Cossack Clans in the Space of a Uyezd Town (with Reference to Pre-reform Chelyabinsk)

This article draws on the concept of frontier modernisation (I. V. Poberezhnikov) to examine the specific nature of Chelyabinsk’s development, with a focus on the role of the Cossacks in the city’s population. The social characteristics of the Cossack population of Chelyabinsk in the pre-reform period are presented herein, primarily based on three city resident registers from 1811, 1841, and 1861. These registers contain information regarding homeowners, their social status and families, real estate in the city, service, and economic activity. As demonstrated in the data, starting in the mid-eighteenth century and continuing through the nineteenth, the population of Cossacks in Chelyabinsk decreased steadily despite the town’s numerical growth. The author attempts to reconstruct several aspects of the social history of three related Cossack clans, the Kolbins, Bukharins, and Balandins, who lived in the city during this period. The Bukharins and Balandins lived in the city from the early years of the founding of the Chelyabinsk fortress (1736), while the Kolbins appeared later, but also in the eighteenth century. There is no record of Cossack families living in a compact area of the city. Cossack households were located on different streets. It has been determined that the financial situation of Cossack families (a correlation exists between this indicator and the number of rooms in a household) was initially associated with the military ranks of the heads of families. However, from the mid-nineteenth century onward, another trend emerged, whereby successful economic activity in various spheres could ensure material prosperity. In this regard, in the post-reform period, there were numerous cases of Cossacks moving to other social classes, mainly the petty bourgeoisie, in the territory of the Orenburg Cossack Army.