Trade Relations of Western Siberia and Central Asia at the Turn of the 16th – 17th Centuries: Historiography of the Question

The work is devoted to domestic and foreign historical literature on trade relations between Western Siberia and Central Asia at the turn of the 16th – 17th centuries. The study of the historiography of this story is of great importance for the essential understanding of the relationship between the Russian Federation and its Central Asian partners – in their retrospective and present. Methods and materials. The study used logical analysis, the problem-chronological method, the periodization method, and the comparative method. The sources in this article are the scientific studies of domestic and foreign historians of the 18th – the first quarter of the 21st centuries, devoted to the formation and development of trade relations between Western Siberia and Central Asia in the era of active colonization of Western Siberia by the Russian state. Analysis. The article presents not only the process of accumulation and stabilization of knowledge on this subject but also reveals the difference in the approaches of historians, the objective (political-ideological, socio-cultural, organizational, etc.) circumstances of the formation of these approaches, and the most debatable views that are analyzed and criticized. Results. The study demonstrated the presence of unconditional continuity in the works of many generations of domestic historians of the pre-revolutionary, Soviet, and modern periods, their contribution to the formation of a holistic view of the trade in Western Siberia and Central Asia, as well as those works of foreign historians who demonstrated the existence of interest in this topic and sought to contribute to its development with a certain novelty. At the same time, the author outlines a range of historiographic plots that were only outlined earlier and obviously require further development; it is concluded that, despite a solid historiographic tradition, the topic clearly has the potential for development.