Authors

Tatiana Saburova¹;  ¹ Indiana University, United States

Discussion

This paper is focused on mapping and describing rivers and lakes of the Semirechie region in the late 19th-early 20th century, reflecting on the perspectives of the Russian colonization and integrating the region into the Russian empire. I examine how rivers were used to draw administrative borders and to develop the imperial infrastructure; how waterways were mapped by cartographers and explored by scientists, and how observations of water level became a part of the climate debates. This paper is based on the writings and photographs of Vasilii Sapozhnikov but I also utilize writings and maps of other travelers to Semirechie in late imperial Russia as well as the administrative reports and surveys of lakes Balkhash and Issyk-Kul, and rivers Chu, Ili, Kuelyu, and Sarydhzas.