Since the beginning of the development of Siberia by Russian Cossacks and military personnel in the XVII century, this region has remained closed to foreign subjects. English, Dutch, and Danish merchants who repeatedly applied to the Russian government for permission to visit Siberia on their own initiative or through representatives of their embassies were refused permission. The authorities, referring to the danger of the route, the inability to provide protection for merchants, constantly rejected such requests. Moreover, voivodes in Arkhangelsk and Mangazei (Ob Bay) were ordered to prevent foreign traders from entering the Siberian Region. The reason for this behavior of the authorities in the XVII century was economic, since Siberia received the export raw materials of Russia at that time - furs. Subsequently, political motives were added to the economic ones. Siberia became a place of exile and concentration of political criminals, and foreign countries, primarily England and France, intensified their activities in the Far East. As a result, Nicholas I in 1841 once again confirmed the ban on foreigners to visit Siberia. It should be noted that during this period, from the 17th century to the middle of the 19th century, foreigners visited Siberia only in two cases. First, by entering the Russian civil service, and second, as prisoners of war; as Swedish soldiers during the Northern War, exiled to Western Siberia; or Japanese sailors who were shipwrecked off the Russian coast, whose place of concentration was Eastern Siberia (Irkutsk). Moreover, in the latter case, foreigners stayed in Siberia without the opportunity to return to their homeland. But Russia's entry into the path of capitalism, the country's involvement in the international system of division of labor, the penetration of foreign capital into the country - all this raised the question of lifting the bans. Keywords: Eastern Siberia, consulates, Irkutsk, Far East, Vladivostok. On June 29, 1860, an im ... Read more