INFORMATION POTENTIAL AND CAPABILITIES OF THE DATABASE AND GIS SYSTEM OF YENISEI SIBERIA SET-TLEMENTS (MIDDLE 19TH – EARLY 20TH CENTURY) IN THE LIGHT OF MODERN REGIONAL STUDIES

Abstract

The paper explores the information potential and capabilities of the database and GIS system for systematic research on the localities of Yenisei Siberia in the mid-19th – early 20th centuries, with a focus on regional studies. The study examines Siberia as a full-fledged part of Russia and its Asian periphery. The Russian government changed the policy towards Siberia from minimal intervention to targeted economic colonization, involving voluntary migrations and the unification of the settlement structures in vast uninhabited spaces. In addition to the so-called river settlement structure (Yenisei region) or the nest settlement one (Priangara), the formation of a planned, geographically closed structure started. The paper highlights the gradual replacement of small settlements such as graveyards (‘pogost’), evictions (‘visel’), and single-yards (‘zaimka’) settlements with ordinary villages, the stratification of old-time residents’ space and the emergence of resettlement settlements, and the division of traditional settlements. This process includes increasingly remote territories of Siberia, such as the Yenisei North. The author demonstrates that the problems of space development and center-periphery relationships are relevant at the present time. The paper employs statistical, historical, geographical, and cartographic methods. Modern statistical analysis techniques reveal the spatial dynamics of the region's development. The reasons for the formation of the structure of the database hierarchy based on the geographical factor and the combination of information with interactive maps are under investigation. The paper describes the attribute tables of settlements, and plotting geodetic and hydrographic networks. The principles of dataset formation based on various reference books are outlined. The author concludes that the dataset has the potential to combine source-oriented and problem-oriented approaches, and it gives the possibility to place both historical and actual relevant data in a comprehensive information resource.