Hidden Technologies of the Great Siberian Migration: Newcomers Breaking Into the Old Residents Community (Kharlova Village Conflict of 1893)

Abstract

Peasant migration to Siberia in the second half of the 19th - the first half of the 20th century was a chronological parallel to the mass migration of Europeans across the Atlantics. One of the issues of the Great Siberian migration is the reasons for which it did not reach the proportions sufficient to defuse the land crisis in European Russia. The authors of the article are trying to solve this problem by studying the conflicts between the old Siberian residents and the migrants. By applying the case study method, the authors draw attention to one particular case, a clash in Kharlova village (Altai District of Cabinet of His Majesty Emperor) in 1893. It is one of the few conflicts described in detail. The mechanism of the conflict origination is discovered by confronting mutually exclusive statements of both parties and reconstructing hidden facts. It is proved that the resettlement of the Voronezh region peasants to the Altai village was a bright example of chain migration. New migrants would come on the advice of their predecessors. Thus, a group of the new old residents sympathetic to the newcomers was formed among the peasants belonging to the Kharlova community. The immediate reason for the conflict was an attempt of a big group of migrants to get a right to live in Kharlova village by cheating. A delegate of this group obtained the community council permission to come with a couple more of adult peasants and returned next year with six dozen of his compatriots. Though untypical, this method of penetration into an old residents community highlights a common issue: the ground for the conflicts was created by the two peasant groups contradiction of interests. It was important for the newcomers to start new life with the help of those who had already put down roots in Siberia; but the old residents were ready to receive only a small number of new neighbors. The rising tide of peasant migration could not spread evenly over the Siberian expanse; it had to pass through narrow channels of the already inhabited places - which considerably restricted the tide height.