Mordvins in Western Siberia in the Late 19Th to Early 20Th Century: Certain Issues in the Migration and Settlement

ETHNOLOGY DOI: 10.17746/1563-0110.2019.47.3.119-126 L.N. Shchankina Plekhanov Russian University of Economics, Stremyanny per. 36, Moscow, 117997, Russia E-mail: [email protected] Mordvins in Western Siberia in the Late 19th to Early 20th Century: Certain Issues in the Migration and Settlement This study addresses the main aspects of the Mordovian peasants’ relocation to Western Siberia from the mid- 1800s to Stolypin’s agrarian reform, with a focus on resettlement and relationships with old residents, successful and failed unauthorized and reverse migration, and the displacement level. The sources are archival data, specifi cally E.I. Krivyakov’s and V.B. Rusyaikin’s manuscripts owned by the archives of the Research Institute for the Humanities under the Government of the Republic of Mordovia. Causes of migration were mostly economic, and the process was triggered by the abolition of serfdom in 1861, and then by Stolypin’s reform that was meant to defuse the imminent agrarian crisis in central Russia. On the basis of archival and published evidence, it is demonstrated that the main problems faced by the authorities were their unpreparedness for arranging the relocation of large numbers of peasants, insuffi cient funding, the small sizes of the plots of land allotted to new settlers, diffi culties with obtaining documents, the fact that governmental help was insuffi cient and not provided to all those in need (plots were not allotted to unauthorized settlers), the administration’s laissez faire in the resettlement process, failure to limit admission fees paid to old settlers, and other factors caused by poor organizational training. Keywords: Western Siberia, Volga Region, Mordvins, settlers, resettlement, migration policy. Introduction the Mordvins to Western Siberia was unauthorized. Later, government policy played a signifi cant role in the The Mordovian ethnic group is characterized by its development of Siberian lands. Upon the reform of 1861, scattered dispersal. Large groups of the Mordvins live the Russian state policy aiming to defuse the agrarian in the regions and republics of the Middle Volga, in crisis was directed towards relocation of peasants to Siberia, in the Russian Far Eastern regions, Central Siberia. The Mordovian peasants were motivated to Asia, and elsewhere. The changes in dispersal pattern move to Siberia for a long time (Razzhivin, Nikonova, of the Mordvins began in the 16th century owing to 2007: 46). migration of Russians to the Mordovian territories, as well as migrations of Mordvins within their native region and their resettlement to the new lands of the Russian Resettlement process after the reform State (Mordva…, 1995: 47). Recurrent migrations of (1861–1917) the Mordvins from the Volga Region started in 1847; the available offi cial data indicate the resettlement to the The resettlement of the Mordvins to Siberia was a long- Asian part of Russia not earlier than in 1852 (Volkova, term process. What were the reasons that the people 2007: 57). Prior to the mid-19th century, migration of moved so far away from Mordovia? The main reason Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 47/3 (2019) 119–126 E-mail: [email protected] © 2019 Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences © 2019 Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences © 2019 L.N. Shchankina 119 120 L.N. Shchankina / Archaeology, Ethnology and Anthropology of Eurasia 47/3 (2019) 119–126 was the diffi cult economic situation of the peasantry. relocation, and by 1912, many Mordovian peasants, In the late 19th to early 20th centuries, the Mordovian deprived of land and means of subsistence, returned to economy was based on backward agriculture and their original places of residence. animal breeding; the proportion of the population The part of Western Siberia closest to the European engaged in the agrarian economy was about 96 %, part of Russia, with its favorable climatic conditions while that in the Penza Governorate was 90 %, and and fertile soil, was the most suitable living place. The in the Simbirsk Governorate 83 %, etc. The land was Mordovian peasants tried to settle in the areas with owned by landlords, monasteries, and a specifi c category environmental conditions similar to those of their native of wealthy peasants—kulaks. Commoners owned land. These were the forest-steppe and steppe regions small plots of land. Stratification of the population of the Tomsk, Yenisei and Tobol governorates. The developed: the numbers of both poor farmsteads and Mordovian population’s size in these regions increased kulak farms increased. No less than 15 desyatins of rapidly. land were necessary to run a self-sufficient average According to the statistical data, in 1859, the farm. In Mordovia, in the early 20th century, a single Mordovian population in the Tomsk Governorate was peasant farm commonly accounted for 7.5 desyatins 957 persons of both sexes; they lived in ten settlements of land, including only 4.5 desyatins of arable land. (Spiski…, 1868: LXXXII). The offi cial statistics recorded The Mordovian and Russian peasantry was heavily the fi rst monoethnic Mordovian settlement in the Tomsk oppressed and exploited by the monasteries, which Okrug of the Krivoshchekovo Volost; this was the owned huge capital and vast lands. The monastery Maryina village with 393 residents, “the Mordvins f rom estates were located mostly in the Krasnoslobodsky and Penza, who were good plowmen and were fairly well-to- Temnikovsky uyezds. For instance, the estates of three do” (Volosti…, 1894: 66). There were villages of joint monasteries in the Temnikovsky Uyezd were equivalent habitation of the Russians and Mordvins: Malo-Pichugina to the total area of the plots of 4500 peasant farms. The village of the Mariinsk Okrug, Pochitanskoye Volost Sarov monastery, one of the largest and richest in Russia, with 108 persons of both sexes; Soltonskoye settlement owned 26,250 desyatins of the most fertile lands and of the Biysk Okrug, Uksunai Volost (102 persons); forests (Filatov, Yurchenkov, 1989: 146–147). Nizhny-Neninsky settlement of the Yaminskoye Volost There was a defi ciency of horses, large and small (38 persons) (Ovcharova, 2016: 102). cattle, and agricultural tools. Frequent droughts and According to V.I. Kozlov’s data, the Mordovian crop failures aggravated the hardships of peasantry. The population in the Tomsk Governorate prior to 1861 was military horse census in Mordovia in 1905 recorded about 1 thousand persons (1960: 27, 41), and by the 27.1 % of horseless farms and 39.1 % of farms with a census in 1897 it had increased to 14.7 thousand persons single horse. The single-horse and horseless peasants (Volkova, 2007: 59). Prior to 1861, mostly government- usually owned no or small plots of land, and represented owned serfs from the Tambov and Penza governorates the poorest social stratum of population in the Mordovian were relocated to Siberia. According to the data collected and Russian villages. In Mordovia, prior to 1905, the by N.F. Tyugaev, a researcher of the serfdom in the rural share of this poorest population reached 66.2 % of the areas of Mordovia in the late 18th to fi rst half of the total farms, which is greater by 6.7 % than in other areas 19th centuries, in 1859–1882, from the Saransky Uyezd of of the European Russia on average (Ibid.: 147). the Penza Governorate 1077 persons were relocated to the Land-hunger and poverty in the Mordovian villages Tomsk Governorate; from the Krasnoslobodsky Uyezd in the late 19th to early 20th centuries, when the social 721 persons, and from the Insarsky Uyezd 41 persons stratifi cation of peasantry accelerated, as well as poor (Ibid.: 57). According to the data from the Minusinsk industrial development in Mordovia, led to the wide Archive in the Krasnoyarsk Territory, in 1861–1914, spread of seasonal work beyond the main place of about 200 thousand persons left the Penza Governorate residence. Peasants from other Middle Volga regions (today, the area of the Republic of Mordovia). In 1862, in (Mari and Chuvashia) were also engaged in seasonal Ural and Siberia, 39 families came from Krasnoslobodsky work, but to a lesser extent. In the discussed period, over Uyezd; in 1863–1888, 200 families from Saransky Uyezd; 100 thousand poor Russian and Mordovian peasants, in 1889–1891, 140 families from Insarsky, Spassky, and which is over 30 % of the total adult male population, Temnikovsky uyezds. The real rates of migrations from yearly moved away from their families for seasonal Mordovia and Volga Region were higher; the offi cial data work. In contrast to the feudal period, characterized by did not consider unauthorized settlers and “walkers”, who, “creeping” migrations over short distances, the capitalist having found new favorable residence in a new place, did period was marked by a large scale of migration over long not come back to their native land (Nikonova, Ternyaev, distances. However, the long-distance migrations did not 2007: 26). Having no legal opportunities to resettle, improve the peasants’ living standards (Ibid.). Available till the end of the 19th century, the Mordvins migrated historical data demonstrate a bad arrangement of peasant unauthorized. L.N. Shchankina / Archaeology, Ethnology and Anthropology of Eurasia 47/3 (2019) 119–126 121 The resettlement to Siberia at the end of the 19th to In 1894, A.A. Kaufman noted that 104 families were early 20th centuries gradually accelerated. For example, relocated from Mordovia to the Tomsk Governorate, of from 1861 to 1891, about 450 thousand persons migrated which 81 families (79.4 %) were horseless, or owned a to Siberia, including 350 thousand to Western Siberia, single horse (1895: 250). In the settlements of Ostrovsky, and up to 100 thousand to Eastern Siberia. The peasants Voznesensky, and Naumovsky, the proportions of the migrated because of loss of cattle, crop failure, wildfi re, poorest peasants were 80.6 %, 83.3 %, and 90.0 %, and for other reasons.

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