weather and Climate - Climate of KYAKHTA." Pogodaiclimate.ru. Retrieved February 16, 2022.
18. "Kyakhta climate 1895–2012". Climatebase.ru. Retrieved February 17, 2015.

big_coppia_pannelli_1.jpg

Watercolor Paper on canvas.
China, Qing dynasty, 19th century Without wasting any time, Raguzinsky ordered the construction of the New Trinity Fortress. The fortress was founded in the steppe on the banks of the Kyakhta River. Once upon a time there was a Russian guard post at Barsukovskoe winter quarters. The fortress project was also developed by Savva Lukich. The outpost was named in honor of Trinity Day, when it was founded, and later it turned into the city of Troitskosavsk. And since 1934 it began to be called Kyakhta in the Buryat manner.

The German traveler Peter Simon Pallas wrote: “ ...Kyakhta residents did not win in their reasoning the place itself, which, in addition to being sandy and stone, is also not suitable for any vegetable gardens.”

According to the memoirs of travelers, the shallow water of the river was the main problem of the village.
Even in summer rains, “you can cross it without getting your feet wet, so you can hardly even call it a river.” Pallas wrote that on the territory of Kyakhta there was only one well “in which the water is pure, but it, like the others, is not without error.”
Rich merchants, “like strong tea drinkers,” were allowed by the Chinese to enter their territory “to take clean water from the spring on the banks of Kyakhta...” But the lack of water did not frighten the local inhabitants. The main thing is that money flowed here. So, in 1862, four thousand people lived in the settlement. Of these, 276 were merchants. Of the 165 trading houses, 60 belonged to merchants with a turnover of more than five million rubles a year.

And on the other side…

On the other bank of the Kyakhta River, 120 sazhens (less than 300 meters), at the same time as Troitskosavsk, the Chinese Maimachen was built. The question is, why? Until the beginning of the 20th century, China was an extremely closed country. Europeans were not expected there, and government caravans were allowed through from border Russia only three times a year. They were led by trusted merchants. Each was assigned a government commissar, four kissers and a guards officer with a hundred Cossacks. Now you can get from Moscow to Beijing by train in 6 days, by plane - in 8 hours, but at the beginning of the 18th century the journey took a year. Plus a year for the return journey and another one to form a new caravan. Needless to say, rare lucky people could become merchants of this caravan?

Kyakhta

The city of Kyakhta - administrative ]Kyakhta district[/anchor] - is located in the south of the Republic of Buryatia, 220 km.
from the capital Ulan-Ude. The city of Kyakhta was founded in 1728 by Count Savva Lukich Raguzinsky at the behest of Peter I. For more than a century and a half, Kyakhta was an important trading center of the Russian Empire. Taking into account that the turnover of Kyakhta trade at the end of the 18th century reached 10 million rubles, which in value was equivalent to 1/6 of the budget, we can reasonably assume that the importance of Kyakhta for both the budget and the national income of the country was great. Despite all the factors of its geographical exclusivity, the capitalization of the Kyakhta economy was more than 140 times higher than the Russian economy as a whole. In the middle of the 19th century. 95% of tea imported into Russia came through Kyakhta. The total capital of Kyakhta entrepreneurs in 1855 exceeded 160 million rubles, which made Kyakhta the largest trade and financial hub of the state. Kyakhta merchants were famous not only in Russia, but also in European countries; not a single major fair was held without the participation of Kyakhta representatives. It is difficult to overestimate the importance of the Kyakhta trade on the development of Siberia, and Russia as a whole; hundreds of thousands of people were drawn into servicing the trade “Tea Route” along its entire length.

The role of Kyakhta in diplomacy is great; many controversial issues in border issues were resolved in Kyakhta and issues of cross-border cooperation were successfully promoted.
Kyakhta made a great contribution to strengthening good neighborly relations with the neighboring state - Mongolia.
In 1973, the city, for its outstanding role in the development of Soviet-Mongolian friendship, was awarded the highest award of Mongolia - the Order of Sukhbaatar, and today it is the only city in the world awarded the highest award of a foreign state. For two centuries, Kyakhta was the place where Russian and foreign scientific expeditions began and ended, which made a great contribution to geographical discoveries in East and Central Asia.

All the years since its foundation, Kyakhta has been a military outpost of Russia and today, the military base of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation and the Department of the Border Commandant's Office of the FSB of Russia for the Republic of Belarus located on the territory of the city play an important role in protecting the interests of the Russian Federation.

The rich history could not help but leave its mark on the appearance of the city. Historical and architectural monuments give the city its uniqueness to this day. Kyakhta is a member of the Association of Small Historical Cities of Russia, the Russian Union of Historical Cities and Regions and the Association of Siberian and Far Eastern Cities.

The municipal formation of the urban settlement "City of Kyakhta" of the Kyakhtinsky district of the Republic of Buryatia was formed in accordance with Federal Law No. 131-FZ of October 6, 2003 "On the general principles of organizing local self-government in the Russian Federation" and the Law of the Republic of Buryatia of December 31, 2004 No. 985-III. The municipality includes the village of Sudzha, in addition, on the territory of the city there is a Multilateral Automobile Checkpoint “Kyakhta” (MAPP) with its own separate infrastructure, which is part of the city.

The population of the city as of November 1, 2010 is 19,538 people. The working population makes up 66% of the city's total population.

There are currently 542 entities of various forms of ownership, 93 institutions and enterprises in various fields of activity, and 449 individual entrepreneurs operating in the city. 19 private enterprises are involved in industrial production. Part of the city’s population is constantly engaged in personal subsidiary farming for their own needs and partial sale of products on the market. There are 2,381 private farms in the city; 19 farms have been formed under the self-employment program.

In the consumer market, retail trade turnover of all organizations and individual entrepreneurs amounted to 990.3 million rubles.

There are 25 public catering facilities operating in the city with a total retail area of ​​1,627 square meters. meters, with a capacity of 1200 seats.

There are three public transport routes in the city, two taxi services provide services to the population, the network of consumer services for the population is expanding (hairdressers, beauty salons, service stations and tire service), today 120 entities provide such services.

On the territory of the municipality, construction of social and business facilities and major housing renovations are underway. With the participation of the district administration, the district sports hall “Olympus” was built. Construction of a secondary school is underway. Municipal Municipality "City of Kyakhta" was one of the first in the Republic of Buryatia to be included in the regional targeted program for capital repairs of apartment buildings as part of the implementation of Federal Law No. 181 of July 21, 2007. and has been participating in this program for three years, starting in 2008, with a total cost of 34 million rubles in 2008, 16 residential buildings were renovated, in 2009 – 14,473.562 thousand rubles – 6 houses were repaired and in the current year the total costs amounted to 5640.821 thousand rubles – 7 houses are subject to major repairs under the program.

In 2008, a draft Master Plan for the development of the city of
Kyakhta was developed and approved.
There are two heat supply organizations operating in the city - Teplokom LLC and Prometey LLC; water supply is currently provided by Teplocentral LLC. The management of apartment buildings is carried out by the management organization Zhilservis Plus LLC, the Uyut HOA and the Zvezdochka HOA, and Entuziast LLC.

Education is represented by three branches of state universities (GOU VPO "VSGTU", "IRGTU", "BEPI"), GOU SPO "Kyakhta Medical School", GOU SPO "Buryat Republican College of Construction and Industrial Technologies", 4 secondary schools, one evening secondary school school, Center for additional education.

Every year on June 12, City Day is celebrated. The holiday of the border Kyakhta region and the adjacent Mongolian - Selenga aimag - “Tree of Concord”, established in the 19th century, has become traditional. Transbaikal Cossacks and Mongolian border guards. Creative groups and athletes of the city take an active part in the international competition of Mongolian peoples “Altargana”.

Kyakhta is a city with developed sports traditions, the homeland of Honored Masters of Sports of the USSR, International Masters of Sports, Masters of Sports of the USSR and Russia. The city hosts republican and regional competitions in various sports. Sports competitions for the city administration cup in football, athletics, freestyle wrestling, bullet and skeet shooting, table tennis, and chess have become traditional. In 2009, the 1st Republican Spartakiad among pensioners was held in Kyakhta.

kyahta_5.jpg

Kyakhta.
Photo: Scientific archive of the Russian Geographical Society The bargaining looked like in the Stone Age, exclusively goods for goods. Russia traded household items, fabrics, spices, and tea for furs. Private commercial transactions were possible only in Maimachen.

The city looked like a regular quadrangle, surrounded by a palisade; from the inside, from north to south, it was divided by three parallel streets. One of the city's gates faced Kyakhta, others - towards Urga, as Ulaanbaatar was then called.

City name in other languages

• Mongolian: Khiagt ( Khiagt
  )
• Manchu: Kiyaktu
• Chinese: 恰克图 / 恰克圖 ( Qiàkètú
  ) or 恰克土 (
  Qiàkèt
  )
• Russian Buryat: Khyaagta ( Khyagta
  )

In the Mongolian language, Kyakhta was formerly called Ar Khiagt ( Ar Khiagt

, lit.
"Northern Kyakhta"); Altanbulag (then Maimaichen) across the border was Өvor Khiagt ( Övör Khiagt
, lit. "Southern Kyakhta").
When the city was known as Troitskosavsk, its name in Mongolian was Deed Shivee ( Delo Shivee
).

1929161_original.jpg

Street in Maimaichen with a shrine in the background.
1849-1850. Drawing from the album “China Border”. Mather K.P. The order in Maimachen was similar to a monastery: Chinese laws prohibited women from settling outside the Great Wall, so only men lived there. Merchants with their northern neighbor were literally raised here: teenagers aged 12–14 were brought to Maimachen, taken into service in shops, and taught the Russian language. After 3-4 years, they were allowed to trade and start families in the Middle Kingdom. Outside traders sometimes appeared, but they were also obliged to first learn Russian. This was done specifically to protect Chinese interests: it was believed that if Russian merchants mastered Chinese, they would be able to eavesdrop on secrets related to trade.

1926809_original_1.jpg

Kyakhta.
Gostiny Dvor. 1890s. Photo: Jules Legras Trade in Maimachen and Kyakhta intensified in December, January, February and March, when large quantities of goods arrived. After the Chinese New Year there was a “lucky day”, or a trading holiday, when all trading Chinese always tried to make some profitable trade deal, believing that this would ensure good luck for the whole year. Usually, for wholesale trade, the Chinese went to Kyakhta, where they inspected samples at the exchange yard and often concluded a trade deal here. Most often, the Chinese went straight to the houses of Russian merchants and there, over lunch or a cup of tea, they agreed on “what goods the Russian intends to take for his own,” and agreed on the quantity of goods to be bought and sold, transportation and other expenses. Having agreed, the seller and buyer went to the barn, and then to Maimachen. There the Russian chose “the goods he liked best,” set aside the ones he needed, and left someone to guard them.

1927819_original.jpg

Kyakhta and Maimachen.
1890s. Photo: Jules Legras Meanwhile, trade with China grew. In 1800, a little more than 900 tons of tea were brought from China to Russia, and in 1820 - already more than 1,600 tons. At the end of the 1830s, purchase volumes increased to 2,500 tons! Under Alexander III, 27% of Chinese tea was shipped to Russia (to the USA - 13.7%, to England - 57.7%).

In 1808-1809 60 “first-class” merchants, their commission agents and clerks, representing 16 cities of Russia, traded here. By the beginning of the 19th century, the Siberian tea route had finally taken shape. Sloboda Troitskosavsk began to resemble not a populated area, but a trading post. Only merchants and their clerks lived in it, since at the end of the 1770s, when the business passed into the hands of the richest merchants, people who did not participate in wholesale trade were evicted.

Kyakhta was the most desirable place for business-minded, capitalist and adventurous people. Within a year, some merchants rose from the 3rd to the 1st guild. Many created their own powerful tea companies.

Climate

Kyakhta has a humid continental climate (Köppen climate classification Dwb

) with dry, severely cold winters and warm, humid summers.

tee-3057645_960_720.jpg

Photo: pixabay.com

“... before we had time to take off our frock coats, they themselves came into the room in which I was staying with Matusovsky, four of them. Approaching us and greeting us in Russian, they took turns shaking hands as casually and simply, as if we were their old friends and as if they were visiting us for the hundredth time. Immediately we smelled a strong odor of garlic and opium smoke; nevertheless, I was very happy about their visit, because I wanted to see these representatives of an interesting people as soon as possible, and I began to examine them themselves, their clothes and shoes, even with more unceremoniousness than they treated us, because for them Russian people were no longer a curiosity.”

Pavel Pyasetsky, “Travel to China 1874-1875.”

20-30 families lived in Kyakhta and had everything or almost everything that, by the standards of the 19th century, constituted the well-being of the rich. “The wives and daughters of the merchants, according to the witness, shone with rich outfits, natives of the Kuznetsky Most,” and “each estate consisted of several houses with barns, stables and resembled the estates of Russian landowners,” -

This is how the famous scientist and traveler Vladimir Obruchev recalled Kyakhta. Houses were built either wooden or half-stone, with a stone bottom and a wooden bottom. Merchants preferred wooden residential buildings, dry, warm and “breathable”. They were all “spacious and well built.” The merchants had their own club, gardens, musicians, choir and lived “in grand style.” Someone called Troitskosavsk “sandy Venice”, someone “Klondike”, and someone “Moscow-in-the-East”. Decembrist Nikolai Bestuzhev visited here several times and dubbed the settlement “Zabalui-gorodok”.

1928062_original.jpg

Postcard of Kyakhta, late 19th century
In 1857, Karl Marx analyzed the phenomenon of Russian trade with China in an article that he published on the front page of the New York Daily Tribune. The German economist introduced American readers to our realities: “This trade, which takes place at a kind of annual fair, is managed by twelve intermediaries, of whom six are Russian and six Chinese; they meet in Kyakhta and, since trade is exclusively barter, they establish norms by which goods supplied by each side must be exchanged. On the Chinese side, the main item of trade is tea, on the Russian side - cotton and woolen fabrics. In recent years this trade has apparently increased significantly. Ten or twelve years ago the amount of tea sold to the Russians in Kyakhta did not exceed an average of forty thousand boxes; however, in 1852 it already amounted to one hundred and seventy-five thousand boxes...”

kyahta_6.jpg

Kyakhta.
Photo: Scientific archive of the Russian Geographical Society There was a lot to study. Kyakhta is the only city in the Russian Empire that was self-governing. One resident of Kyakhta accounted for 150 times more taxes than the average for the empire, but almost a quarter of the city budget was spent on education. In a tiny town, even by the standards of the 19th century, there were nine educational institutions! Among them: a real school, a women's gymnasium, a women's parish school, a four-year city school.

Gateway to Asia

It so happened that all major domestic expeditions to study Central Asia went through Kyakhta: Nikolai Przhevalsky, Pyotr Kozlov, Vladimir Obruchev, the Potanins, Gombozhab Tsybikov and others.

Nikolai Mikhailovich Przhevalsky, returning from his long journey to Central Asia: “ ... we finally saw the white spitz of the Kyakhta churches - the first symbol of our Motherland.”

Kyakhta, despite all its originality, was for Russian scientists and travelers a point on the border of the known and unknown worlds.

Story

Kyakhta was founded in 1727 shortly after the Treaty of Kyakhta was concluded north of Selenginsk. This was the starting point of the border markers that defined what is now Mongolia's northern border. The founder of Kyakhta, the Serb Sava Vladislavich, established it as a trading point between Russia and the Qing Empire.[2] The Manchus built Maimaicheng just south of Kyakhta, on their side of the border. Until 1762, state caravans went from Kyakhta to Beijing. After this, trade in Kyakhta-Maimaichen was carried out mainly by barter, and traders crossed the border to go about their business.

The sister cities of Kyakhta and Maimaicheng can be seen on this 1851 map, on the shortest route from Irkutsk to Beijing

A famous English adventurer and engineer visited Kyakhta and Maimaicheng. Samuel Bentham in 1782. He said that he was received by the commander of the Chinese city “with the greatest courtesy that a stranger can meet in any country.” At that time, the Russians sold furs, textiles, clothing, hides, leather,[10] equipment and livestock, and the Chinese sold silk, cotton fabrics, teas,[10] porcelain fruits, rice, candles, rhubarb, ginger, and musk. It is said that most of the tea comes from Yangloudong, a major tea production and trading center near today. Chibi City, Hubei.[13]

Kyakhta was crowded, unclean, poorly planned and never reflected the wealth that flowed through it, [14] although several 19th-century neoclassical buildings, including a tea exchange (1842) and an Orthodox cathedral (1807–1817) , Both of which still survive today. In 1996, the Resurrection Church was used as a stable.[15] It was from Kyakhta that Nikolai Przhevalsky, Grigory Potanin, Pyotr Kozlov, and Vladimir Obruchev went on expeditions to the interior regions of Mongolia and Xinjiang.

Kyakhta was given city status in 1805.[16]

After the entire Russian-Chinese border was opened to trade in 1860, the Trans-Siberian and Chinese Eastern Railways bypassed it, and Kyakhta fell into disrepair. The city was renamed Troitskosavsk

in the first half of the 20th century, but the original name was restored in 1935.[
citation needed
] Other sources[10][17] Troitskosavsk is a fortress a short distance to the north, Troitskosavsk is an administrative and military center, and Kyakhta is a trading post on the border.

In the mid-20th century, a railway line was built from Ulan-Ude (via the Trans-Siberian Railway) to Mongolia's Ulaanbaatar, and finally to China, parallel to the old Kyakhta trade route. However, this railway crosses the Russian-Mongolian border not in Kyakhta itself, but in nearby Naushki.[18]

Kyakhta Pidgin

Kyakhta, 1885 Kyakhta Bazaar, 1885
As the first market town on the border of the Russian and Chinese empires, Kyakhta gave its name to the so-called. Kyakhta is a Russian-Chinese pidgin, a contact language that was used by Russian and Chinese traders for communication.[19]

f18_o7_566a_2.jpg

Photo: Scientific archive of the Russian Geographical Society

“The Kyakhta people tried to acquaint us with all aspects of Chinese life, and since they themselves are great hunters of dining with the Chinese, they arranged dinner for us with a merchant who came to invite us. Since I will still have the opportunity to talk about a Chinese dinner, I will not describe it now, but will only say that I not only did not find Chinese dishes as disgusting as they are accustomed to believe from the incorrect stories of some travelers, but many, on the contrary, They seemed very tasty to me, and in general I completely calmed down about my food in China. For a lover of strong drinks and wines, it’s really bad here: there is terrible poverty in choice, and everything is of poor quality. Also not bad is warmed up alcohol with the scent of roses, served at dinner in tiny cups.”

Pavel Pyasetsky, “Travel to China 1874-1875.”

Transbaikal Cossacks not only guarded the border with China and Mongolia, guarded government facilities and escorted convict parties, but also accompanied scientific and diplomatic missions. Thus, the Cossacks guarded the expeditions of Nikolai Mikhailovich Przhevalsky to China, Mongolia and Tibet.

“The newly arrived Cossacks turned out to be the most zealous and devoted people throughout our long journey. We soon became close friends with these good people, and this was an important guarantee for the success of the business. At a terrible distance from our homeland, among people who were alien to us in everything, we lived as siblings, sharing labors and dangers, sorrows and joys together. And to the grave I will retain grateful memories of my companions, whose boundless courage and dedication to the task determined the entire success of the expedition,” Przhevalsky noted in his diary.

przhevalskiysite.jpg

Nikolai Przhevalsky, wikipedia.org
“Finally, after all the day’s work, the exhausted, chilled and tired Cossacks usually took turns, also in bad weather, for two night guard shifts. In a word, the service of the Cossacks was extremely difficult, but they behaved well and strictly fulfilled their duty,”

- Przhevalsky also wrote in his book about a trip to the foothills of Tibet. And the Cossack constable, Buryat Dondok Irinchinov, became the researcher’s faithful companion, accompanying him on four expeditions. For which he was awarded a bronze medal of the Russian Geographical Society. Transbaikal Cossack Panteley Teleshev in the 4th expedition N.M. Przhevalsky participated as a specialist preparator. For the discovery of a new species of lark he was awarded a small silver medal.

Researcher and scientist Nikolai Przhevalsky wrote: “These adversities affected the Cossacks even more strongly. At the bivouac, two of them tended the caravan animals, often in pouring rain or a strong snowstorm. The attendant and the cook made tea and lunch in the same rain or snow.”

But this tea was very unusual. The harsh climate and local traditions accustomed the Cossacks to a hearty energy drink - slivan. Butter, raw eggs, flour, lard and even hemp seed were added to it. It was customary to throw a hot pebble “stallion” into a mug of tea to increase the “degree”. After drinking tea like this, the person warmed up and remained full all day. To prepare this dish, we used “brick” tea in pressed bars, which was brought from China. This tea was so valuable that it was used as an alternative currency.

1930038_original.jpg

View of Maimaichen and Kyakhta. 1849-1850 Drawing by Karl Mather

“Finally we were leaving for the Russian border. Heterogeneous thoughts and feelings fill a person’s soul when he goes to a foreign country for a long time. <…> All the carts with transport, three Chinese carts, left, and we followed them, placing ourselves in different carriages of our compatriots who saw us off.

Soon Kyakhta and Mai-mai-chen were left behind, and in front of us stretched the spacious Mongolian steppe, all green, only with reddish sandy paths running along it in different directions; on the horizon, in the southeastern part, blue jagged mountains rose, and above them hung heavy clouds, almost as blue as the mountains shaded by them.”

Pavel Pyasetsky, “Travel to China 1874-1875.”

To this day, the grandson and great-grandchildren of Alexander Bokhin, a member of the Tibet expedition of Pyotr Kozlov, live in Kyakhta. The famous traveler is the godfather of his daughter Catherine. In 1909, through Kyakhta, he returned from the fifth expedition to Central Asia. The area is also home to the descendants of Tsokto Badmazhapov, who gave Pyotr Kuzmich information about the city of Khara-Khoto, lost in the sands. Also living in the area are the descendants of Dondok Irinchinov, the translator of Nikolai Przhevalsky, who participated in all four of his expeditions.

Decline of Kyakhta

In 1869 the Suez Canal was opened. He opened a shorter and more convenient route for the delivery of goods from China, including tea. The cash flow that Kyakhta passed through began to decrease - expensive varieties of long tea were transported by sea, while cheap varieties, widely used in Russia, continued to be transported through Kyakhta. At the end of the 1890s, construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway was completed. All goods now went by rail, and Kyakhta remained far from the new artery of life. Gostiny Dvor in the city of “millionaires” was empty after the Russo-Japanese War. Nowadays, just over 20 thousand people live in Kyakhta, and only the picturesque ruins of the 18th–19th centuries remind of its former greatness.

Map

Kyakhta: photo from space (Google Maps) Kyakhta: photo from space (Microsoft Virtual Earth)

a brief description of

Kyakhta is located in Transbaikalia near the border with Mongolia, in the Selenga midlands, 35 km east of the railway. Naushki station, 235 km south of Ulan-Ude.

30 km from Kyakhta is the mud resort area of ​​Kiran.

Territory (sq. km): 374

Information about the city of Kyakhta on the Russian Wikipedia site

Historical sketch

S.L. Vladislavich-Raguzinsky concluded the Burin Treaty with China in 1727, which determined the southern border of Russia with China, and construction of the fortress began. The Trinity Church is located in the fortress (the name is in honor of the Holy Trinity, on the day of whose celebration the fortress was founded).

Behind its walls, to the west of the Seleniginskaya road, the settlement of Troitskosavsk arose; after the fortress and the name of its founder, Russian diplomat Savva Lukich Raguzinsky-Vladislavovich (about 1670 - 1738).

After the signing of the Kyakhta Treaty (1727) on the terms of trade between Russia and China in 1728, a trading outpost was founded on the banks of the river. Kyakhta, south of the Trinity Fortress, where the shortest route to Beijing took place.

Since 1743, the Kyakhtinsky outpost became the Kyakhtinsky trading settlement. Furs, cloth, leather, sheet iron, etc. were exported to China, and silk, velvet, candy sugar, objects of applied art, etc. were exported from China. From the end of the 18th century. The famous “tea route” passed here. In 1792, customs was transferred here from Irkutsk. Trade turnover of Kyakhta-Troitskosavsk in the mid-18th century. amounted to 30 million rubles. in year.

Since 1783, the settlement of Kyakhta has been in the Irkutsk region of the Irkutsk governorship (since 1796 - Irkutsk province).

In 1851, Kyakhta was the only settlement in Russia that received the right to be self-governing. In 1861, the united Kyakhta-Troitskosavsk was officially included in the List of Russian cities.

At the beginning of the 19th century. The Troitskosavsk fortress was demolished, and in 1805 Troitskosavsk received the status of a city. In 1823-51. Troitskosavsk was a provincial town, since 1851 it was a district town, and since 1901 it was a district town.

In 1856, in the district-free city of Troitskosavsk with the Kyakhtinskaya trading and Ust-Kyakhtinskaya settlements of the Kyakhtinsk city government of the Trans-Baikal region, there were 7 churches, 955 houses, 153 shops.

In the 19th century Kyakhta-Troitskosavsk is one of the major cultural centers of Siberia. In 1835, a school of Chinese translators was opened, in 1876 - the Alekseevsky real school, in 1887 a public library was opened. In 1890, on the initiative of the exiled Narodnaya Volya members I.I. Popov and N.A. Charushin created a local history museum. In 1894, the Troitskosavsk-Kyakhta branch of the Amur Russian Geographical Society was opened.

After the opening of the route to China through the Suez Canal (1869) and the construction of the Chinese Eastern Railway (1903), Kyakhta-Troitskosavsk lost its importance as the main point of trade with China and became the center of trade with Mongolia.

In 1897, 1.0 thousand people lived in Kyakhta, 8.8 thousand people lived in Troitskosavsk.

The name is based on the tract and the Kyakhta River, from the Buryat hayagt “wheatgrass place”.

In 1915, the Russian-Chinese-Mongolian agreement (Kyakhta) on the autonomy of Outer Mongolia was signed. In 1920-21 Kyakhta is the center of activity of D. Sukhbaatar (1893-1923, Mongolian statesman and political figure). In 1921, the 1st Congress of the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party took place in Kyakhta.

In 1931, 10.6 thousand people lived in the city of Troitskosavsk.

In 1934, as a result of the merger of the city of Troitskosavsk and the trading settlement of Kyakhta, the city of Kyakhta was formed.

Municipal indicators

Data sources:

1. Regions of Russia. Main characteristics of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation: statistical collection. Goskomstat of Russia. - M:, 2003.

Economy

Spinning and knitting factory, dairy and brewery. Bakery and other enterprises.

In the Kyakhta region, wheat, oats, barley, buckwheat, potatoes, corn, peas, and vegetables are grown. They raise cattle, horses, sheep, and pigs.

In the village of Khoronkhoi there is a processing plant that uses imported raw materials (fluorspar from Mongolia).

Culture, science, education

Museum of Local Lore named after V.A. Obruchev. Planetarium.

The journeys of famous Asian explorers - N.M. - began and ended in Kyakhta. Przhevalsky, G.N. and A.V. Potaninykh, V.A. Obrucheva and others.

Monument to the traveler A.V. Potanina.

Museums, galleries, exhibition halls

Kyakhtinsky Museum of Local Lore named after Academician V.A.
Obrucheva 671840, Republic of Buryatia, Kyakhtinsky district, Kyakhta, st. Lenina, 49 Telephone(s): (30142) 91-235 Memorial House-Museum “Safe Apartment” Sukhbaatar 671830, Republic of Buryatia, Kyakhtinsky district, Kyakhta, st. Gornozerentuiskaya, 2 Phone(s): (30142) 91-235

Memorial House-Museum of the 1st Congress of the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party 671830, Republic of Buryatia, Kyakhtinsky district, Kyakhta, st. Krupskaya, 37 Phone(s): (30142) 91-235

Architecture, sights

Modern Kyakhta has retained the appearance and characteristic buildings of a Siberian merchant city.

Construction in the 18th and 19th centuries. was carried out mainly along three highways, converging in the center, where the city garden and the Trinity Cathedral are located (1812-17; classicism). Stone buildings were built on the main street, while the remaining streets were lined with wooden houses. Resurrection Church (1838; classicism), Assumption Church (1857), Gostiny Dvor (1842), Living Rooms and Trading Rows.