ЖЕЛЕЗНАЯ ДОРОГА И МИГРАЦИЯ В УЕЗДНОМ ГОРОДЕ ЧЕЛЯБИНСКЕ В КОНЦЕ XIX — НАЧАЛЕ XX В.

Abstract

Based on statistical documents, the article seeks to problematize the impact of the Great Siberian Way construction on the growth of urban population using the county city of Chelyabinsk as an example. The case is approached through the prism of modernization changes in the Russian Empire, with a special focus on migration processes. After a detailed survey of the current historiographical terrain encompassing histories of railway infrastructure, modernization and the city itself, the authors turn to statistics. The data reveals noticeable changes in the numbers of such social groups of citizens as merchants, peasants, burghers, and artisans. However, as it is argued by the authors, the increased net inflows of people to Chelyabinsk were mainly due to the peasantry. Within this group the most effective and flexible were migrants heading to Siberia, whose conversion into the local city dwellers had been started well before the construction of the railroad. After opening the traffic via Chelyabinsk railway station, the influx of peasants intensified, many of them chose the county town as their place of residence. The study did not find any statistically significant correlation between the railroad construction and the demographic changes in other social groups — burghers, merchants and artisans. Nor there was any principal difference in the modernization dynamics of Chelyabinsk and other Ural towns selected for comparison — Orenburg, Ufa, Troitsk, Zlatoust, and Kurgan. The authors conclude that the population growth is a sure sign of Chelyabinsk’s involvement in a general socio-demographic trends associated with urbanization in the late Russian Empire, and was due to a complex of factors, оf which the railroad was important but not a priority. The authors concluded that population growth in Chelyabinsk is a sure sign of general socio-demographic trends associated with urbanization in the Russian Empire, and it resulted from a complex of factors.