Ecological crisis or the reasons of exhaustion of fish resources in the Volga-Caspian Basin at the end of XIX beginning of XX centuries. The article considers the aspect of the problem of conservation of fish stocks of the Lower Volga basin, which is not sufficiently studied and presented in regional historiography, against the background of a deteriorating environmental situation, the systematic study of which began in the late XIX - early XX centuries. Environmental safety issues are also acute at the present stage. The authors analyze the reasons for the depletion of fish resources on the example of the Astrakhan province, which was rightfully considered a regional leader in fish production and processing. For a long time, fish resources were considered inexhaustible. The state was aimed at replenishing the treasury from renting water lands and selling permits for catchers, officials looked "through their fingers" on everything else that happened in the fishing industry, and the fishermen were responsible for regulating all issues. Environmental problems were raised by representatives of the public on the pages of newspapers and magazines (Bulletin of the Fishing Industry, Fishery Business, etc.), they became the subject of discussions during the work of congresses of fishermen. The work reveals the reasons for the deterioration of the environmental situation in the Volga-Caspian Sea, the peculiari ties of the implementation of state policy in the fishing industry of the Astrakhan Territory during the study period. The authors conclude that in the late XIX - early XX centuris. there was a tense ecological situation, determined by a number of natural-climatic, anthropogenic, hydrochemical and hydrological factors, the imperfection of the legislative, organizational and material and technical base. The sources for the study were documents deferred in the funds of the State Archive of the Astrakhan Region (GAAO), the works of KaspNIRKh employees, journalistic works of eyewitnesses of the events of the turn of the XIX-XX centuris. about the causes of the impending environmental crisis. Many of the sources studied were first introduced into scientific circulation.
