Mass resettlement of peasants in Western Siberia in the late 19th - early 20th centuries in the sanitary and hygienic dimension

The authors aim to characterize the sanitary conditions of peasants' resettlement in the West Siberian region, to show the role of central and local authorities in assisting migrants to settle in the new lands. In the late 19th - early 20th centuries, a mass flow of migrants to Western Siberia gave rise to serious problems for the government and local authorities, which required immediate solutions. This was the need to ensure satisfactory sanitary conditions for transferring passengers by rail and by river transport; organization of settlers' catering and medical care on their way to Siberia; financial assistance to settlers in new places of residence. The article deals with the problems of organizing resettlement after the commissioning of the Trans-Siberian Railway. Most of the settlers began to get to the areas reserved for them not by water but by rail. In 1890-1894, the government introduced regulations for settlers' transportation by rail, set the overall reduced tariff for the transportation of people and their luggage, organized medical care to the needy. In 1896, the Resettlement Department organized 13 medical and food aid posts at large Trans-Siberian Railway stations, and built new barracks for settlers delayed at the stations. Based on the analysis of sources, the authors draw conclusions about the large scale of the resettlement movement in the region, the lack of measures to address the negative consequences of the resettlement movement: high morbidity and mortality on the way (especially in infants and children up to three years old); people wasting all funds intended for settling in a new place; psychological stress associated with the hard resettlement. People going to Siberia faced with crowded carriages, steamships, barges, stuffiness, poorly organized nutrition, water supply, medical care, lack of money to buy food and medicines. The adaptation period lasted from one to two to three years. For several years, the family lived in temporary houses - sheds, dugouts - meant for both people and cattle. The sanitary quality of these dwellings was unsatisfactory. Extremely difficult living conditions, lack of money, problems of adaptation to the harsh Siberian climate, poor sanitary and hygienic culture of settlers contributed to the increase in morbidity and mortality among them. Nevertheless, according to the authors, the central and local authorities made considerable efforts to improve the conditions for resettlement to the borderlines of the country. They increased the funding of the resettlement process, opened new medical and food posts, gave free meals for children aged 3 to 10, introduced sanitary railway carriages in the train to provide emergency medical care to patients, increased the number of health care workers, gave loans for settling in a new place.

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