EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITIES OF THE EAST SIBERIAN DEPARTMENT OF THE IMPERIAL RUSSIAN GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY IN THE SECOND HALF OF THE XIX – EARLY XX CENTURIES

Igumnov Evgeny Vladimirovich

the article is devoted to the educational activities of the East Siberian Department of the Russian Geographical Society in the second half of the XIX – early XX centuries. Created principally for the purpose of organising the study of the Siberian region, the department, according to the Charter of the IRGO dated 1949, also promoted geographical, ethnographic and statistical information and popularised scientific knowledge. The article describes the main methods of information dissemination in the 1850s – first half of the 1880s. Special attention is given to the role of the East Siberian Department museum in the development of awareness-building in the second half of the 1880s – 1910s: organisation and conduction of explanatory readings and systematic public lectures. The article examines the department's participation in the discussion of the issue of opening an agricultural institute in Siberia in the first half of the 1910s.

Keywords:Siberia, scientific cultural and educational society, the Imperial Russian Geographical Society, the ESD of the IRGS museum, explanatory readings, agricultural institute