ARCHIVE FUND NO. 16 MUNICIPAL PUBLIC INSTITUTION "ARCHIVE OF SOCHI" AS A SOURCE BASE FOR HISTORICAL RESEARCH OF SOCHI AGRICULTURAL AND GARDEN EXPERIMENTAL STATION FORMATION

The paper is devoted to the analysis of records deposited in the Municipal Public Institution of Sochi "Sochi Municipal Archive" in the fund No 16 Inventory No 1 of documentary materials from Sochi Agricultural and Garden Experimental Station, Department of Agriculture (hereinafter referred to as Sochi Experimental Station) from 1874 to 1920. Special attention is paid to the study of social processes during agricultural development of the lands on the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus and to the influence of scientific institutions as a social institution on the development of the agricultural sector. The paper studied an interaction of Sochi Experimental Station with science (scientists, researchers, experimental stations, agricultural societies, scientific institutions, academy of sciences, etc.), with government institutions (imperial, provincial, republican, regional, Union, local and their representatives, etc.), with the population (immigrants, large landowners, gardeners, urban and rural residents, etc.), as well as with agricultural producers (societies, cooperatives, associations, etc.) in the process of colonization of the Russian part of the Black Sea coast in the period from 1894 to 1920. For the first time, records on the historical formation of science, the introduction of experimental and scientific knowledge on the Black Sea coast in the late XIX – early XX centuries have been introduced into scientific circulation.