Guidebooks to Turkestan on the subject of the trade of Russian merchants with the khanates of Central Asia in the context of everyday work (the end of the 19th –the beginning of the 20th century)

Abdrakhmanov Konstantin Alekseevich

The article analyzes the guidebooks to Turkestan for the availability of information about the features of the daily business life of Russian merchants who conducted commercial operations in Central Asia in the late 19th - early 20th centuries. These published sources pay much attention to the development of new industries in the region (cotton processing at steam plants, the production of alcoholic beverages), which began after the inclusion of the khanates into the Russian Empire. Careful fixation in the text of the names of specific merchants with reference to the field of entrepreneurship made it possible to attract additional materials to draw up a clearer portrait of people who made a significant contribution to the merging of the market space of Russia and Central Asia. The guidebooks show not only positive statistics regarding the opening of innovative enterprises, but also draw attention to the problems that accompanied this process. This block of trade and economic data made it possible to demonstrate the professional activities of Russian entrepreneurs of the late 19th - early 20th centuries in Central Asia from the perspective of their daily labor practices.

Keywords:everyday work, guidebooks, sources of information, Central Asia, Russian merchants, trading houses, conditions of everyday life.