Natural Population Dynamics of the Territory Controlled by the Siberian Cossack Host over Twenty Years (1894–1914): To the Question of the Beginning of the Demographic Transition in the East of Russia

Abstract

The article describes the natural development of population in the territories controlled by the Siberian Cossack Host. It is primarily based on the official demographic statistics included in the annual “Reports on the State of the Siberian Cossack Troops for…”, which presents dynamics of absolute and relative indicators depicting the fertility, mortality, and natural growth of the population. The sources reveal the scale, pace, and trends of natural population development over 20 years with chronological changes presented by year and by stage. The authors comprehensively examine all data related to the population of the Siberian Cossack Host, including the Cossacks and “non-residents” registered by the Host. The article concludes by arguing that over time the annual natural population growth increased due to a consistent drop in mortality, while the birth rate declined at a slower pace. Compared to the Steppe Region, the Transbaikal Cossack Host, and in general Siberia and the Russian Empire as the whole, the Siberian Cossack Host demonstrated the largest natural increase in the number of residents. The lands of the Host were dominated by the traditional, “cost-intensive” reproduction of the population established in the past. However, the shifts brought by modernization to the natural development of the population, especially the “explosive” natural population growth, indicate that, at the turn of the 20th century, the Siberian Host entered the first phase of a demographic transition – the formation of a modern type of generational renewal.