Materials of the commission for studying the Yakut republic as a source on the anthropology of land routes of communication in Yakutia in the first quarter of the XX century

the article provides a historical and anthropological reconstruction of the operational features of land communication routes in Yakutia in the first quarter of the 20th century, based on the materials of the Commission for the Study of the Yakut ASSR, including data from the Yakut Integrated Expedition of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1925-1930). The research is primarily based on documents stored in Collection 47 of the St. Petersburg Branch of the RAS Archives, as well as materials from their collections in the State Archives of the Irkutsk Region and scientific literature. It is shown that the region's land transport network was a system of state, zemstvo, and commercial roads, closely linked to river shipping. Of central importance was the Irkutsk-Yakutsk Road, providing Yakutia's main link with the outside world, while the northern routes – Verkhoyansk and Ust-Yansk – were characterized by extreme natural and climatic conditions and poor infrastructure. Based on the observations of astronomer E.F. Skvortsov identified anthropological aspects of the routes' functioning: the way of life at stations, the organization of food and rest for travelers, and the specifics of travel in conditions of cold, snow, ice, and permafrost.

Arctic, Yakutia, history of science, USSR Academy of Sciences, communication routes, routes, cold, cryogenic resources