Administrative and veterinary supervision of cattle transport and fight against locust and ground squirts in the Kalmyk Steppe at the end of the 19th century as a factor of natural and economic well-being of the region

УДК 94(470)“16/19”

Annotation

The interaction of nature and man in the modern world is a very important component of the well-being of man as a biological species. In our opinion, referring to the historical experience of the actions of state authorities in relation to various types of management and their connection with natural factors is a very relevant topic. The purpose of this article is to study the activities of UKN represented by the chief trustee and trustees of uluses, who head certain parts of uluses for supervision of cattle movement across the Kalmyk steppe as transit, control over the number of natural pests of agriculture, namely locusts and ground squirrels in the context of the transition of nomadic Kalmyks to settlement. The sources were a few works of researchers, as well as archival sources from the National Archive of the Republic of Kalmykia. Among the methods used in the work we note content analysis and problem-chronological analysis. The analysis of the literature, clerical archival documentation allowed us to draw a number of conclusions. Firstly, the state authorities took a number of measures to control the movement of livestock in the region as a transit between the provinces of the empire. For this purpose the rules of cattle driving were introduced in the region, which included the mandatory availability of a document for cattle runners and cattle manufacturers. The control over the transportation of livestock made it possible not only to monitor the replenishment of the budget with taxes, but also to keep a record of animals, their condition (health). Secondly, officials tried to take care of the destruction of locust seed deposits in advance and the period of combating them was lengthened in time. Thirdly, the Kalmyk authorities did not have a clear plan to combat ground squirrels. The fight against it was just emerging in the systemic plan. One of the first measures of the Kalmyk officials was to study ground squirrels and conduct experiments on the extermination of rodents, unfortunately, without taking into account the consequences of the complete destruction of rodents, which could negatively affect the natural balance in the Kalmyk steppe.

Keywords

• Astrakhan authorities
• the Kalmyk steppe
• cattle
• a document
• a chief trustee
• epizootic
• officials
• locusts
• ground squirrels
• a trustee of the ulus
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