Development of agricultural industries and hay harvesting in economic life of Transbaikal region indigenous population in late XIX - early XX centuries

The article focuses on the issues of farm business transformation of Transbaikal farmers in late XIX -early XX century under the influence of capitalism growth. The agrarian history in Transbaikal region is of vital importance due to the overwhelming majority of rural population for the period under review. The author points out the key transformations of Russian and Buryat farmers of Transbaikal region resulted from transition to capitalist production relations. The facts and data of market and goods/money relationships of Buryat farmers are firstly introduced for scientific use. The role of Buryat settlements (uluses) in developing market channels for agricultural products and hired agricultural labor forces are analyzed. The author conclusively proves the increase in capacity of agricultural industries and handicrafts among rural inhabitants based on the preceding scientists’ papers, making use of existing historical literature on the subject matter and appealing to a wide variety of published and unpublished papers. Some data about development of forest industries, cropping, hunting and fishing among indigenous population are of great interest as being the only thing for their livelihood. Moreover, it becomes possible to evaluate the degree of capitalist relations among Evenks farmers based on the survey of archival materials, the greater part of which are firstly introduced for scientific use.