Southeastern “frontier” of European Russia in the middle of the 17th – early of the 18th centuries

We consider the colonization specifics of the Southeastern European Russia in the middle of the 17th – early of the 18th centuries. Based on the set of sources study we show the interaction between the state and various groups of Russian society in this process. The original statement is that in terms of its basic characteristics, the development of the southeastern and southern borders of the country was a single process, but had its own specifics for individual regions. The features of the Southeast were: the complex ethnic and confessional composition of the indigenous population, the presence of historical memory of former statehood among some residents, as well as a number of other factors. We conclude that the use of traditional in Russian historiography colonization theory methods is not enough to study this problem. It is necessary to use new approaches and, in particular, the frontier theory, adapted for the Russian reality of the period under consideration.

colonization, frontier, Southeast, Southern Middle Volga region, state, society, service class people and state serving peasants, Cossacks, nomads