Рыбный промысел Астраханской губернии в описаниях путешественников и участников экспедиций Петербургской академии наук XVIII в.

Introduction. The article analyzes some characteristics of eighteenth-century fish production, processing, and ichthyofauna of the Lower Volga traced in notes and reports of travelers (Cornelis de Bruijn, John Bell) and St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences expeditionists (P. S. Pallas, I. I. Lepekhin, S. G. Gmelin, J. A. Güldenstädt, J. P. Falck, N. Ya. Ozeretskovsky), including papers from Collection 394 (‘Astrakhan Governorate Chancellery’) of the State Archive of Astrakhan Oblast. Materials and methods. The work uses the method of comparative historical analysis to investigate the published notes of travelers, research papers of academic expeditionists, and unpublished archival files of Collection 394 containing descriptions and analyses of the then fishing industry in the Lower Volga, and dealing with arrangements that preceded those academic expeditions in the mid-to-late eighteenth century (in particular, ones headed by S. G. Gmelin and J. P. Falck) across Astrakhan Governorate in close cooperation with regional authorities. Conclusions. Our insights into a variety of published sources and unpublished documents discovered in Collection 394 of the Archive attest to comprehensive descriptions of Astrakhan fisheries were first made by members of academic expeditions in accordance with duly assigned tasks and through the support of regional executives. Notes by chiefs of ‘physical expeditions’ make it possible to localize and characterize key areas of fish production in the region, identify some prominent fishery owners, determine the actual fish species’ range, production volumes and incomes, tools and methods of fishing.