To populate the country with Russian people": the financial aspect of the imperial resettlement project in the South-Ussuri region (1882-1892)

The article is devoted to the causes of activization of resettlement policy in the South-Ussuri region in the 1880s; it also considers legal and financial features and a personal aspect of this policy. The project of Governor-General of Eastern Siberia D.G. Anuchin emerged from the complications in the foreign policy in the Far East and initiated the systematic development of Primorye. Proposed as an auxiliary element to the complex of military and defence measures, the idea of sea transportation of peasants in the region was developed independently by the State Council. The law of 1882 approved the legal basis of the Far Eastern project and provided necessary funding. After the distribution of general governance between the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Governor-Generals of Eastern Siberia and Odessa, and after the approval of the unified credit sum and limit on the number of migrants, the government transferred management of the project implementation to the institution specifically created for this purpose: the South-Ussuri Resettlement Department. The example of the work of this institution shows new elements, developed later in the resettlement policy of the Siberian Railway Committee. Special attention is given to the figure of the head of the department, F.F. Busse, his key principles of interaction with peasants, and also to the comparison with the first resettlement officials in other regions of the country. Since his assignment to this position, Busse sought to use budget funds in the most efficient way: he argued the need for additional credits, transferred funds between paragraphs to cover unaccounted expenses, provided data for the necessary changes in costs. He also calculated the average cost of organizing farms for new settlers, gave out short-term loans to families in need, established financial support of construction of church and school buildings from resettlement budget surplus. On the basis of Busse's reports on the results of the first years of settlement in the region, the correction of legislation was made in 1886 and 1887: transportation of peasants from the budgetary funds was stopped, budget costs were reduced, cash collateral was introduced for migrants. In general, resettlement in the South-Ussuri region of 1882-1892 established such elements of the resettlement policy of the 1890s as distribution of governance between higher and local authorities, special order of budget financing and redistribution of credits, amendments in the legislation on the basis of the gained experience.

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