AUTHORITIES AND STATE OFFICIALS AS PORTRAYED IN THE 19TH CENTURY MEMOIRS OF SIBERIAN MERCHANTS

The article studies how Siberian merchants viewed authorities and state officials, as well as how they perceived and evaluated Siberian administration members, and what factors influenced attitudes of entrepreneurs towards authorities. There are a number of studies conducted on related topics, e.g. on the relationship between merchants and state officials, merchants' attitude to the authorities and their agents, the history of merchant memoiristics, and merchant mentality. However, the question of how merchants thought about the authorities and state officials has not been studied yet in Siberian memoiristics. The article draws upon such sources as diaries, memoirs, and travel notes by merchants who lived and worked in Siberia in the 19th century. The view merchants had of the authorities and state officials varied depending on place and time, the scale and kind of business they did, their financial wellbeing and status, personal qualities and intelligence, their experience of confronting or cooperating with the authorities, as well as on how well they were informed of the latter's activity. The study of Siberian merchant memoiristics allowed identify some components of the image which Siberian merchants formed of the authorities, and what they appreciated about the state officials' activity, namely business and human qualities along with authorities' attentiveness to merchants' commercial needs, especially with regard to the building of roads. Siberian merchants demonstrated stricter attitudes to non-local state officials than to Siberian ones. In the first half of the 19th century, bribery was seen as normal practice, whereas in the second half of that century it was often not approved of. At that time, more critical ideas were expressed in relation to the central authorities yet the monarch was not the subject of either discussion or disapproval. In writings that make up the body of Siberian merchant memoiristics of the 19th century, there are several levels of reflection and presentation of merchants' views of the authorities and their agents, and what is noticeable here is the increased self-conscience of merchants both at class and individual level.