Peasant Flight to the North Caucasus and Legislation on the Settlement of the Region in the 1830s and 1840s

Abstract

In the 1830s and 1840s thousands of seigniorial peasants migrated illegally from the south-eastern provinces of Russia to the North Caucasus in the wake of information which had filtered through to them, chiefly in the form of rumours, on legislation concerning the settlement of the region. Some of the laws encouraged members of the non-serf population to migrate to the region; other laws, controversially, provided for the resettlement of some vagrants. Much of the information which reached the peasantry on the settlement legislation and the actions of peasants in leaving their villages without permission were at variance with the law. It is the purpose of this chapter to examine the relationship between the settlement legislation and the illegal migration. In particular, what were the causes and significance of the illegal migrants’ ‘misunderstandings’ of the legislation, and what do they and the incidents of illegal migration tell us about peasants’ aims and aspirations, mentalité and behavioural patterns?