No 2 (2024): Историческая демография

The paper analyzes the dynamics of the number of the Tsar family’s settlements and peasants in the Solvychegodsk Uyezd of the Vologda province. The research is based on records sources identified in the funds of the Russian State Historical Archive and the Russian Archive of Ancient Acts. The problem was considered as part of a study of the evolution of demographic characteristics in a Tsar family’s village in a remote northern uyezd. It was revealed that the number of appanage settlements decreased over time, especially intensively in the northwestern corner of Solvychegodsk uyezd. In this case, it was not the desolation of villages that was observed, but the merging of a number of them into a single settlement or the absorption of some villages by others. Population growth in the Tsar family’s village of Solvychegodsk uyezd was lower than in the whole uyezd and in the state village, both in the uyezd and in the Vologda province. However, in individual volosts the situation with the dynamics of the number of peasants varied. The population of the Tsar family’s settlements, according to orders, differed markedly. These indicators were higher for the Afanasyevsky appanage order relative to the indicators for the the Tsar family’s village of Solvychegodsk uyezd and the province as a whole.

Despite the active imperial policy aimed at integrating foreign regions into the all-Russian socio-economic space, extensive cattle breeding continued to be the main direction of economic activity in the nomadic societies of Southern Russia in the last third of the XIX century. The subject of research is the problem of establishing the mutual influence of the population and natural and climatic factors, using the example of the Kalmyk society of the Astrakhan province. Due to its geographical location and climatic conditions, the Kalmyk steppe is one of the driest territories in the European part of Russia. This factor determines the dependence of the well-being of the indigenous population on weather conditions. The basis of the source base was statistical information presented in the annual reports of the Head of the Astrakhan province and the main trustees of the Kalmyk steppe. This sample is predetermined by the absence of a number of reporting materials, both in the first and second case. At the same time, it should be noted that there are minor discrepancies in the statistical data for a certain year in the reports of different levels.

The statement about the use of foreign outskirts as a raw material resource, put forward by researchers in the XX century within the framework of communist ideology, continues to remain one of the most significant in modern historical science. In the course of the study, the author focuses on statistical information characterizing the size of the nomadic Kalmyk population, and correlates them with years unfavorable in terms of climatic indicators in the last third of the XIX century, obtained earlier. It is concluded that as a result of the active imperial policy of transferring nomads to a sedentary lifestyle, the correlation in question turned out to be negligible, which indicates the departure of nomads from the extensive way of farming and becoming sedentary.

In the XIX – early XX centuries, significant regional differences in infant mortality rates in the Russian Empire were observed. This study assesses early infant mortality in the Arkhangelsk and Vologda provinces located in the European North of Russia. The paper considers the dynamics and territorial differences in infant mortality in the period from 1885 to 1910. The work provides comparative data on the infant mortality rate for Uyezds and towns of the Arkhangelsk and Vologda provinces. As a result of the study, territories were identified where infant mortality rates were significantly higher than the provincial average. The comparison of the considered indicators among the urban and rural population was also carried out. Peculiarities of infant mortality caused by ethnicity and social status have been identified.

The paper deals with the analysis of the demographic development of Russian ethnic groups in the 1920s. The issues of the country’s transition to peaceful life after the end of the Civil War and how this affected population dynamics are considered. In conditions of mitigation of exogenous factors, mortality, including child mortality, has decreased in the country, and life expectancy has increased. The global consequence of positive changes in the 1920s was natural population growth. The author studies the peculiarities of the administrative-territorial division of Russia, which experienced several reforms during these years (“economic zoning”). Characteristics of more than 150 ethnic groups living in the country in the 1920s are given.

The subject of consideration is the evacuated population in the Khanty-Mansiysk district. A brief characteristic of the district and its peculiarities are presented. The little-studied aspects of the topic concerning the establishment of the number of evacuees, their arrival routes and accommodation in the district are in the center of attention. For the first time in regional historiography, on the basis of new archive documents, the number of evacuated population and routes, their share in the available population of Yugra have been established. The conclusion is made that the evacuated population during the war years did not become a decisive factor in population growth in the district, as was the case in Siberia as a whole.

The attitude of society and civil institutions to death is considered; it is noted that over the centuries the attitude of the population to death has changed - from accepting it as a «thing» inevitable, to understanding the loss of a loved one, a resource of society’s labor. With the development of society, progress in medicine and pharmaceutics, the causes of death were transformed - causes of natural-historical nature gave way to «causes of civilization», which was reflected in age and gender mortality rate. Until the mid-20th century, deaths caused greater damage to female population and children, but the modern period is characterized by increased mortality of the male population, primarily in the working age. Progress in medicine and healthcare, improving the attitude of the population to their health and the development of sports have made it possible to shift mortality rate to older ages.

The author considers the main trends in the quantitative, spatial, settlement dynamics of the Russian population of Abkhazia in the 1990s and early 2020s. It is concluded that the period of sharp geodemographic transformation of the local Russian community occurred during the armed Georgian-Abkhazian conflict (1992–1993), during which the Russian population of the republic decreased several times. The post-war years (mid-second half of the 1990s) were associated with a partial restoration of the number and geography of the Russians within Abkhazia. Since the beginning of the XXI century, in the quantitative and spatial dynamics of the local Russian community, a period begins that can be conditionally designated as a geodemographic “plateau” - the number of the Russians stabilizes at the level of 21–23 thousand people. Since that time, the system of their settlement which tends to the coastal zone of the republic, has remained stable. The demographic epicenters of this system are Sukhumi and Gagra region, which account for about 70% of the Russian population of Abkhazia. Its geodemographic stability is explained by the systemic Russia-centricity of the Abkhazian society, the facilitated nature of population movement between the two countries, and the certain socio-economic stability of Abkhazia. The tourist and recreational factor was of independent importance – the year-round presence in the republic of a large number of Russian tourists, as well as Russian homeowners and labor migrants. In total, these groups outnumbered the local population (many times in many settlements), significantly determining the peculiarities of the social life of the republican society and continuously demographically “feeding” the local Russian community. This allowed the latter to increase its share in the structure of the Russian population of the entire South Caucasus from 9.4% to 15–16% in 2000–2023. By the mid-XXI century, this indicator can rise to 27–33%.

The paper is devoted to the first researcher of the historical and demographic development of the Komi region, a well-known local historian, a prominent political and public figure of the Komi Territory A. M. Martyushev. The contribution of the researcher to the study of the demographic development of Komi since the mid-17th century to 1926 is highlighted, an overview of his publications on the history and culture of the Komi people is given, and his role in the development of local lore in the Komi Autonomous Region is noted. An outline of the life of A. M. Martyushev is given, some biographical data are clarified. Some biographical information is provided. The paper is dedicated to the 150th birth anniversary of the politician and local historian.