UDC

94:271.2:622.343(470.13)«17»

Authors

Nataliya E. Plaksina
National Gallery of the Komi Republic;
ul. Kirova 44, Syktyvkar, 167000, Respublikа Komi, Russian Federation;
e-mail: nplaks@mail.ru

Abstract

Using published materials and a wide range of written sources, including those introduced in a scientific research for the first time, this paper dwells on the history of ore deposits development on the Tsilma River (left tributary of the Pechora River) in the 18th century. The author suggests that the remains of industrial buildings that were observed in the late19th century on the Tsilma River should be correlated not so much with the first Russian mining industry of the late 15th century but with the activities of ore prospectors in the 18th century. Further, information is provided on prospecting expeditions and attempts to establish factories in ore-bearing areas between the Mezen River and lower reaches of the Pechora River in the first third of the 18th century, which ended in failure despite the relatively easy extraction and processing of local ore into metal as well as the availability of all economic resources required for mining. The author suggests that there can be a link between the cessation of further attempts to set up factories and the activity of Old Believer sketes that were founded in the first third – mid-18th century on the tributaries of the Pechora River (Tsilma and Pizhma Rivers) with the help of Vyg and Mezen Old Believers. Further, the paper provides documentary evidence that Mezen peasants worked at Lapland mining plants in the 1730s – 1740s and were kin with the inhabitants of the Velikopozhensky and Tsilma sketes. It is hypothesized here that the mines belonged to the Vyg Old Believer community. In particular, from written sources we know about metal products in Old Believers’ sketes, copper-smelting in the lower reaches of the Pechora River in the 19th and early 20th centuries, as well as about the participation of Old Believers in the establishment of metallurgy and metalworking in that area in modern period.

Keywords

lower reaches of the Pechora River, Vyg Old Believer community, Velikopozhensky skete, Tsilma skete, Old Believers, Tsilma mines, mining, copper casting

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