RESETTLEMENT POLICY IN SIBERIA (1861-1917): IMPERIAL VECTOR
M.K. Churkin
Omsk State Pedagogical University (State Educational Institution of Higher Education OSPU), 73, 166, Yakovleva Str., Omsk city, 644007, Russian Federation
Keywords: переселенческая политика, дискурс, имперская безопасность, внутренняя колонизация, сибирский регионализм, крестьянство, самоколонизация, «колониальный бумеранг», историографическая традиция, resettlement policy, discourse, Imperial security, internal colonization, Siberian regionalism, peasantry, self-colonization, “the colonial boomerang”, historiographical tradition
Abstract
The paper examines a model of the modern historiographical discourse on the problem of periodization of the resettlement policy of Russian state and a new approach to addressing the issue based on the research practices of the “new history of the Empire”. In this respect, the aim of this work is to establish and fix the alternative criteria for periodization of the government resettlement policy as an important element of the Imperial project of colonization in the second half of the XIX - the first quarter of XX centuries. The research showed that under conditions of Russian colonization a type of complex domination (defined as “internal imperialism”) took place. Its main components comprised cultural expansion, hegemony of power and also assimilation within the state borders. The Imperial Government implemented these assigned tasks in the interests of security of the Empire, and respectively, it had a function of “connective tissue”, bringing the Imperial policy to a common denominator. In the context of national security, immigration policy was originally developed as a part of internal colonization project. In the 1860-1870s the developments in the Western outskirts, especially in the context of Polish separatism and Ukrainophilian sentiments, became an imperative to arrange the basis of resettlement policy. Fears of Siberian regionalism forced the national-conservative parties and the government to restrict the resettlement activity of peasants suggesting a preference for the wealthy and moderately wealthy peasantry as the main participants of colonization. An important episode of colonization that influenced the resettlement policy was the process of construction and operation of the Siberian railway positioned as a reliable method of Russification of the eastern suburbs and the argument against the separatist ideas and attitudes. The chosen vector remained relevant when the Stolypin agrarian policy was implemented. However, during this period, models and practices aimed at ensuring the security of the Empire were substantially adjusted.
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