Russian Subjects on the Territory of the Grand Duchy of Finland (according to the Russian and Finnish Population Statistics of the late 19th century)

• Main Authors: Sergey G. Kashchenko, Maria A. Markova, Olga V. Rodionova
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Sochi State University 2017-03-01
• Series: Bylye Gody
• Subjects: First Russian Empire Census; Military History; inter-ethnic relations; Finland; Vyborg; population register; statistics; Russian 19th century; Russian garrisons; demographic situation
• Online Access: http://bg.sutr.ru/pdf.html?n=1488816521.pdf

Historical demographic research plays an important role in multi-disciplinary projects in historical, social and political sciences at the moment. It is of great importance for migration and social policy studies and also concerns economics, material and intellectual culture and inter-ethnic and inter-faith relations. The border regions with high population mobility are of particular interest. The search in the Russian State Historical Archive uncovered a complex of primary census material concerning the Russian population in the Grand Duchy of Finland. Thus it became possible to introduce previously unstudied documents, containing data on the Russian subjects, mainly military men, stationed at Helsinki, Sveaborg, Tavastgus, Torneo and a number of other garrisons into scientific use. Russian military men in those towns comprised quite a noticeable element in the composition of the population. It is no doubt that Russian officers and their family members were part of the town elite according to their social status, life experience, and level of education. Consequently the primary documents of the 1897 census give us a unique opportunity to see the demographic situation of the Russian garrisons accommodated in the Vyborg Governorate in the end of the 19th century from the inside, and add living colors related to biographies of certain people to the dry statistical picture which describes the population of the town.