The West-Siberian Branch (at present Omsk Regional Department) of the Russian Geographical Society established

12 July 1877

June 30 (July 12) 1877, on the initiative of the Governor General of Western Siberia N. G. Kaznakov, in Omsk on the basis of the Society for the Study of the Siberian region was formed the West Siberian Branch of the Imperial Russian Geographical Society (WSB IRGO), renamed in Soviet times into the Omsk Department, and in 1993 - into the Omsk Regional Department of the Russian Geographical Society.

The Imperial Russian Geographical Society is among the agencies that have had a great influence on the development of science and culture of Russia. IRGO was established in August 1845 in St. Petersburg, and then began to develop a network of sections and sub-sections, each of which was engaged in the study of a given region. The objectives of the West Siberian Branch of the IRGO included the study of Western Siberia and contiguous regions of Central Asia and Western China in the aspect of geography, geology, natural history, ethnography, statistics, archaeology.

In the period of 1877-1882, overall management of the West Siberian Branch of the IRGO was entrusted to a chairman and a manager of affairs elected by the Governor General of the Western Siberia. The first chairman was J. F. Babkov, the manager of affairs - Major General M. V. Pevtsov. In 1902, under the West Siberian Branch were established the Altai and the Semipalatinsk subsections transformed later into separate branches. On the whole, more than two hundred people contributed to the work of the West Siberian Branch.

The staff of the branch published the results of their research in the "Notes of the West Siberian Branch of the Imperial Russian Geographical Society," published from 1879 to 1916. The publications of "Notes" covered many fields of science, but the priority was given to research in the field of geography, meteorology, geology, mineralogy, soil science, botany and zoology, and a significant amount of work was devoted to archeology, ethnography, history, and the issues of economic development, trade, communications in Western Siberia.

In the period of 1877-1902, the West Siberian Branch organized a number of major expeditions to the most remote areas of the region, including the one to Kochkchetavsky district of Akmola region in 1878 (led by anthropologist and archaeologist I. Ya. Slovtsov) and another one to the southern part of the province of Tomsk (led by N. M. Yadrintsev, explorer of Siberia and Central Asia). The branch also participated in making decision regarding such an important issue for the national economic development as maritime traffic between the Gulf of Ob and Europe.

Research work of the the West Siberian Branch covered not only the territory of Western Siberia, but that of more eastern lands, much attention was paid to ethnography. From 1879 for a number of years the Branch jointly with the Free Economic Society had been engaged in the study of Russian rural community. Thus, Yadrintsev composed "The research program of rural communities in Siberia" (1881). Special contribution to the study of Siberian archeology was made by an employee of the Branch, A. V. Andrianov, who was the first amateur archaeologists of the 19th century to begin working in the Southern Siberia systematically. For many years, beginning from 1881, he had been making trips to the Altai and Sayan, unearthed more than 150 burial mounds. As a result of his research, the data on Tagar and Tashtyk monuments and on plaster and clay funerary masks they preserved was first clearly recorded.

Best known was the research work of I. Ya. Slovtsov, owing to archaeological excavations that he made in 1883-1885 on the shores of Lake Andrew south of Tyumen. The scientist is considered the founder of the West Siberian archaeology in the field of the Stone Age, as well as the creator of the museum, which later became the Tyumen regional local history museum. For his scientific works Slovtsov was awarded medals of the Stockholm Academy of Sciences and of the IRGO.

In the second half of the 1880s the Branch suffered a fairly tense situation related to a lack of funds, and as a result first there was a decline in the expeditionary operations, and from 1890 they were completely suspended. Publishing in that period was supported by the issue of accumulated materials. By decision of the Branch leaders, the priority was given to the support of works by local researchers, who provided the material needed for the annual publication of "Notes."

Works of members of the Geographical Society of the pre-revolutionary period laid the basis for further comprehensive research on the history, economy and culture of the West Siberian region. Today, the scientific, expeditionary and publishing activity of the Omsk Regional Department of the Russian Geographical Society is an important element of culture both of Western Siberia and Russia as a whole.

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Based on the Presidential Library’s materials:

Записки Западно-Сибирского отдела Императорского Русского географического общества. Кн. 1. Омск,1879;

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Записки Западно-Сибирского отдела Императорского Русского географического общества. Кн. 7. Вып. 2. Омск, 1885;

Записки Западно-Сибирского отдела Императорского Русского географического общества. Кн. 9. Омск, 1887;

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Состав Императорского Русского географического общества: по 1 янв. 1913 г.: с доп. 1 окт. 1913 г. СПб , 1913;

Торжественное заседание членов Западно-Сибирского Отдела Императорского Русского Географического Общества 26-го октября 1903 [т. е. 1902] года. Омск, 1904.