JEWISH MERCHANTS IN TRANSBAIKAL REGION AT THE END OF THE 19TH TO THE EARLY 20TH CENTURY: THE MERCHANT CLASS ELITE

The author attempts to identify why it was in the Transbaikal region that Jewish merchants managed not only to achieve great success in business but also to establish themselves as the business community elite. Researchers of Siberian Jews history have always paid attention to the fact that there were many Jews in Siberian cities who managed to become rich despite legal discrimination against them. Jews' rich experience of mediation in trade appears to have been acutely needed in the region which was undergoing intensive colonization. Jewish entrepreneurs happened to be in the right place at the right time. Yet there is no answer to the question why Transbaikal Jews constituted a true phenomenon even compared to other quite successful Siberian Jews. Despite making up just a small percentage of the Transbaikal urban population, half, and even more, of the merchant class here, were Jews, and this number was growing year in year out. Jewish trade companies were the largest ones, and Jewish houses were the most expensive and well-constructed. Being, according to Empire's legislation, second-class citizens, Jews controlled entire industries, and they were recognized by the regional authorities that implemented this legislation to be successful business people. To account for this phenomenon, economic and geopolitical specificities of the Transbaikal region were analyzed. Imperial plans, that is to transform the region which was backward in terms of economic modernization into a trade and industrial platform in order to enhance Empire's influence in Inner Asia, required rapid capitalization of the region. And so, the regional authorities needed Jews who, having already been well accustomed to capitalist activities, were seen as 'teachers of capitalism'.