Rural settlements of the Siberian Tatars of the Tobolsk district of the Ural region in the first third of the twentieth century (based on the materials of the All-Union Census of 1926)

Tychinskikh Zaytuna Aptrashitovna PhD in History Senior Scientific Associate, Tobolsk Complex Scientific Station of Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences 626150, Russia, Tyumenskaya oblast', g. Tobol'sk, ul. Akademika Yuriya Osipova, 15 zaituna.09@mail.ru Other publications by this author

The history of the formation and development of the settlement system in Western Siberia in the XIX–XX centuries is one of the well-studied topics. A number of Siberian researchers have addressed this issue. N. G. Apollova, N. A. Balyuk, V. A. Zverev, A. I. Tatarnikova and others made a significant contribution to the study of rural settlements in Western Siberia. ^{[1; 2; 5; 10; 11; 12]}, in their works, various aspects of the process of development of Siberian territories by the Russian population and the formation of a settlement network in the XIX — early XX century were considered.

At the same time, there are a number of gaps in this topic related to the peculiarities of the formation and historical and demographic development of rural settlements of indigenous peoples living in this territory, including the Siberian Tatars, the second largest population after the Russians in Siberia. The issues of historical and demographic development of the Siberian Tatars were considered in the works of F. T. Valeev, D. M. Iskhakov, N. A. Tomilov ^{[3; 6; 13; 14]}. We have previously addressed this issue by analyzing the historical and demographic development of rural settlements in the Tobolsk province in the late XIX - early XX centuries ^[15-18]. In this article, we will continue to study the network of rural settlements of the Siberian Tatars in the first third of the twentieth century. The choice of the territorial framework of the study - the Tobolsk District of the Ural region, is determined by the fact that this territory is the center of concentration of the indigenous Siberian Tatar population, where the most numerous ethnoterritorial group of Tatars lived, determined by the Tobolo-Irtysh classification proposed by N. A. Tomilov ^{[14, pp. 61, 246]}.

The purpose of the study is to characterize the network of rural settlements of the Siberian Tatars of the Tobolsk district of the Ural region based on statistical data from the first third of the twentieth century.

The relevance is determined by the weak knowledge of the problem and the need to create a holistic view of the processes of formation and development of the settlement system in the studied territory.

It should be noted that at the time under consideration – in the first third of the 20th century, in connection with the creation of the Soviet state and the establishment of a new political system, a number of changes in the administrative and territorial system were taking place. Instead of the former provinces with their constituent counties, regions and territories with districts and districts were formed. The zoning reform carried out in the 20s of the twentieth century divided the territory of Siberia into the Ural Region and the Siberian Territory, whose borders did not correspond to the previous division. At the same time, the Tobolo-Irtysh Tatars turned out to be administratively divided: the Ural region included Tobolsk, Tyumen, Yalutorovsky, Ishim districts, and the Tarsky district turned out to be part of the Siberian Territory. Thus, the territories of the traditional settlement of the Siberian Tatars in the period under review became part of both the Siberian Territory and the Ural region.

The sources for the study were the materials of the 1926 census, as well as lists of settlements in the Tobolsk District and other statistical materials prepared on the basis of the information from this census. It should be noted that despite the fact that during the first half of the twentieth century a number of statistical population counts were carried out (in 1920, 1923, 1926, 1937, 1939), due to a number of factors, they are seriously inferior to the 1926 census in terms of completeness and accuracy. Some of them (the 1917, 1920 and 1923) were partial (urban and industrial). The First All-Union Population Census conducted in December 1926, due to the fact that preparations for it were conducted quite carefully, based on the latest ethnographic and linguistic data, according to its methodology and the results obtained, was the most representative, and therefore it fully reflects the real picture of the population of the Soviet country.

According to the materials of the 1926 census, the Tatar population in Siberia as a whole amounted to 289,100 people, of which 193,100 Tatars were registered in the Ural Region ^[4]. Among the 14 districts that became part of the Ural Region, the northernmost districts were assigned to Tobolsk, including Obdorsky, Surgut, Berezovsky, Kondinsky and Samarovsky ^[4].

The population of the Tobolsk district, as in the previous period, at the turn of the XIX-XX centuries, mainly lived in rural areas. In general, rural residents of the district amounted to 170994 people, and among the Tatar population – 25130 people ^{[4, pp. 216-217]}.

If, according to the 1897 census, 20425 people lived in Tobolsk, then according to the 1926 census, the total urban population in the Tobolsk district was 21169 people.

As for the Tatar population, the 1926 census recorded 817 townspeople, of whom 446 were men and 371 were women, while according to the previous census of 1897, the number of Tatars was 411. Thus, the number of Tatar citizens in Tobolsk has increased by 2 times.

Compared with the census of 1897, when the rural population among the Tatars of the Tobolsk district was 22,152 people, and the share of citizens in the total composition of the district was 1.8% ^{[16, p. 190]}, according to the census of 1926, the share of citizens began to be 3.1%. And, although the pace of urbanization of the Tatar population is significantly lagging behind the Russian one, nevertheless, there is a tendency towards a gradual increase in the number of Tatar citizens.

The Tobolsk district included Baykalovsky, Berezovsky, Dubrovny, Kondinsky, Obdorsky, Samarovsky, Surgut, Tobolsk, Uvatsky and Chernokovsky districts. The Tatar population lived mainly in the Baykalovsky, Dubrovny, Tobolsk, Uvatsky and Chernokovsky districts.

Table 1

Population in Tatar rural settlements

Tobolsk district according to the 1926 census by districts ^[7]

Let's consider how the Tatar population of the Tobolsk district was distributed by districts. In the Baykalovsky district, Tatar settlements belonged to the following village councils: Baykalovsky, Bulashovsky, Kutarbitsky, Seitovsky, Sorokinsky, Tobolturinsky, Khmelevsky, Cheburginsky. In the Dubrovny district, Tatar settlements were included in Baksheevsky, Kazansky, Karagaysky, Katanguysky, Mysaevsky, Suprinsky, Fotievsky, Yurtosalinsky village councils, in the Tobolsk district – in Abalaksky, Aremzyansky, Baksheevsky, Bizinsky, Blinnikovsky, Warmakhlinsky, Verkhnefilatovsky, Ermakovsky, Zagvazdinsky, Ivanovsky, Kularovsky, Maslovsky, Nizhnefilatovsky, Podrezovsky , Poluyanovsky, Subaryevsky and Yarkovsky village councils. In Uvatsky district – in Novoselsky, Slinkinsky village councils, and in Chernokovsky – in Beshtinsky, Vershinsky, Mitkinsky, Tukuzsky, Shestovsky village councils ^[7].

Table 2

The number of courtyards in the Tatar settlements of the Tobolsk district ^[7]

It is known that for each region there is a certain classification of the size of settlements. Due to the fact that the Ural region, especially the northern regions, was poorly populated compared to other regions of the country and had a number of features of socio-economic development, Siberian researchers propose to divide rural settlements into four main groups: small, medium, large and the largest. It is proposed to include villages with the number of yards from 1 to 25, medium–sized ones from 26 to 200 yards, large ones from 201 to 500, and the largest ones over 500 yards ^{[11, pp. 102-103]}.

According to this classification, 10 Tatar settlements belong to small settlements in the Baykalovsky district, 7 in the Dubrovny district, 15 in Tobolsk, 1 in Uvatsky, 3 in Chernokovsky. All other settlements can be classified as medium-sized. Among them, several Tatar settlements stand out, where the number of courtyards exceeded 100. These are the Karagay Yurts in the Dubrovny district, the Medyansky, Epanchinsky and Vagay yurts in the Tobolsk district, as well as the Tukuz yurts in Chernokovsky. The largest, as in the previous period – at the beginning of the twentieth century, are the Tukuz yurts with the number of yards 166 and the number of inhabitants 924 people ^[7]. According to the data at the beginning of the century, 843 inhabitants lived in the Tukuz yurts ^[9].

In general, there is a positive trend in the growth of villages and the population in them. At the same time, it should be noted that the growth of the inhabitants of the district occurred not only due to an increase in the birth rate, but also, to some extent, the migration processes associated with the active process of resettlement of Volga-Ural Tatars to Siberia.

It is important to identify the number of people per yard. The lists of settlements provide information on the number of courtyards in each locality, which allowed us to establish that the number of inhabitants per courtyard in Tatar villages in the period under review ranged from 3.3 to 6.0 people. In the Baykalovsky district, the average number of residents per 1 yard is 4.6 people. In the Dubrovny district, the average number of residents per yard is 4.8 people. In the Tobolsk district – 4.3 people. According to Uvatsky - 4.9, according to Chernokovsky, there are also 4.9 inhabitants on average per 1 yard in the Tatar settlement. Thus, the average number of inhabitants per 1 yard in Tatar settlements is 4.7 people. At the same time, the lowest average number of inhabitants per yard – 2.5 people, was recorded in the yurts of Suklemsky in the Tobolsk district, and the largest – in the Tobolsk district in the yurts of Targachinsky – 6.1 and B. Tapkinsky – 8 ^[7].

Researchers of Russian rural settlements in the region noted an increase in different types of settlements already at the end of the XIX century. Among them are villages, villages, settlements, villages, settlements, zaimki, settlements, farms, etc. ^{[11, p. 85]}. Tatar settlements do not differ in such a variety of types. The majority of settlements are still called yurts in the 1926 census. However, in addition to traditional yurts, there are such types of settlements as settlements and farms. So, in the Baykalovsky district there is the Selibayka farm and the Novokaishkulsky settlement, in the Tobolsk district there is the Minsiysky settlement. In all other areas, the preservation of the former names of Tatar rural settlements – yurts - is noted.

It should also be noted that the Soviet zoning reform finally destroyed the former volost system that existed for centuries, in which the population of non-native, primarily Tatar settlements, administratively belonged to different volosts. The basis of the new allocation of administrative units under the reform of the 1920s was the territorial principle.

Table 3

Tatar settlements of the Tobolsk district with a mixed population ^[7]

The processes taking place in the new realities are also observed by the example of changes in the ethnic composition of the population of Tatar yurts. So, in the second half of the XIX – early XX century. Tatar settlements were almost all mono-ethnic. At the same time, it was noted that the rural Tatar population of Tobolsk province was very poorly included in the all-Russian modernization processes ^{[16, p. 192]}. Based on the materials of the 1926 census, we see that rural Tatar settlements appear, in which the Russian population is also recorded. Thus, there is a gradual destruction of the mono-ethnicity of Tatar rural communities (see Table 3). However, these were mainly minor inclusions of a non-ethnic (usually Russian) population. Russian Russian Russian Russian Tatar yurts, for example, 300 Tatars and 4 Russians were noted in the Old Nerd yurts, 174 Tatars and 6 Russians in the Big Seitovsk yurts, 131 Tatars and 1 Russian in the Emanaulsk yurts, 427 Tatars and 6 Russians in the Tobolturinsky Yurts, 402 Russians and 4 Tatars in the Cheburginsky Yurts, 44 Tatars and 44 in the Leshakovsky yurts. Russian Russians Russians Russian 8, in Karagai – 552 Tatars and 10 Russians, in Katangui – 336 Tatars and 2 Russians, in Salinsk – 226 Tatars and 9 Russians. However, in a number of settlements (see Table 3) these were quite significant groups of Russians. Russian Russians and 128 Tatars were registered in Tyulugai yurts, 125 Tatars and 34 Russians in Allagulov yurts, 300 Tatars and 52 Russians in Kainaulsky yurts. Russian Russians have the most significant number in relation to Tatar in the yurts of Tailak (113 Tatars and 88 Russians) and Begishevsky – 230 Tatars and 109 Russians, who made up almost a third of the population of yurts.

In addition, according to the list of settlements, such categories of the population as Cossacks (101) and Bukharians (110) are recorded in Suklem yurts, and Tatars (130) and Bukharians (317) in Vagai, and Tatars (230) and Bukharians (109) in Begishevsky yurts ^[7].

Attention should also be paid to the data on the number of Bukharans. In the Tobolsk district, according to the list of populated places, 536 Bukharans are recorded ^[7]. Whereas according to the 1926 census, 88 Bukharians were registered in the entire Ural District, which included the Tobolsk District ^[4]. If, according to the 1897 census, 3380 Bukharians were recorded in the Tobolsk district ^{[16, p. 192]}, then according to the 1926 census only 3 ^{[18, p. 204]}.

It should be assumed that the revealed data suggest a discrepancy between the data of the list and the census. Apparently, when compiling lists of populated places, not only census data were taken into account.

Thus, the materials of the All-Union Census of 1926 clearly demonstrate the changes taking place in the first third of the twentieth century in the rural settlements of the Tatars of the Tobolsk district. The socio-economic and administrative transformations carried out after the establishment of the new regime dramatically affected the situation with the Tatar population of the district and Western Siberia as a whole. If earlier at the end of the XIX century, based on the materials of the First General census, we noted the slow pace of entry of the Tatar population of Siberia into the all-Russian socio-economic system, then the reforms carried out by the Soviet government destroyed the former class and volost division, violating the boundaries of the former foreign enclaves, thereby contributing to the intensification of the pace of integration into the new Soviet community.