# Irbit Fair

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{{More citations needed|date=November 2024}}
thumb|right|250px|The fur market in Irbit (1900)
The '''Irbit fair''' ([Russian](/source/Russian_language): Ирби́тская я́рмарка, ''Irbitskaya yarmarka'') was the second largest fair in [Imperial Russia](/source/Imperial_Russia) after the [Makariev Fair](/source/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](/source/Irbit), trading with [tea](/source/tea) and [fur](/source/fur) brought along the [Siberian trakt](/source/Siberian_trakt) from [Asia](/source/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](/source/Thomas_Wallace_Knox) (1835–96) writes in his book ''Overland through Asia; Pictures of Siberian, Chinese, and [Tatar](/source/Tatars) Life'' (1870):
:We met many sledges laden with goods en route to the fair which takes place every February at [Irbit](/source/Irbit). This fair is of great importance to [Siberia](/source/Siberia), and attracts merchants from all the region west of [Tomsk](/source/Tomsk). From forty to fifty million [rubles](/source/Russian_ruble) 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](/source/Europe) comprise a great many articles. Irbit is on the Asiatic side of the [Ural mountains](/source/Ural_Mountains), about two hundred [verst](/source/verst)s northeast of [Ekaterineburg](/source/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](/source/Nitsa_River) 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](/source/October_Revolution) and [Russian Civil War](/source/Russian_Civil_War) and the effects of the [Trans-Siberian Railway](/source/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](/source/Doctor_Zhivago_(novel))'' by [Boris Pasternak](/source/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

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