Cossacks as the subject of agrarian colonization of the Steppe Territory (the second half of the 19th - early 20th centuries)

In this article, by referring to the research practice of the "new imperial history" the reasons for the reorientation of the government in the implementation of the policy of colonization in the steppe region, expressed in the rejection of the "services" of the Cossacks as the main subject of the agricultural development of steppe areas are determined. Developing the content of the power and socio-political discourse about the prospects for the agrarian colonization of the Steppe Territory in the post-reform period, as well as the role of the Cossacks in the agricultural development of the steppe regions of the Trans-Urals, made it possible to state that during the period under study there was an accentuation of imperial priorities in colonization, which were clearly demonstrated in the polemic about the basic actors of the agricultural development of steppe areas. In the research, the main approaches to assessing the potential culture-triggering opportunities of the local community of Cossacks are considered as the main subject of the colonization process. The main channels for the representation of value judgments, shedding light on the significance and results of Cossacks' participation in the development of the steppe regions, are presented. With the increasing migration movements in the Steppe Territory, Cossacks steadily lost the position of the main subject of colonization, whereas the peasantry, becoming representative of the interests of the Russian Empire in the areas of the Steppe Territory, received serious financial and moral prerogatives in settling. Abolition of the imperial tasks related to the military conquest excluded the Cossacks and their activities from priority interests of the Russian Empire in the conditions of borderland development. An indirect cause of such a situation was the sharp sense of social identity of the Cossacks, and, as a consequence, the cultural superiority over other peoples - representatives of indigenous groups and settlers from European Russia. Thus, the military men of the Siberian Cossack troops built relations with different categories of the population of the region: indigenous groups were the Kazakhs, the Russians old-timers and immigrants arriving constantly in the Steppe Territory from the provinces of European Russia. The class localism of the Cossacks and their limited agricultural experience led to the adjustment of the imperial plans, which resulted in the stakes on the peasantry in the agricultural development of the region.

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