The Moscow-Siberian Highway ran near Archekas Mountain on the Kiya River, where an ancient Selkup settlement was located, and later the village of Kiya (now Mariinsk) appeared. Until the very opening of the Trans-Siberian Railway in the 1890s, the highway was the main transport link of the empire. Voluntary resettlers, travelers and artisans were the first to travel along it. First of all they were attracted by a new and, as they used to say then, ‘unknown country’, that is the vast territories of the Khanate of Sibir, rich in valuable fur peltries. At the end of the 16th century, after the successful campaign of the cossack ataman and leader of the Moscow army Yermak Timofeyevich against the Siberian Khan (leader) Kuchum, Siberia finally joined the Russian state.

The settler peasants began to cultivate the Siberian land. They sowed rye, millet, barley, oats, buckwheat, wheat, flax, and hemp. In the end of the 18th century, peasants started to plant potatoes. They also grew rutabagas, turnips, radishes, cabbages, carrots, beets, cucumbers, pumpkins, beans, onions, and much more.

In the old day, a plow, or a sokha, was used for agricultural works. The sokha was a tool with a wide working part equipped with two iron plowshares (cutting parts) and an iron shovel. The working part was connected to the plowshare, in which the horse was harnessed. One of these metal plowshares is displayed at the collection of the museum.

Sokha was a simple device. Peasants usually made it themselves, so its appearance might differ from village to village. There was even a proverb: ‘From one sokha to another, plow to plow, horse to horse, summer to summer are not alike.’ Thanks to its versatility and accessibility, the sokha remained the main tool for tillage until the 1930s.