Convicts and exiled in Yekaterinburg in 1723 – late 1730s: to the question on formation of social space of the city

Abstract

This article is dedicated to the history of the Institution of penal servitude and exile in Ural Region in the 1720s – 1730s. The subject of this research is the convicts and exiled who arrived to Yekaterinburg during the period from 1723 to the late 1730s. Analysis is conducted on the legislation dedicated to regulation of penal labor and exile in Russia. Differences in the government policy with regards to exiled in the XVII and XVIII centuries are revealed. The author also examines the reasons of the emergence of exiled and convicts in Ural Region, dynamics of their arrival from Tobolsk and the capital regions, as well as the stance of the mining and metallurgical authorities on this social category. Historians alongside legal historians turned attention to studying penal labor and exile in Siberia, practically not comparing the situation of exiled and convicts in other Russian regions. The novelty of this work consists in studying life of the representatives of this social group in the Ural Region in the early XVIII century, which was noted for transit location, connecting  European and Asian parts of the country, and was the center of mining and metallurgical industry. Leaning on the analysis of documental sources and records, the author concludes that convicts and exiled played a role in the formation of social space of Yekaterinburg. They were well integrated into the social relations: they were allowed to own homesteads and marry, but were under permanent control of the mining and metallurgical administration.