Communication Routes of Upper Irtysh Region of 17th — Early 18th Centuries in “Horographic Book” and “Drawing Book of Siberia” by S. U. Remezov

The characteristics of land communications of the Upper Irtysh region in the structure of communications in the south of Western Siberia at the turn of the 17th—18th centuries, is described in the article according to the chorographic drawings of S. Remezov. The source corpus of the study is based on the atlases of the Tobolsk isographer, which retain heuristic significance, and the published information of Russian diplomats. The increasing importance of traffic routes in the Upper Irtysh region is considered in the context of the dynamics of the ethnosocial and political situation in the region. Special attention is paid to the correlation of specific trajectories of movement with physical-geographical (hydrological, geomorphological) and sociopolitical (monasteries, rulers’ rates) terrain objects. The authors propose their own interpretation of the category “way”, present an original map-scheme of communication routes in the upper and part of the middle reaches of the Irtysh. The existence of two key trajectories of movement in the Upper Irtysh region in early modern times is proved: the caravan paths that left the Irtysh and connected in the upper reaches of the Chara; the way from the Kalbinsky ridge along the western plain of the Zaisan past the Ortentau mountains to the Tarbagatai ridge and the Emel River.