«Resorts are the sources of people's national enrichment»: the government policy of the Russian Empire for the development of recreational resources of the Caucasian mineral waters (1894-1917)

Saginadze E.

The article is concerned with the main directions of the government policy on the development of the Caucasian mineral waters’s recreational potential in 1894-1917. The central administration’s strategy for the development of resort and medical infrastructure in the Caucasus is characterized. Much attention is given to of high-ranking officials’ discussions on the prospects for the development of Caucasian resorts, and the most effective measures for the improvement of resort region. The central administration’s measures to make the Caucasian resorts competitive with the best European resorts are shown. The issues of the Caucasian resorts reforming are explored in close relation with the socio-economic situation in the region, as well as with the formulation of the legal framework in the field of resort business, the development of sanitary-hygienic and organizational-administrative legal provisions.

Keywords:Caucasian Mineral Waters, balneotherapy, Terek region, recreational resources, resorts, government policy on the outskirts