The inclusion of different peoples in Russia. Lands that voluntarily joined Russia Inclusion of various peoples in Russia

Like its predecessors, it was multinational. In Karelia, the very extensive possessions of the Novgorod boyars were liquidated. Their peasants became chernososhnye (state), sat on quitrent. The possessions of the monasteries were also confiscated, but partially. Due to the poor fertility of arable land, low yields, local farmers-peasants sowed rather large plots. They made their living by fishing, hunting, and catching sea animals. In some areas, they were engaged in the manufacture of iron, boiling out salt. In the “rows”, in the city of Korel, they traded products and handicrafts. The Solovetsky Monastery had a rich economy. He sold salt alone throughout the country many thousands of pounds a year. Through the Kola and the mouth of the Northern Dvina, products and products of Pomorye went abroad.

By the end of Novgorod rule, Karelians began to bear Russian names and surnames. Many spoke and wrote in Russian. Local folk traditions were used by Karelian Chudinov in his history of Karelia and Lapland; unfortunately, his work has not been preserved; it is mentioned by a Dutch traveler who visited Kandalaksha. Russian icon painting and church architecture were widely spread in Karelia.

Non-Russian peoples in Russia XVI century (unknown artist).

The Karelians and the Russians had to repel the aggressive invasions from the west. The Swedes captured in 1581 Korela with the county. But the locals started a guerrilla war against them. It was headed by a peasant Kirill Ragozin. Their actions continued for many years. Another leader appeared - Karelian Luka Ryasäinen. As a result of the Russian-Swedish war of 1590-1595. Russia returned the lost lands - Korela and its county, Izhora land, the cities of Yam, Koporye, Ivan-gorod. In view of the severe ruin of the Korelsky district, Boris Godunov exempted it from taxes for 10 years, gave its inhabitants the right to duty-free trade. These measures have borne fruit - residents are returning to their homes, economic life is being restored.

The Perm land inhabited by the Komi was called Vymskaya and Vychegodskaya land. The far north-eastern regions began to be settled here only in the 16th century. Settlements appear at the mouth of the Tsilma, on the Izhma, and in other places in the Pechora basin. Agriculture, largely slash-and-burn, developed poorly due to natural conditions. Bread was imported, but it was not enough. Other sectors of the economy were much more productive - animal husbandry, fishing, hunting. In the last quarter of the XVI century. Seregovskie salt mines arose. Komi artisans made leather, shoes, clothes, blacksmith's products; merchants traded in Pomorye and beyond the Urals, in Siberia. The Komi peasants were mostly black-skinned. Only the Perm bishop owned 89 peasant households in Ust-Vym.

The north of Karelia, the Kola Peninsula was inhabited by the Saami (Lop, Lapps). They fished, hunted, and bred deer. They paid tribute to the Moscow treasury, gave carts. Russians appear in their lands, monasteries occupied lands and fishing grounds. Denmark and Sweden claimed the Kola Peninsula. But their attempts to capture it ended in failure.

In the Far North, from the Mezen River to the lower reaches of the Ob, the Nenets (Samoyeds) lived - nomads, their occupations were reindeer herding, fishing, and hunting. Local lands are also being actively developed by Russian merchants and industrialists. The Nenets paid tribute to Moscow.

Already at the end of the 15th century, several campaigns of Russian governors led to the annexation of Yugra land. Khanty (Ostyaks) and Mansi (Voguls) lived here. Tribute for Moscow was collected by local princes. From the beginning of the 1570s. Kuchum, the ruler of the Siberian Khanate, subjugated the southern Khanty and Mansi lands. But after Yermak's campaign, they returned to Russian citizenship.

The inhabitants of the Middle Volga region - Tatars and Chuvashs (descendants of the Volga Bulgars), Udmurts, Mari, Mordovians - were part of the Kazan Khanate. Their occupations are agriculture and animal husbandry, hunting and beekeeping. The lands belonged to the khans, tarkhans (secular feudal lords), the clergy (waqf possessions). Crafts were developed in the cities (Kazan, the capital of the khanate, Arsk, Laishev, Mamadysh, and others). Local craftsmen made good skins - yuft and morocco, blacksmith's and copper casting, gold and silver products, dishes made of clay and wood, etc.

IN 1552 the khanate with its lands and peoples was included in Russia. The governors who sat in Kazan ruled the region; at the end of the century, the Kazan order (Order of the Kazan Palace) appeared in Moscow. Back in 1555, a diocese was established in Kazan, and the Christianization of the local population began. Non-Russian feudal lords, loyal to Moscow, retained their lands, became the nobles of Russia.

Bashkiria, like the Kazan kingdom, was torn apart by strife. In addition, its various parts were subordinate to three overlords - the Kazan, Siberian khanates and the Nogai Horde, which roamed between the Volga and Yaik. Khans and biys, their own and others, mercilessly exploited, simply robbed ordinary Bashkirs.

After that, western Bashkiria went to Russia (1552), another part of it did the same five years later (1557); eastern outskirts - after the final defeat of the Siberian Khan Kuchum (1598). The Bashkirs began to pay yasak to the royal treasury and serve in the Russian army. Their cavalry, swift and formidable, participated in the Livonian and other wars. The rulers of the Nogai Horde swore allegiance to Russia, then left it.

With the accession to Russia of Astrakhan and the Nogai Horde, local Tatars, Nogais and other peoples joined in its economic and political life.

The entry of all these peoples into Russia was of no small importance to them. They got rid of the raids and ruin of warlike neighbors, bloody strife of their rulers. Under the influence of the Russians, they develop agriculture, haymaking, crafts, and trade. New cities are emerging. Russian and non-Russian residents exchange household skills, elements of folk culture, enter into mixed marriages, and in some cases become “bilingual”.

But, in addition to the positive, there were also negative aspects: the violence and oppression of the Russian, local and central, administration, spiritual authorities (forced Christianization), the seizure of land by Russian feudal lords. All this could not but lead to contradictions and clashes. Local residents resisted not only passively (refusal to perform their duties, their poor performance, escapes), but also active - raised uprisings. In the course of the latter, the lower classes opposed social and national oppression, the upper classes pursued their class goals, up to secession from Russia and subordination of the former khanates to the Crimea and Turkey.

Citizenship in relation to Russia was also accepted by Kabarda in the North Caucasus (1555). He married Maria Temryukovna, the daughter of her owner, Prince Temryuk Idarov. This act weakened the onslaught of the Crimea and Turkey, which dominated the lower reaches of the Don and the Kuban region. In 1569, when the Turks undertook a big campaign against Astrakhan from Azov, their army was smashed by Russians, Kabardians and Circassians. Turkish expansion in the Lower Volga region failed.

In the North Caucasus, a knot of contradictions is being tied between Russia, Turkey and Iran, which also laid claim to local lands.

In the 17th century the territory of the country has increased significantly. And an increasing number of different peoples were part of it. These peoples became participants in the all-Russian socio-economic and cultural processes.

The inclusion of different peoples in Russia

On the one hand, this inclusion led to the development of the national regions of the country, which previously knew only a tribal system, on the other hand, innovations broke their traditional way of life and culture. The offensive on their lands by the boyars, landlords and the Church, the arbitrariness of the governor caused discontent among the non-Russian peoples.

It must be recalled that the Tatars lived in the Volga-Kama interfluve; in the interfluve of the Volga and Oka lived the Mordovians, Mari and Chuvash; the Komi inhabited the Pechora river basin; Udmurts - the Urals along the Kama River; the Karelians occupied the lands bordering Finland; Kalmyks settled in the lower reaches of the Volga and along the northern coast of the Caspian Sea; in the Urals, along the banks of the Belaya and Ufa rivers, as well as in the Middle Urals, the Bashkirs lived; Kabardians dependent on Russia lived in the North Caucasus.

The turning point for the history of some peoples of the Volga and Ural regions was the conquest by Russia in the middle of the 16th century. Kazan and Astrakhan khanates, annexation of the northeastern lands.

A characteristic feature is the increasingly multinational composition of these territories, the mixed residence of different backgammon people, and free migration. The colonization of the Volga and Ural regions by Russian peasants was going on more and more widely, who brought their economic agricultural experience to the forest and hunting lands. This process was largely peaceful. With the appearance in the Tatar, Mordovian, Chuvash, Mari lands of Russian landlords and church feudal lords, the norms of Russian laws, serfdom, spread to privately owned lands. In the interfluve of the Oka and Volga, on fertile lands, this process went faster; in the Urals, in the northeast, in remote forest areas - more slowly.

In the 17th century the bulk of the inhabitants of these regions were state peasants. They paid taxes to the treasury with furs and food products, carried out state duties - on the construction of roads, bridges and fortress walls, performed yamskaya chase (postal service).

The government demanded that the authorities respect the traditions and customs of non-Russian peoples, punished violence and abuse, and sought to enlist the support of the local elite. Tatar murzas, Kalmyk taishas, ​​tribal leaders and elders were granted the rights of nobles, they were endowed with lands, tax collection was given to them. Over time, the local nobility began to faithfully serve Moscow.

In the forested northeastern regions where the Komi lived, there were few privately owned lands, the local residents were personally free. Russian fishermen were drawn here. These lands were especially rich in furs, fish, and other gifts of forests and rivers. Salt deposits were discovered here, salt mining was constantly expanding. Many residents went to the salt mines. Through the Komi region there were trade routes from the White Sea to Siberia. All this tied the local lands and their population more closely to the all-Russian processes.

The Christianization of these places became a strong lever for the development of the Volga and Ural regions, the establishment of Russian power here. The Tatar murzas, who did not want to convert to Orthodoxy, were deprived of their lands. Those who converted to Christianity were promised benefits on taxes and duties.

In the north-west of the country, the fate of the Finno-Ugric peoples was difficult. Historically connected with the Russian lands, after the Time of Troubles they fell under the control of Sweden, which established its own rules here, introduced Protestantism. Many Karelians fled to Eastern Karelia, which was left behind by Russia. The local inhabitants were traditionally engaged in hunting and fishing, they sowed grains on poor stony soils. New trends entered the life of the Karelian region: the development of ore deposits and iron processing began, the first manufactories appeared.

Incorporated into Russia in the middle of the XVI century. Kabarda remained a vassal of Russia. Gradually, the Russian influence here intensified. In the 17th century on the banks of the Terek, the first Russian fortresses appeared, the garrisons of which consisted of service people and Cossacks.

The peoples of European Russia sometimes shared the hardships of war with the Russian people. So, the Bashkir, Kalmyk and Kabardian cavalry participated in the wars with Poland, went to the Crimean campaigns.

When the Russian authorities, merchants and entrepreneurs, Russian feudal lords allowed violence and arbitrariness against the local population, they defended their interests with weapons in their hands. At the end of the XVII century. Karelian peasants revolted when they were tried to be attributed as workers to one of the local industrial enterprises. In the 1660-1680s. a major uprising broke out in Bashkiria in response to the seizure of land by the Russians and forced Christianization. The Volga and Ural peoples took an active part in the uprising of Stepan Razin.

Final annexation of Siberia

17th century became a turning point in the mastery of Russia throughout Siberia, up to the shores of the Pacific Ocean. Relying on fortresses in the upper and middle reaches of the Yenisei, on trading settlements and outposts in the mouths of rivers near the coast of the Arctic Ocean, Russian detachments continued to move east.

What led them to Siberia? The conquest of new lands under the high hand of the Russian tsar, the desire of service people and merchants to make money in fur- and fish-rich lands, indomitable curiosity and craving for the discovery of unknown lands and peoples.

Many different peoples lived in the vast expanses of Siberia. Each of them was small in number. Their main weapons were stone axes, bow and arrows. The Khanty and Mansi, who had already accepted Russian citizenship, lived on the Yenisei. Farther to the east, the East Siberian peoples, still unknown to Russian people, lived: in the Baikal region, along the upper reaches of the Angara and Vitim - the Buryats; east of the Yenisei up to the coast of Okhotsk - Evenki (their old name is Tungus); in the basin of the Lena, Yana, Indigirka and Kolyma rivers - the Yakuts; in southern Transbaikalia and the Amur region - daurs and duchers; in the north-east of Siberia up to the Bering Strait - Koryaks, Chukchi, Yukaghirs; in Kamchatka - Itelmens.

The highly developed economy for that time was distinguished by the Yakuts and Daurs. The latter had constant contacts with the Chinese.

Russian explorers moved to these lands starting from the 1630s. Siberian governors from Tobolsk, the Yenisei prison and Mangazeya (a trading village and port on the Taz River, not far from the Gulf of Ob) sent detachments "to visit Buryatka new lands and explain to the people there."

In the early 1630s the first detachments of service people appeared on the Lena. The prison built here was attacked by local residents led by toyons (princes). But the bow and arrow were insufficient weapons against squeakers and cannons. New detachments arrived on Lena and sent messages to the governors that the Yakut land was crowded and cattle, that the Yakuts were warriors and did not want to give the sovereign yasak.

The toyons led the fight against the Russians. One of them, You Nina, inflicted several defeats on the royal detachments. In the course of further battles and negotiations, it was possible to persuade the Yakut leaders to enter the sovereign's service. Some of the toyons received the title of ulus princes. The center of Russian influence was the Yakut prison - the future Yakutsk.

Following the service people, fishers came here, and then the peasants. It took three years to get from the center of Russia to Lena. From these lands came yasak - the skins of sables, ermines, foxes, the highly valued walrus tusk.

The Yakut prison became the base from which expeditions of servicemen to the east were equipped. Some detachments headed for the Sea of ​​Okhotsk and the Amur River, others crossed the Verkhoyansk Range and went to the upper reaches of the Yana and Indigirka and to the middle reaches of the Kolyma, and others moved from the mouth of the Lena by sea.

Trepavlov Vadim Vintserovich,
Doctor of Historical Sciences,
leading researcher at the Institute of Russian History of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

One of the fundamental issues of Russian historiography is the interpretation of the accession of peoples and territories to Russia, building relations between them and the central government.

In the works of historians written over the past decade and a half, there is a departure from the previous apologetic approach, taking into account both voluntary and forced forms of accession.

In the Soviet period, historians often easily declared one or another people voluntarily entered into Russian citizenship - on the basis of the very first agreement, an agreement between the local nobility and the government or with the provincial Russian authorities. Relapses of this approach are still found today. Anniversaries of "voluntary entry" began to be celebrated again in the Russian republics at the beginning of the 21st century. So, in 2007 there is a whole series of such festivities. The 450th anniversary of "voluntary entry into Russia" will be celebrated in Adygea, Bashkiria, Kabardino-Balkaria and Karachay-Cherkessia, the 300th anniversary - in Khakassia; next year the corresponding anniversary will be celebrated in Udmurtia (450 years), then in Kalmykia (400 years); in 2001 and 2002 celebrations in Chuvashia and Mari El died down... Established sometime, more often in Soviet times (as a rule, at the initiative of the regional party leadership), artificial and opportunistic schemes are projected onto the interpretation of real historical processes.

In fact, the picture was much more complex. The relationship of subordination and allegiance was often perceived by the Russian side and its partners in completely different ways, and one must take into account differences in views on joining Russia and on the status of being in its composition among the Russian authorities and among the annexed peoples.

To illustrate, let's turn to some of the regions listed above - Bashkiria and the area of ​​\u200b\u200bsettlement of the Adygs (according to modern ethnic nomenclature - Adyghes, Kabardians and Circassians).

The accession of the territory of the modern Republic of Bashkortostan to the Russian state was not a simultaneous act. At the same time, the formal entry of the Bashkirs into citizenship took place long before their real inclusion in the administrative system of Russia.

By the middle of the XVI century. the region of settlement of the Bashkir tribes was divided between three states: the western part was part of the Kazan Khanate, the central and southern (i.e., the main part of present-day Bashkiria) was subordinate to the Nogai Horde, the northeastern tribes were tributaries of the Siberian khans.

After the conquest of Kazan in October 1552, the government of Tsar Ivan IV turned to the peoples of the Khanate, including the Bashkirs. They were urged to continue to pay taxes (yasak) to the Russian authorities - just like the Tatar khans; the population was guaranteed the inviolability of local customs and the Muslim religion; the tsar promised to keep their ancestral lands for the Bashkirs on the rights of patrimonial (hereditary) possession. During 1554 - 1555. representatives of the western Bashkir tribes came to the royal governor in Kazan and confirmed their agreement with the specified conditions by an oath (shert).

The chronology of these events is reconstructed analytically, since information about them has not been preserved in official documents. Information is contained only in the Bashkir tribal genealogies (shezhere), where the dates are not indicated or are distorted.

In the mid-1550s, the Nogai Horde was engulfed in internecine turmoil and famine. Most of the Nogai migrated to the southern steppes, their nomad camps were empty. The Bashkirs began to distribute them among their tribes and populate them. In order to secure the occupied nomad camps, protect them from Nogai invasions, and also to assert the patrimonial right to the old ancestral possessions (as in the case of the western tribes), the tribes of central and southern Bashkiria sent delegations to Kazan to the tsar with a request to accept them under their own rule. protection and patronage. It happened in 1555-1557. These events are also reconstructed mainly according to the shezher. However, they were also reflected in the official annals. The Nikon Chronicle cites a report from the Kazan Governor Prince P.I. Shuisky to Moscow that in May 1557 envoys from the Bashkirs confirmed their submission to the tsar in Kazan and brought the due tax (“the Bashkirs came, finished off with their foreheads, and paid yasak” 1 ).

It is believed that this chronicle statement marks the completion of the accession of the main part of the Bashkir tribes to the Russian state. It was the message of the Nikon Chronicle of 1557 that served as the main basis for the celebration of the 400th anniversary of the entry of Bashkiria into Russia in 1957. However, the process of the entry of the Bashkirs into the Russian state began before this date and continued after it.

The foundation of the Russian fortress in Ufa and the quartering of the Streltsy garrison of the governor Mikhail Nagogoy in it in 1586, the establishment of a special Ufa district already marked the actual extension of the jurisdiction of the Russian government to this region.

In the same 1586, the Trans-Ural Bashkirs, former subjects of the Siberian khans, accepted Russian citizenship.

In the context of the constant claims of the Nogais to the South Ural territories and the threat from the Kalmyks (and later the Kazakhs), the powerful rear in the form of Russian governors and serf garrisons served as a significant incentive for the loyalty of the Bashkirs towards Russia in the future. Since then, the indigenous population of the Southern Urals has never left Russian citizenship, but, on the contrary, has been increasingly included in the life of the state.

The way of life and intra-tribal relations among the Bashkirs initially remained intact. From earlier times, the division of the region into five provinces-roads was preserved, and they, in turn, consisted of volosts. Through the volost biys (foremen) all government policy in the region was carried out. For example, to resolve important issues, the Ufa governor was not always involved, but the volost gathering-yiyin was collected; Common Bashkir yiyins are also known.

In general, both sides - the Russian (represented by the administration) and the Bashkir - recognized the status of the Bashkir people as having voluntarily joined the Russian state and therefore received from Ivan IV the right to live in the most preferential administrative regime.

However, in the second half of the XVII century. this regime has changed. Russian villages appeared on the Bashkir pastures and hunting grounds, the authorities increased taxation rates. The most significant changes were noticeable in the 18th century: under Peter I, the obligation to serve state duties was extended to the Bashkirs, in 1754 the traditional yasak payments were replaced by a salt monopoly. Indignation was caused by the frequent in the XVIII century. withdrawals (actually - seizures) of large areas for fortresses and factories.

These innovations did not undermine the economic foundations of the local population and in themselves were not very difficult, especially in comparison with the position of the Russian serfs. But the memory of voluntary accession and royal awards led the Bashkirs to believe that the government had unilaterally violated its longstanding obligations. The Bashkirs considered allegiance to the tsar as their free choice, as a result of mutual agreement with Moscow. Therefore, they considered themselves entitled to defend by force the rights once received from the government, as well as to terminate the previous agreements and, in the end, change the overlord. These reasons, together with the abuses of officials, caused mass indignation of the Bashkirs and a series of their uprisings in the 17th-18th centuries.

Gradually, with the overcoming of contradictions and conflicts, the adaptation of the indigenous inhabitants of the Southern Urals to the new conditions of existence took place. As part of the Russian state, the Bashkirs, like other peoples, adapted to its political system and legislation, mastered communication through the dominant Russian language, mastered the achievements of Russian science and culture, bringing their own contribution to them.

Active political ties between Russia and the principalities of the North Caucasus began in the middle of the 16th century. According to the then accepted diplomatic procedures, these relations were often formalized with coats and were accompanied by assurances of allegiance (“servility”). However, in those days, ideas about citizenship, patronage, suzerainty sometimes turned out to be rather arbitrary. As shown not only by Caucasian materials, but also by Siberian, Kalmyk, etc., “citizenship”, declared on the basis of “shert” agreements, should be accompanied by serious reservations. The two-hundred-year-old epic of repeated “shetting” of Kabardian, Dagestan, Georgian and other rulers to Russian tsars confirms this feature of international relations of the late Middle Ages.

Most authors are by no means inclined to take literally the alliances concluded at that time as the transition of the Circassians into allegiance to the Russian "white tsar". They are reasonably interpreted as the result of the coincidence of interests of the local ruling elite and the Russian authorities, as evidence of a political alliance directed against third forces - neighboring powers that fought for the Caucasus. Maneuvering between Persia, Turkey and Russia often formed the basis of the foreign policy of local rulers. The result of such maneuvering was the "general servility" that periodically arose in the Caucasus - the recognition of subordination to both the Russian Tsar and the Persian Shah or the Ottoman Sultan.

In the middle of the 16th century, simultaneously with the conquest of the Kazan and Astrakhan khanates by Ivan IV and the exit of the Muscovite state to the Caspian Sea, friendly relations between Moscow and some Adyghe rulers were established. In 1552, 1555, 1557 Embassies from Kabarda and Western (trans-Kuban) Adyghes came to Ivan the Terrible with a request to accept them as subjects, for help against the expansion of the Crimean khans and in the fight against the Kazikumukh (Dagestan) shamkhap. In July 1557, representatives of the two Kabardian princes were received by the tsar, who favorably reacted to the request "to commit [them] in servitude and help them inflict on enemies." Later, Ivan IV even married a Kabardian princess.

Russia is famous as a multinational state, more than 190 peoples live on the territory of the country. Most of them ended up in the Russian Federation peacefully, thanks to the annexation of new territories. Each nation is distinguished by its history, culture and heritage. Let us analyze in more detail the national composition of Russia, considering each ethnic group separately.

Large nationalities of Russia

Russians are the most numerous indigenous ethnic group living in Russia. The number of Russian people in the world is equated to 133 million people, but some sources indicate a figure of up to 150 million. More than 110 (almost 79% of the total population of the country) millions of Russians live in the Russian Federation, most of the Russians also live in Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Belarus. If we consider the map of Russia, then the Russian people are distributed in large numbers throughout the entire territory of the state, living in every region of the country ...

Tatars, compared with Russians, make up only 3.7% of the total population of the country. The Tatar people have a population of 5.3 million people. This ethnic group lives throughout the country, the most densely populated city of Tatars is Tatarstan, more than 2 million people live there, and the most sparsely populated region is Ingushetia, where there are not even a thousand people from the Tatar people ...

The Bashkirs are the indigenous people of the Republic of Bashkortostan. The number of Bashkirs is about 1.5 million people - this is 1.1% of the total number of all residents of the Russian Federation. Of the one and a half million people, most (about 1 million) live on the territory of Bashkortostan. The rest of the Bashkirs live throughout Russia, as well as in the CIS countries ...

Chuvash are the indigenous inhabitants of the Chuvash Republic. Their number is 1.4 million people, which is 1.01% of the total national composition of Russians. According to the census, about 880 thousand Chuvashs live on the territory of the republic, the rest live in all regions of Russia, as well as in Kazakhstan and Ukraine ...

Chechens are a people who settled in the North Caucasus, Chechnya is considered their homeland. In Russia, the number of the Chechen people was 1.3 million people, but according to statistics, since 2015 the number of Chechens in the territory of the Russian Federation has increased to 1.4 million. This people makes up 1.01% of the total population of Russia ...

The Mordovian people have a population of about 800 thousand people (about 750 thousand), which is 0.54% of the total population. Most of the people live in Mordovia - about 350 thousand people, followed by the regions: Samara, Penza, Orenburg, Ulyanovsk. Least of all, this ethnic group lives in the Ivanovo and Omsk regions, and 5 thousand belonging to the Mordovian people will not gather there ...

The Udmurt people have a population of 550 thousand people - this is 0.40% of the total population of our vast Motherland. Most of the ethnic group lives in the Udmurt Republic, and the rest is dispersed in neighboring regions - Tatarstan, Bashkortostan, Sverdlovsk Region, Perm Territory, Kirov Region, Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug. A small part of the Udmurt people migrated to Kazakhstan and Ukraine ...

The Yakuts represent the indigenous population of Yakutia. Their number is equal to 480 thousand people - this is about 0.35% of the total national composition in the Russian Federation. Yakuts make up the majority of the inhabitants of Yakutia and Siberia. They also live in other regions of Russia, the regions most densely populated by Yakuts are the Irkutsk and Magadan regions, the Krasnoyarsk Territory, Khabarovsk and the Primorsky District ...

According to statistics available after the census, 460,000 Buryats live in Russia. This is 0.32% of the total number of Russians. Most of the Buryats (about 280 thousand people) live in Buryatia, being the indigenous population of this republic. The rest of the people of Buryatia live in other regions of Russia. The most densely populated territory by Buryats is the Irkutsk Region (77 thousand) and the Trans-Baikal Territory (73 thousand), and the less populated territory is the Kamchatka Territory and the Kemerovo Region, even 2000 thousand Buryats cannot be found there ...

The number of the Komi people living on the territory of the Russian Federation is 230 thousand people. This figure is 0.16% of the total population in Russia. For living, this people chose not only the Komi Republic, which is their immediate homeland, but also other regions of our vast country. The Komi people are found in the Sverdlovsk, Tyumen, Arkhangelsk, Murmansk and Omsk regions, as well as in the Nenets, Yamalo-Nenets and Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrugs ...

The people of Kalmykia are indigenous to the Republic of Kalmykia. Their number is 190 thousand people, if compared as a percentage, then 0.13% of the total population living in Russia. Most of these people, not counting Kalmykia, live in the Astrakhan and Volgograd regions - about 7 thousand people. And least of all Kalmyks live in the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug and the Stavropol Territory - less than a thousand people ...

Altaians are the indigenous people of Altai, therefore they live mainly in this republic. Although some of the population has left the historical habitat, they now live in the Kemerovo and Novosibirsk regions. The total number of the Altai people is 79 thousand people, in percentage - 0.06 of the total number of Russians ...

The Chukchi are a small people from the northeastern part of Asia. In Russia, the Chukchi people have a small number - about 16 thousand people, their people make up 0.01% of the total population of our multinational country. This people is scattered throughout Russia, but most of them settled in the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, Yakutia, the Kamchatka Territory and the Magadan Region ...

These are the most common peoples that you can meet in the vastness of Mother Russia. However, the list is far from complete, because in our state there are peoples of other countries. For example, Germans, Vietnamese, Arabs, Serbs, Romanians, Czechs, Americans, Kazakhs, Ukrainians, French, Italians, Slovaks, Croats, Tuvans, Uzbeks, Spaniards, British, Japanese, Pakistanis, etc. Most of the listed ethnic groups make up 0.01% of the total, but there are peoples with more than 0.5%.

You can continue endlessly, because the vast territory of the Russian Federation is capable of accommodating many peoples under one roof, both indigenous and those arriving from other countries and even continents.

§ 33-34. PEOPLES OF THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE

Multinational country. The population of the Russian Empire in the XVIII century. constantly grew. If in 1720 15.7 million people lived in the country, then in 1795 - 37.4 million people. High population growth rates were associated with both an increase in the birth rate and an increase in the territory of the Russian Empire.

The expansion of the borders of Russia went at the expense of the lands inhabited by Ukrainians, Belarusians, Lithuanians, Poles, Finns, Jews and other peoples. In 1795, the share of Russians in the total population of the country was 49%, Ukrainians - about 20, Belarusians - 8, Poles - 6, Finns - 2, Lithuanians - 1.9, Tatars - 1.9, Latvians - 1.7, Jews - 1.4%, Estonians - 1.1%. Moldavians, Nenets, Udmurts, Karelians, Komi, Mari, Kalmyks, Bashkirs, Chuvashs and many other nationalities made up 1% of the population of the Russian Empire.

Many peoples were freed from the heavy burden of recruitment. They also did not know serfdom, which became the lot of only Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians and the peoples of the Baltic states.

Many moved to Russia colonists: Germans, Moldavians, Greeks, Armenians, Serbs, Bulgarians. The process of settling and developing new lands on the outskirts of the country continued, in which Russians, Ukrainians, Tatars, Mordovians, Chuvashs, and Mari actively participated.

A special position was occupied by Jews who lived in the territory that became part of the country after the divisions of the Commonwealth, as well as in New Russia, on the Left-Bank Ukraine and partly in the Baltic states. Laws passed in the 1790s defined the boundaries of the territories in which they were allowed to permanently reside - the line of settledness. The introduction of the Pale of Settlement infringed on the rights of the Jewish people.

Russians. In the XVIII century. their number increased from 11 to 20 million people, but their share in the country's population decreased. Russians mainly lived in the central and northwestern regions of the country. Here their share in the total population exceeded 90%. In the 1780s Russian settlers appeared in the North Caucasus, and their number grew in Siberia. The Russians moved to Novorossia and to the lands of the Don Cossacks, to the Ekaterinoslav and Tauride provinces.

The life of the bulk of the rural population has changed slightly: the same everyday work on the land, where adults and children worked for a significant part of the year, the same taxes and duties in favor of the treasury and the landowner. Along with this, the development of market relations led to the stratification of the peasants into rich and poor. The prosperous peasantry sought to imitate the townspeople in the planning of houses, food and clothing.

Peasant life, in turn, influenced the life of the townspeople. The countryside began immediately beyond the city limits. The development of otkhodnichestvo, study, recruitment, visiting churches and monasteries (pilgrims), the joint participation of townspeople and peasants in numerous wars - these and other forms of communication contributed to the mutual enrichment of peasant and urban culture.

In the XVIII century. Most of the townspeople lived in wooden houses. Stone residential buildings were not uncommon only in St. Petersburg and Moscow. The interior of the house was decorated with wooden carvings, mirrors and curtains, expensive furniture and utensils. Garden trees were planted around the house. Usually the houses of the townspeople were one-story or two-story. Three- and four-story houses built in the Western European style appeared in Moscow and St. Petersburg. At night, the windows were closed with shutters.

Unknown woman in Russian costume. Artist I. Argunov

Peasant lunch. Artist M. Shibanov

City dwellers used European-style items in everyday life. In the houses of the nobility, forks, knives and spoons were made of silver (hence the expression “table silver”), plates and cups were made of porcelain, glasses, glasses and decanters were made of crystal. The bulk of the townspeople had simple utensils. In a peasant family, they usually ate from common dishes. However, both the poor and the rich were careful with household items.

Wall game. Artist E. Korneev

Since Peter's time, the clothes of the townspeople have changed. Employees were required to appear in public places in a foreign or, as it was called, "German" dress and wig, with the introduction of civilian uniforms - in uniform. The military wore a uniform of bright, elegant colors, with high headdresses and decorations.

Ukrainians. In the middle of the XVIII century. Left-bank Ukraine with Kiev and Zaporozhye was part of the Russian Empire, Right-bank Ukraine (from the middle reaches of the Dnieper to the Carpathians) was under the rule of the Commonwealth. The lower reaches of the Dnieper to Sivash and Perekop belonged to the Ottoman Empire and its vassal, the Crimean Khanate, Transcarpathia was part of Hungary. Left-bank Ukraine was an agricultural region. The Ukrainian nobility, the Cossack elders and the higher clergy had huge land holdings. They waged an active struggle with the Russian government for the preservation of autonomy (“the rights and liberties of the Little Russian people”).

St. Andrew's Church in Kyiv Architect B. Rastrelli

In 1764, the hetmanship was abolished and Ukrainian autonomy was liquidated. With the annexation of the Azov-Black Sea steppes to Russia, the former Cossacks formed the so-called Black Sea Cossacks. After moving to the Taman Peninsula, they formed the Kuban Cossack army.

In 1782, in accordance with the provincial reform, Kiev, Chernigov and Novgorod-Seversk governorships were founded. The following year, the population was obliged to pay a poll tax, and the transfer of peasants from one landowner to another was also prohibited. The provisions of the Letters of Complaint to the nobility and cities extended to the Left-bank Ukraine. Ukraine did not escape the secularization of church lands.

After the Black Sea region was annexed to Russia as a result of the Russian-Turkish wars, the fertile lands of this region were presented by the monarchs to the nobility. So, the Prosecutor General of the Senate, Prince A. A. Vyazemsky, received more than 50 thousand acres of land as his property, a little less - G. A. Potemkin and other Catherine's nobles.

The unification of Ukrainian lands within the Russian state was of great importance for the fraternal peoples - Ukrainians and Russians, and contributed to the mutual enrichment of cultures.

The Kiev-Mohyla Academy played an important role in the development of education and science in Ukraine. The Russian society knew the works of the philosopher and writer G. Skovoroda and the historical works of G. A. Poletika. In 1789, the first theater in Ukraine was founded in Kharkov. Talented composers A. L. Vedel, D. S. Bortnyansky, artists D. G. Levitsky, V. L. Borovikovsky, A. P. Losenko, sculptors M. I. Kozlovsky and I. P. Martos had Ukrainian roots. Ukrainians intensively populated the Black Sea steppes and Crimea, participated in the economic development of this richest region, and also moved to the lands of the Don Army and the North Caucasus, to the Voronezh and Kursk provinces.

Belarusians. In the middle of the XVIII century. Belarus was part of the Commonwealth. Most of the peasant farms worked out the corvee, an insignificant part of the state peasants paid a cash quitrent. Serfdom was aggravated by heavy national and religious oppression: Polish landowners forcibly planted Catholicism, sought to Polonize Belarusians and deprive them of their own culture. The Belarusian gentry and wealthy citizens were educated in Catholic schools, as well as at the Vilna Academy.

In the second half of the XVIII century. Belarus became part of the Russian Empire.

Belarusians

Its population was over 3 million people. The Russian government exempted the population of Belarus from paying state taxes, but practiced the distribution of state lands and the peasants who inhabited them to the Russian nobility.

About 90% of Belarusians lived in the Minsk and Mogilev provinces, somewhat less in Vitebsk and Grodno, in the Vilna province the main population was Lithuanians.

The entry of Belarus into Russia contributed to the involvement of the region's economy in commodity production and the all-Russian market, the growth of large manufactories, and the use of civilian labor in them. Road construction was actively developed, channels were laid.

The reunification of Belarusians and Russians in a single state met the interests of two fraternal peoples, related in origin, language, culture and historical past.

The peoples of the Baltic. After joining Russia, the Baltic States became the country's sea gates, and the ports of Tallinn, Pärnu, Narva, and Riga occupied an important place in foreign trade. The Russian government confirmed the former privileges of the Baltic and German landowners. They formed the local administration. The official language in the Estonian, Livonian and Courland provinces was German.

Estonian and Latvian nobles increased the corvee, which caused popular unrest and forced the government to make concessions. D. I. Fonvizin, who traveled around the Baltic states, wrote: “The men are against the masters, and the gentlemen are so furious against them that they are looking for the death of each other.”

Panorama of Riga. 18th century engraving

Most of the Latvians (up to 80% of the population) lived in Courland; there were few of them in Livonia, here a significant part of the population was Germans. Estonians lived in almost all counties of Estonia, and in Livonia they made up almost half of the population of the region. The Lithuanian population prevailed in the Vilna province, a small part of it settled in the Grodno province and Livonia.

The peoples of the Volga and Ural regions. In the second half of the XVIII century. on the territory of the Middle Volga region, the share of the Russian population increased. Some non-Russian peoples moved to the Trans-Volga and Ural regions, because the landowners seized land and settled them with serfs from the central regions of Russia. The bulk of the serfs in the Volga region were Russians. The government resettled state peasants, which included most of the non-Russian population of the Volga region (Mordovians, Maris, Chuvashs, Tatars), to new lands in Bashkiria.

The main occupation of the population of the Volga region was agriculture. Only the Tatars, along with agriculture, were engaged in raising livestock for dressing leather and obtaining wool for the purpose of selling them. Maris, Mordvins and Chuvashs developed horticulture and sold grown vegetables in the cities. With the reduction of forests and the expansion of arable land, hunting was no longer one of the main occupations of the population of this region.

Despite the fact that a significant part of the Udmurts, Maris, Chuvashs and almost all of the Mordovians adopted Christianity, they continued to believe in their pagan gods and made sacrifices to them. The bulk of the Tatars remained Muslims. The Tatar language was studied at the Kazan Gymnasium using the primer and grammar of I. Khalfin.

Alphabet and grammar of the Tatar language by I. Khalfin

Most of the Tatars lived in the Kazan province. Their settlements were in the Simbirsk and Penza provinces, as well as in the Lower Volga region. After the conquest of Crimea by Russia, the Crimean Tatars moved to Turkey, and only a part of them remained in their former places.

In the second half of the XVIII century. the territory of Bashkiria was part of the Orenburg province. The Bashkirs had benefits: they did not pay the poll tax and were exempted from recruitment duty. They did not know serfdom. The population of Bashkiria was multinational - 70 thousand Bashkirs, more than 100 thousand Tatars, Chuvashs, Maris and Udmurts, as well as more than 130 thousand Russians lived here. The Bashkirs led a nomadic or semi-nomadic lifestyle. The land was owned by the community. However, the Bashkir nobility enjoyed the right to distribute nomad camps.

The Lower Volga region was inhabited by Kalmyks who moved to the Caspian steppes in the first half of the 17th century. from Central Asia. They confessed lamaism. The power belonged to the tribal nobility and the clergy, they were paid by ordinary community members in kind or in cash dues. Under Catherine II, lands in the Kalmyk steppe were actively distributed to the nobles. In the 1770s a significant part of the Kalmyks went to Dzungaria (North-Western China).

Peoples of Siberia. At the end of the XVIII century. in Siberia there were two provinces - Tobolsk and Irkutsk, they were divided into regions, and regions - into counties. The peoples of Siberia were subject to local administration on the basis of the "Regulations on the management of foreigners." As a rule, local princes took an oath (shert) of allegiance and gave an obligation to pay yasak in a timely manner. They retained independence in the administration of their territories.

Siberia was one of the most multinational territories of the Russian state. Nenets (Samoyeds), Khanty (Ostyaks), Mansi (Voguls), Siberian Tatars, Nganasans, Khakasses, Evenks (Tungus), Evens, Yakuts, Yukaghirs, Chukchis, Kamchadals (Itelmens), Ainu (Kurils) - far from a complete list of peoples who inhabited Russia from the Ural Mountains to Kamchatka and the Kuriles.

In the XVIII century. there was a further property stratification among the reindeer herding peoples. Khanty, Mansi and Selkups accepted Christianity, but baptism was often formal. According to contemporaries, the newly baptized "secretly practice idolatry and shamanism."

The northern Tunguses were widely settled throughout the territory of Siberia. The lands of the Chukchi and Eskimos were peacefully annexed to Russia.

The Yakuts developed new habitats in the northwest and northeast of Siberia. The strengthening of property stratification led to the emergence of the nobility (toyons), ordinary Yakuts - free community members and dependent workers (religious workers). The administration of Siberia entrusted the toyons with the responsibility of collecting yasak. In addition, toyons issued so-called tickets, without which no Yakut had the right to leave his settlement.

The process of property stratification was also observed among the Buryats. In 1781, a congress of the Buryat nobility took place, which approved the "Steppe Code". Lamaism became the dominant religion of the Eastern Buryats. Lamaist monasteries (datsans) appeared in Transbaikalia.

At the end of the XVIII century. Russian settlements appeared in Alaska.

In Siberia, the land belonged to the state. The peasants were divided into state, ascribed and monastic. The latter, after the secularization of church lands, formed the category of economic peasants.

During the Northern War, the mining and metallurgical industries developed in Siberia. A significant part of the Siberian silver and gold was produced by the Zmeinogorsk mine. Altai factories and the Nerchinsk mine in Transbaikalia became large centers of local industry. The population of Siberia successfully traded with China.

View of the city of Tobolsk

The growth of the Russian population in the region was not only at the expense of peasant migrants. Siberia was a place of exile for the Don and Zaporizhzhya Cossacks, schismatics, landlord peasants and yard people who committed "impudent deeds" against their masters.

Kazakhstan. In the XVIII century. Kazakh tribes, depending on the places of nomadism, were divided into three zhuzes: Senior, Middle and Junior. Various khanates located on the territory of the zhuzes waged a fierce struggle for power among themselves. In the 1730s - 1740s. most of the Kazakhs of the Younger and Middle zhuzes accepted Russian citizenship.

The main occupation of the Kazakhs was nomadic cattle breeding. The Kazakh nobility - khans, sultans, bai - collected natural duties and taxes from their subjects. Cattle breeders gave their owners a twentieth of the cattle, farmers - a tenth of the crop. Patriarchal relations in the region coexisted with the remnants of the tribal system.

Peoples of the North Caucasus. Numerous Adyghe tribes occupied the territory beyond the Kuban, from the Laba River to the Black Sea coast and the mountainous part of the Western Caucasus. The princes often came from families connected by family ties with the Crimean Khan's house.

In Kabarda, the nobles themselves chose their owner, and the influence of local princes was fragile. There were people's meetings, in which people's foremen, communal peasants, princely servants participated. The main occupations of the population were cattle breeding and agriculture. The Russian government supported the princes, securing land for them.

There were about fifteen princely possessions in Dagestan. The Avar Khanate was large with 30 thousand households. Khan's power did not extend to the highland regions of Dagestan. Here reigned their own laws.

After the Peace of Kyuchuk-Kainarji (1774), fortresses were built in the North Caucasus in a short time. Vladikavkaz was built to protect the Georgian Military Highway.

colonists – settlers from other countries.

trait settled way of life - the border of the territory where Jews were allowed permanent residence.

Lamaism – a form of Buddhism common in Russia in Buryatia, Kalmykia and Tuva.

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