Seventeenth Century Siberia as a Land of Opportunity: Social Mobility Among the Russian Pioneers

Seventeenth Century Siberia as a Land of Opportunity:
Social Mobility Among the Russian Pioneers

DOI: 10.17746/1563-0110.2018.46.3.129-137

A.A. Lyutsidarskaya and N.A. Berezikov
Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Pr. Akademika Lavrentieva 17, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russia

On the basis of individual biographies, we explore the social mobility patterns among the Russian colonists of Siberia (members of Russia’s service class) in the 1600s, with reference to theories relating to the sociology of labor and social stratification. We show how peasants, hunters, fishermen, and freedmen were co-opted into the service class, and how their social status changed at all levels—horizontal, vertical, geographical, individual, group, intergenerational, and within-generational. Occupation, skills, and income were important factors affecting social mobility. For nearly all categories of migrants, the most common tendency was migration of entire families, though younger single migrants were more likely to move over longer distances. In Siberia, where social regulation norms copied those of the metropolis, upward social mobility occurred nearly exclusively within institutions. Social service provided maximal opportunity for the individual’s promotion and for the current and future status of his relatives. This was an efficient mechanism for securing high mobility in Siberian society. By the early 1700s, the degree of mobility had decreased, downward mobility had increased, and the social system had become more sustainable.

Keywords: Career, promotion, social status, social classes, biography, Siberia, service people.