The Russian North in Search of Change in the end of 19th - beginning of 20th century

The paper is devoted to the analysis of the contradictory processes of the Russian North development in the end of 19th - beginning of 20th century. The authors analyze the economic, social and cultural aspects of the regional life, existing problems and search of their solving, relations between the North and the Centre. The article discovers entwinement of archaic and modernization tendencies in the life of the region. The paper characterizes the changes in the North and in particular in Murman in the years of World War I when the region obtained an important strategic significance for the interrelations and transportation of cargoes between Entente countries and Russia. The authors examine the most important projects which were realized in the North during the WWI. It is pointed out the growing influence of the Entente countries and Great Britain first of all in the Russian North and in particular in the naval area. The paper analyzes the factors which heightened tensions in the region during the WWI and gives the explanation why different strata of the northerners welcomed the downfall of autocracy in February 1917 and believed for the revolutionary renewal.