Customs institutions of the Tauride province in the second half of the XIX century. According to the materials of the fund of the Yevpatoria Customs in the State Archive of the Republic of Crimea

Scientific article

doi 10.28995/2073-0101-2025-3-667-681

For citation

Borshchik, Natalya D., Prokhorov, Dmitry A. (2025). Customs institutions of the Tauride province in the second half of the XIX century. According to the materials of the fund of the Yevpatoria Customs in the State Archive of the Republic of Crimea, Herald of an Archivist, № 3, pp. 667-681, doi 10.28995/2073-0101-2025-3-667-681

Borshchik, Natalya D., Prokhorov, Dmitry A., V. I. Vernadsky Crimean Federal University. V. I., Simferopol, Russia

Customs institutions of the Tauride province in the second half of the XIX century. According to the materials of the fund of the Yevpatoria Customs in the State Archive of the Republic of Crimea

Abstract

The article analyzes the information capabilities of the Yevpatoria customs fund of the State Archive of the Republic of Crimea (SARC) - a source complex of documents of diverse content, containing information about the activities of one of the oldest customs institutions of the Tauride province. The state customs policy, the introduction of innovative technologies in the activities of domestic customs authorities are of particular relevance in the current conditions of “sanctions” confrontation of the leading world powers. The Crimean peninsula, which became part of the Russian Empire in 1783, was a strategically and economically important region on the southern borders of the state, an outpost of the Russian foreign and customs policy for the central authorities even at that time. In accordance with Russian legislation and on the model of similar structures of the empire created the first customs institutions in Evpatoria and Feodosia. The fund of the Yevpatoria customs in the GARC, which became the source base of this study, has more than 2,500 units of storage for the years 1784-1920. However, so far it is little in demand in the scientific environment and practically not studied, and its documents have not been previously introduced into the scientific turnover. At the same time, the materials of the fund give a complete picture of the variety of functions of customs control bodies in the Crimea, allow to conduct a scientific reconstruction of the history of existence and activities of these institutions, to analyze the specifics of the organization of their work, to trace the main directions of export and import operations carried out by Crimean customs. The direct purpose of the study was to characterize the documents deposited in the fund of the Yevpatoria customs, revealing the problems of the functioning of this institution in the second half of the XIX century. One of the important components of the study and its scientific novelty was the possibility, based on archival data, to trace the features of administrative communication in the Crimean customs institutions, to obtain detailed information about their official-bureaucratic composition. The documents on the establishment, staffing and activities of the customs, reports and reports of representatives of the regional administration, form lists of employees and other documentation were identified and studied, which allowed us to conduct an initial analysis of the structure and staffing of the customs. The conclusion was made about the possibility of conducting prospective studies on the history of public institutions, the history of regional administration, and ego-history.

Keywords

Russian Empire, Tauride province, Crimean peninsula, Yevpatoria customs, source study, XIX century, historical sources.

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About authors

Borshchik, Natalya D., Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor, V. I. Vernadsky Crimean Federal University, Institute “Tavricheskaya Akademiya”, Faculty of History, Department of Document and Archival Studies, Professor, Simferopol, Russia, +7-910-211-86-00, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

ORCID 0000-0001-8234-4381

Prokhorov Dmitry A., Doctor of Historical Sciences, Senior Researcher, V. I. Vernadsky Crimean Federal University, Institute “Tavricheskaya Akademiya”, Faculty of History, Department of Document and Archival Studies, Professor, Simferopol, Russia, +7-978-546-31-54, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

ORCID 0000-0001-9162-4705

Grant information

The article was prepared with the financial support of the RNF grant (project № 24-28-01285) “Customs authorities, border guards and quarantines of the Crimean peninsula in the system of state administration of the Russian Empire (the second half of the XIX century)”. Electronic resource, https://rscf.ru/project/24-28-01285/

The article was received in the editorial office on 08.04.2024, recommended for publication on 20.06.2025