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

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

DOI: 10.17746/1563-0110.2019.47.3.119-126

L.N. Shchankina
Plekhanov Russian University of Economics, Stremyanny per. 36, Moscow, 117997, Russia

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, specifically 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, insufficient funding, the small sizes of the plots of land allotted to new settlers, difficulties with obtaining documents, the fact that governmental help was insufficient 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