Mir Organizations and Administrative Authority in Siberia in the Seventeenth Century

Abstract

All of the basic strata of the Russian population who settled in Siberia from the end of the sixteenth century and conquered its land preserved the territorial commune [mir, pl. miry] form of their social organization. It was characteristic of this organization that its history in Siberia can be traced back to the crest of the very first wave of colonization by Russian settlers, in some cases antedating even the permanent agricultural conquest of the region. These spontaneously established miry brought together into a single organization the Siberian peasantry, the lower service class [sluzhilye pribornye liudi], and the taxpaying townspeople [posadskoe naselenie] of the major towns. In addition, there were miry that were structured along narrow occupational lines, notably those of the post-drivers [iamshchiki].