HISTORICAL PREREQUISITES AND DYNAMICS OF THE ETHNOCULTURAL COMPOSITION OF NORTH-WESTERN AZOV REGION IN THE LATE 18th – MID-19th CENTURIES
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.26661/zhv-2025-11-63-03Keywords:
ethnic substitution, Azov region, colonization, Mennonites, state peasants, Nogais, frontierAbstract
The article provides a comprehensive study of the historical prerequisites and the dynamics of the ethnocultural composition of North-Western Azov region in the late 18th to the mid-19th centuries. The author examines this region as a unique historical and geographical phenomenon, defined in modern historiography through the concepts of the «Great Border» and the «frontier». It is proved that the period under study became a time of radical civilizational breakthrough, during which the nomadic civilization of the Steppe was replaced by a settled agricultural culture.
The main attention is paid to the analysis of the tragedy of the Nogai ethnic group, which dominated the Azov region for centuries. The process of the gradual contraction of their living space, the liquidation of their autonomous status in 1804, and the seizure of lands along the Molochna River in favor of foreign colonists are highlighted. The author argues that the transition of the Nogais to a settled lifestyle was accompanied by their pauperization and eventually led to mass emigration to the Ottoman Empire, which in nature was a concealed deportation.
The work provides a detailed analysis of the formation of the region’s new ethnosocial structure, where state peasants played a key role. Based on statistical sources, it has been established that by the middle of the 19th century, this category accounted for over 46 % of the region’s population. The study reveals the specifics of imperial policy, which combined strict administrative control and secret police surveillance over Ukrainian migrants with the provision of unprecedented privileges to foreign colonists (Mennonites, Bulgarians) and confessional groups (Old Believers, Molokans).
The article demonstrates that the settlement of the Azov region was not a linear «development of empty lands» but represented a complex system of ethnic substitution. The use of the frontier approach allowed for a new understanding of the mechanisms of Southern Ukraine’s integration into the Russian Empire, where the creation of a multi-ethnic and multi-confessional environment became an instrument of political and economic stabilization of the strategic borderland.
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