Baikal

Essay

General-Governers of Easten Siberia

F.N. Klichka left fame of a kind and just chief after himself in Irkutsk (1779-1783). He helped orphans and the poor and encouraged trade. During his rule the city school was opened in Irkutsk in 1781. Two-storey house for a public library was built on his initiative.

In 1819 a duke Speranskii was sent to Irkutsk to take Siberian General-Governor post (1819-1822). He did much for Siberia. According to his plan, Siberia was divided in two parts – Western and Eastern. Speranskii introduced collegial principles, idea of councils. During his rule an Irkutsk University foundation idea was conceived.

During a rule of General-Lieutenant V.Y. Rupert (1837-1847), come of the Dutch nobility, Elizabeth Medvednikova’s girlish orphanage house was opened in 1837, and in 1845 the Girlish Institute – first female middle educational establishment.

One of the most colorful figures of pre-Revolutionary Siberian administration is a duke N.N. Muravyov-Amurskii (1848-1861). He was an initiator and organizer of adding the Amur, Primorye and Sakhalin Island to Siberia. Intense colonization of newly acquired lands, a drawing of politically exiled persons to the administrative work, attentive attitude to the Decembrists and his work about a Russian Geographical Society Siberian Department creation in Irkutsk gave Muravyov-Amurskii a large popularity among the society upper strata.

M.Speranskii V.Rupert
N.Muraviov-Amurskii N.Sinelnikov

3 years of General-Governor N.P. Sinelnikov’s rule (1871-1874) were marked by educational house, theater, the Noble Assembly organization, public garden appearance in Irkutsk.