Editing Irbit Fair

{{More citations needed|date=November 2024}}
[[File:Irbit - Fur market.jpg|thumb|right|250px|The fur market in Irbit (1900)]]
The '''Irbit fair''' ([[Russian language|Russian]]: Ирби́тская я́рмарка, ''Irbitskaya yarmarka'') was the second largest fair in [[Imperial Russia]] after the [[Makariev Fair]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Uyama |first=Tomohiko |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=W7eoAgAAQBAJ&dq=Irbit+fair+imperial+Russia&pg=PA157 |title=Asiatic Russia: Imperial Power in Regional and International Contexts |date=2012-03-12 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-136-62015-7 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Vinkovetsky |first=Ilya |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UBg4FM3kHncC&dq=Irbit+fair+imperial+Russia&pg=PA59 |title=Russian America: An Overseas Colony of a Continental Empire, 1804-1867 |date=2011-04-06 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-983838-7 |language=en}}</ref> It was held annually in winter in the town of [[Irbit]], trading with [[tea]] and [[fur]] brought along the [[Siberian trakt]] from [[Asia]].<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Fitzpatrick |first1=Anne L. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GmChCwAAQBAJ&dq=Irbit+fair+imperial+Russia&pg=PA89 |title=Great Russian Fair: Nizhnii Novgorod 1840-90 |last2=Hakala |first2=Ulla |date=2016-02-24 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-1-349-20640-7 |language=en}}</ref>

As [[Thomas Wallace Knox]] (1835–96) writes in his book ''Overland through Asia; Pictures of Siberian, Chinese, and [[Tatars|Tatar]] Life'' (1870):
:We met many sledges laden with goods en route to the fair which takes place every February at [[Irbit]]. This fair is of great importance to [[Siberia]], and attracts merchants from all the region west of [[Tomsk]]. From forty to fifty million [[Russian ruble|rubles]] worth of goods are exchanged there during the four weeks devoted to traffic. The commodities from Siberia are chiefly furs and tea, those from [[Europe]] comprise a great many articles. Irbit is on the Asiatic side of the [[Ural Mountains|Ural mountains]], about two hundred [[verst]]s northeast of [[Ekaterineburg]]. It is a place of little consequence except during the time of the fair.

The fair dominated the town and shaped its architecture and layout. Long, narrow dormitories are a feature of the old town with enormous wharf areas being found at the juncture of the [[Nitsa River|Nitsa]] and Irbit rivers.  

The fair was originally founded in 1643.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=A_JRAQAAMAAJ&dq=Irbit+fair+imperial+Russia&pg=PA662 |title=Board of Trade Journal |date=1898 |publisher=H.M. Stationery Office |language=en}}</ref>  With the interruptions to the fair following the [[October Revolution]] and [[Russian Civil War]] and the effects of the [[Trans-Siberian Railway]] on trade, the fair ceased in 1929 and the town lost its importance as an agricultural and trade center. 

== Cultural references ==
* The Irbit fair is mentioned in the novel ''[[Doctor Zhivago (novel)|Doctor Zhivago]]'' by [[Boris Pasternak]] as a place visited by Yuri Zhivago's father.

==References==
{{reflist}}

== External links ==
* http://www.hkteafair.com

[[Category:Economic history of Russia]]
[[Category:History of Siberia]]
[[Category:Annual fairs]]
[[Category:Trade fairs in Russia]]
[[Category:Irbitsky Uyezd]]
[[Category:Culture of Sverdlovsk Oblast]]
[[Category:China–Russian Empire relations]]
[[Category:1929 disestablishments in Russia]]
[[Category:History of Sverdlovsk Oblast]]