DEMOGRAPHY OF SOUTHERN UKRAINE IN THE LAST QUARTER OF THE 18 th CENTURY: SCIENTIFIC MODELS AND THE RESULTS OF THEIR IMPLEMENTATION

Abstract

This article explores the demographic processes in the territories of the former Domain of the Lower Zaporizhian Host of the last quarter of the 18th century. It has been shown that the relevance of this research goes well beyond the scope of demography and is closely related to the modern tendencies of using ‘Novorossiya’ concept. The developed research model is based on information from registers of births, marriages and deaths, as well as on findings, map books and audit evidence and envisages the use of demographic and sociological methods of research of the impact of Zaporizhian Cossacks and various migrant streams on population social structure and of horizontal contacts between its different segments. The reasons arise to explore the fertility dynamics in families representing different social segments: urban commoners, subjects of landlords, the military and their subjects. It has been shown that the fact of excess mortality among the military was enhanced by the effect of restrictions imposed by age peculiarities and ex-soldiers’ matrimonial strategies on natural increase in this social category. Opportunities for expansion in the number of non-Ukrainian population through settlement of the military in the surroundings decreased. Information from registers of births, marriages and deaths about godparents and married couples has enabled the use of M. Granovetter’s option of ‘the Strength of the Weak Ties’ permitting to identify informal small reference groups at the level of populated localities, their role and number in a community, their isolated or open status, formation criteria, number of their members and period of existence. The suggested model offers the possibility to trace the process of ex-Zaporizhian Cossacks transition to other social categories, degree of settlement in a region of influx from various Ukrainian lands as well as from typical Muscovite regions.