Baskunchak, Astrakhan kingdom and sea salt in the bargain

From the earliest times the history of Astrakhan Lake Baskunchak inextricably linked with the development solepromysla. The first written mention of the lake Baskunchak dates from 1627, and found it was the first work on the geography of Russia, called "Big Drawing Book". But this does not mean that before the lake remained outside the sphere of human interests. About what Baskunchak-bottomless treasure trove of salt, the residents of the surrounding land, of course, knew of old, as well as about the fact that this can make a profit, well, traded on the sly, sending salt to the Silk Road to the east. There is evidence that this occurred even in the VIII. But serious mastering the local salt deposits began in the reign of Ivan IV the Terrible (1530 - 1584). In 1554 Russia conquered the kingdom of Astrakhan, on the territory of which were found Baskunchak lake. With these very long and to this day it is a principal resource of salt in Russia. The scale of the salt deposits Baskunchak stimulated a gradual increase in volumes and rates of production, despite the fact that this process is labor-intensive by definition, at high temperatures in summer becomes a truly hard work. But the priority of high income from the sale of salt won: by the lake began to rise workers settlements, some of them with the advent of Baskunchaksky railroad in 1882 and the subsequent development of the salt trade gradually grew into the city. In the XX century. Already under Soviet rule, soledobyvayuschaya industry on Lake Baskunchak was bred to a completely new level. Heavy manual labor was replaced by special equipment (the so-called salt harvesters), along with the usual ground salt production began briquetted "white gold".