Resettlement from Taurida Guberniia to the Caucasus

Abstract

When the Doukhobors were expelled from the Taurida guberniia by the government in 1840, they were resettled to the Tiflis guberniia, Akhalkalak District to the so-called Wet Mountains, 10 miles from the Turkish border. The government expelled them from the Taurida guberniia because of their religious convictions. They were settled on the Turkish border with the aim of weakening their religious spirit. The climate there was very severe, winters were long and cold. Because of the spring and autumn frost, wheat did not ripen at all, but barley did. For the most part, people ate barley. After two or three years, a small part of the Doukhobors resettled to Elizavetpol’ guberniia, three hundred miles to the east. Our parents were among those who resettled there; they lived in the village of Slavianka. The climate here was tolerable: winters were not as severe and grains would ripen in a satisfactory way.

Taurida guberniia (governorate) was one of the administrative units of the Russian Empire that comprised the Crimean peninsula, the basin of the lower Dnieper river and the coasts of the Black Sea and Azov Sea.