The real and alleged problems: on the application of statistical methods for N.A. Maslakovets's comission

The activities of the commission to investigate what undermined the economy of Don Cossack Hosts and to find measures to restore its well-being has often been in the focus of scholarly attention. The commission headed by Major-General NA Maslakovets collected and processed extensive array of statistics, the importance of which cannot be overestimated. However, the discussions between the Commission members have not been covered in the historical literature before. While deputies from the Cossack districts argued that the main cause of impoverishment of the Cossack villages was the lack of land (this opinion is still prevalent in historiography), NA Maslakovets did not treat it as a solely negative factor. The authors try to analyse this strange logic on the basis of both published and archival materials, which show that NA Maslakovets considered a key problem the inability of the Cossacks to integrate into modern economic relations and to overcome their "outdated ideology". The authors applied mathematical and statistical methods to the materials of the commission to find out that the General was right: the districts suffering from the lack of lands accounted for fewer poor Cossacks. Other causes identified by the Commision were subjected to mathematical and statisticaL anaLysis as weLL. Among them are the growth of Land pLots Leased to nonresidents and the unwiLLingness of the Cossacks to work manuaLLy on their own Land.

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