List of issues > Series «History». 2025. Vol 53
The First City Architects of Irkutsk
Author(s)
A. N. Garashchenko
Abstract
Abstract. In the 18th century the position of city architect in Irkutsk was absent. All matters related
to the arrangement of the city were under the jurisdiction of land surveyors and the provincial architect. Researchers of the activities of Irkutsk officials in the architectural field affected the professional creativity of these officials to varying degrees, but almost no attention was paid to the administrative aspects of their activities, namely, this side of the employment of provincial architects was the
main one in the period of the 18th – first half of the 19th centuries. To a greater extent, the names of
provincial architects are known, to a lesser extent – urban ones. It can be stated that the question of
the appearance in Irkutsk of the position of a city architect in the scientific literature was practically
not considered. The purpose of the study is to provide an idea of the reasons and time when such an administrative unit was introduced in Irkutsk, as in a number of provincial cities of the European part
of the Russian Empire. The article is based on archival materials introduced into scientific circulation
for the first time. It tells about the emergence of the position of city architect in Irkutsk and the first
officials who occupied it in the period from the 1810s to the 1830s. According to the author, the
position of city architect appeared in Irkutsk in the 1810s in connection with the active reconstruction
of the city according to the plan confirmed by the Emperor in 1792. And the first person to occupy it
was F.I. Shelkovnikov, who received a salary from the income of the city administration. A little
later, the position of city architect was officially introduced into the staff of the Siberian Administration on the basis of the Emperor's decree of July 22, 1822, already with payment of a salary from the
state treasury. It existed until 1834, when the salary of the city architect was excluded from the estimate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs due to the annexation of the construction part to the department of the Main Directorate of Communications and Public Buildings, and was only reintroduced in
1844.
About the Authors
Garashchenko Aleksey Nikolayevich,
Senior Research Associate
Irkutsk Historical Museum named after
A. M. Sibiryakov
16 A, Frank-Kamenetsky st., Irkutsk, 664007,
Russian Federation
e-mail: ieditor@yandex.ru
For citation
Garashchenko A.N. The First City Architects of Irkutsk. The Bulletin of Irkutsk State University. Series History,
2025, vol. 53, pp. 6-15. https://doi.org/10.26516/2222-9124.2025.53.6 (in Russian)
Keywords
Irkutsk, city architect, the Supremely approved plan of Irkutsk in 1792,
F. I. Shelkovnikov, V. T. Bronnikov, A. V. Vasiliev, V. Ya. Rupert.
UDC
УДК 94(571.53)
DOI
https://doi.org/10.26516/2222-9124.2025.53.6
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