Urban Censuses in Post-Reform Russia: Analytical Traditions and Practices

Abstract

This article analyses the historiography of using late Imperial Russian city censuses. The past three decades of historical urban studies in Russia have made such an urban census data study necessary. The city census materials are a more reliable source than the official statistics comparable with national census data. The authors analyse publications related to the urban census history and the implied original methodological solutions for using city census data. The article reconstructs the chronology of historiographic trends, highlighting the regional research traditions. The classification of publications according to thematic and methodological characteristics makes it possible to determine the main directions of the development of source studies. The authors argue that the disciplinary focus of specific studies with reference to census results gradually shifted from purely demographic to historical. The research proves that the country’s history conditioned the development of historiography and its research problems. The pre-revolutionary tradition focused on the practical use of census results and the description of the methodological component. Academic generalising historiography was just emerging. Due to the communist ideology that did not encourage local studies during Soviet times, the use of urban censuses decreased, but source studies reached a qualitatively new level of analysis. The main trend of current historiography is the increased attention to censuses of provincial cities. Specific historical work based on city census data, including such unique components as spatial referencing, has become a notable practice. The historiographic tradition of studying city censuses was formed in both capitals and Western Siberia, while the Crimean school is currently forming.