HISTORICAL SKKTCn. ] Q 



scale appeared as a natural necessity. Between 1860 and 1880 the emigration into the two 

 western Siberian governments was estimated at 60,000 souls, and if the eastern governments 

 and the Semirechinsk province be included, then the number during that period may be taken 

 as about 110,000 souls. The emigration returns for recent years show that during the six years 

 between 1879 and 1885 over 55,000 people passed into Siberia. Last year, 1892, after the 

 famine in European Russia, abont ninety thousand were registered at Tinmen. The emigra- 

 tion to the Altai mining district was particularly strong, ami between 1884 and 18^9 about 

 95,500 emigrants settled there. 



Since 1861 the emigrants to the Amour anil Littoral provinces are given special ad- 

 vantages, which with certain modifications are in force to the present day and consist in the 

 following: Crown land to the amount of not over 100 dessiatines per family is allotted to 

 each family or company under the condition of a free use of this land for the first twenty 

 years, with the right of buying it, or after the lapse of these twenty years, of paying a rent 

 fixed by the State. Li those cases where the emigrant may desire to acquire more land than 

 thai allotted to a family, it can immediately do so by paying three roubles per dessiatine. 

 And in general this is the price fixed for the purchase of land in the districts assigned by 

 the Government for emigration, the pioneer being given the choice of his place of settlement. 

 Being freed from the payment of taxes and State service for twenty years the settlers were 

 freed from military service for ten years, and from the payment of rural taxes for three years. 

 These advantages attracted settlers to the Amour and they gravitated through the whole of 

 Siberia to Blagoveschensk and the valleys of the rivers Zei and Bourrei. Li 1883 the Goviuu- 

 ment started the peopling of the south Ussuri region, whither the peasants of European Ilussia 

 were transported at the expense of the Government by steamer from Odessa through tiie Suez 

 canal. The result of a three years trial was the settlement of over 4,500 souls in this region. 

 at a cost of over a million roubles to the State. Emigrants to this region were also allowed 

 to settle at their own expense, with the condition that each family should have a capital of 

 not less than 600 roubles, beyond the travelling expenses, for starting farming in tlie new 

 locality; and should they desire to enlarge their farms, they were given advances of 

 600 roubles per family for a period of 33 years. 



In speaking of the colonization of Siberia it is necessary to UKMition also the sending 

 of criminals into that region. It is generally thought that such transportation forms one of 

 the modes of colonizing a country, but this is hardly the case. The distribution of the exiles 

 in the different governments and regions is extremely uneven. In certain localities they are 

 crowded to the extreme, for instance, in tlie Kainsk and Mariinsk districtsof the government of 

 Tomsk, they form alnmst one-sixth of the i)opulation, wlii](> in olln'r districts autl even pro- 

 vinces there are none, such as for example at Semipalatinsk, Kamchatka, the region of 

 Okhotsk, and province of AkmoJinsk. There are no accurate data respecting the increase of 

 exiles through marriage, but judging fVoiii llio ii'asous which hinder tlie iniillipiii'ation nf the 

 exiles it may be concluded that this increase is very insignificant. The pintpie transported for 

 criminal offences are in the majority of cases single, husbands without their wives, wives 

 without their husbands; and as, moreover, the number of males (^xihnl into Siberia is ten 

 times that of the femah's. tin' married ('onplt\s made i)('t\veiMi the eriminals must be coiunar- 



