Dr. Lyubomir Pozharliev (MON Fellow, Oct ‘20 – Jun ‘21) will give his second talk on the progress of his research at CAS on the topic:

Competing Interests. State and Private actors in the Development of Black Sea Infrastructure in Russia and Bulgaria (1856–1914)

He will present more details on

The Case of the Russian Steam Navigation and Trading Company (ROPiT)

29 April, 2021 at 16:30 h.

Moderated by Prof. Roumen Avramov.

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Abstract

This presentation is focused on the development of transport infrastructure and shipping in the Black Sea region by examining the case study of the establishment and initial development of the Russian Steam Navigation and Trading Company (ROPiT) from 1856 to the end of the 19th century. ROPiT was a joint-stock company co-owned by private entrepreneurs and the state. As the main problem of the study is the interrelation between a state-constructed public interest and private interests of entrepreneurs in the development of the Black sea maritime infrastructure, the focus of the presentation will be the relationship between Russian state imperial interests and the economic interests of the entrepreneurs and merchants, shareholders in ROPiT. The presenter follows Thomas Hughes’s understanding of infrastructure as large technological systems, whose components are not only physical artifacts but also organizations, knowledge, legislative artifacts, etc. In that aspect the presentation will introduce the concept of systemic actors – they are those, who imagine the construction of the infrastructure as a system project. The following questions will be discussed: How did the foundation and development of the Russian Steam Navigation and Trading Company become possible – in terms of context and initiators? What were the strategies for developing maritime infrastructure of the entrepreneurs and of the representatives of the state, what was the relationship between state and private interests? The biographies of the two key actors, Nikolaj Arkas (the defender of the imperial interests) and Nikolaj Novosel’skij (the representative of the entrepreneurs) are placed in the middle of the investigation. Both were founders and first directors of ROPiT and had an access to multiple resources – mobility, networks, knowledge, political support and more. The presentation will argue that Novosel’skij and Arkas could be defined as systemic actors and transcultural mediators. It also oppose the thesis that the development of the Russian Empire followed the „strong arm“ of centralized state power, arguing that in the studied case the successful development of transport infrastructure resulted from a complex intertwining of both types of interests – imperial and entrepreneurial and of the systemic visions of its key actors.