Marriage, Birth and Death Rates of the Orthodox Population in a Siberian Town in the Second Half of the 19th Century (Based on Materials of Church Registers of Orthodox Churches in Minusinsk)

The article is devoted to the study of demographic processes in a Siberian town in the second half of the 19th century on the material of church registers (of two Orthodox churches: the Trinity Church and the Saviour's Cathedral) in Minusinsk. During the period under consideration, Minusinsk was one of the mono-national towns of Siberia with a predominant share of the Russian population. The aim of the article is to analyse the seasonality of births, weddings and deaths, age and sex mortality rates and the general demographic dynamics in the town. Each metric book consists of three thematic sections and contains valuable data on marriage, birth and death. The aggregative processing of primary materials allowed the author to make a primary description of the demographic indicators of the parish. On the basis of data on the population of the parish, the birth, death and marriage rates have been calculated. The greatest number of Minusinsk citizens' marriages falls on winter (January-February), summer (July) and autumn (October-November) periods. Agrarian cycles also played a significant role in the seasonality of marriages. After harvesting and the end of agricultural work, the period of weddings started in autumn. In December, there were much fewer marriages due to the fasting and Christmas, but their number increased sharply in January and February. The seasonality of conceiving and birth is of interest. The highest number of births in June-July and December shows that children, born in these months, were conceived in September-October and in March. The article also analyses the distribution of causes of death in Minusinsk. The distribution of mortality by age groups shows the highest mortality rate during the period of infancy (one year old and younger). The highest number of deaths was in spring (May), summer (June-August) and autumn (October). The article has five tables that summarise the research. Thus, the aggregated analysis of the church registers makes it possible to study many questions of the demographic development of a Siberian town in the epoch of modernisation. Throughout the study period, the town maintained a high mortality rate. The infant mortality rate was especially high due to the poor state of medicine, the unsanitary situation, frequent epidemics and the low cultural level of the population. Townspeople had a traditional model of demographic behaviour. Weddings followed a seasonal logic. The demographic balance in the town remained positive.

Keywords

Authors

References