Where did the Tobolsk and Tyumen Bukharans “disappear” to (historical and demographic characteristic of the ethno-estate group at the end of the 19th — first third of the 20th c.)

Abstract

One of the significant ethnic components that became part of the Siberian-Tatar community at the later stages of ethnogenesis were Bukharans / Siberian Bukharans. This ethnic group emerged in Western Siberia during the 16th–19th centuries from migrants from Central Asia. Despite the considerable amount of research on the Siberian Bukharans, transformation of this ethno-estate group in the twentieth century and the process of its inclusion into the group of Siberian Tatars remain an underexplored question. The aim of this work is to study the ethno-demographic processes that took place among the Siberian Bukharians at the end of the 19th — first third of the 20th century. Based on the materials of the First General Census of 1897, the All-Union Census of 1926, and other statistical sources, historical and demographic characteristics of the Bukharan population of Western Siberia at the end of the 19th — first third of the 20th century are given. The dynamics of changes in their numbers, settling and composition that had occurred since the end of the 19th century is considered. Special attention is paid to the problem of assimilation of the Bukharans by the Siberian Tatars in the aspect of the question of their “disappearance” in the districts of the Ural Region according to the Census of 1926. It has been revealed that, as a result of the zoning carried out in the 1920s by the Soviet state, the accounting system of the Bukharans and Tatars changed. The problem of the specifics of the tax relations of different estates of the Turkic-Tatar popula-tion, which existed earlier, disappeared with the arrival of the new government and the change in realities. The former settlements of the Tatars and Bukharans were distributed according to the territorial principle, since the state no longer saw any differences between the indigenous Siberian Tatars and Bukharans. In this connection, there appeared a “distribution” of the Bukharans and Tatars by districts, which did not coincide with the actual places of their traditional residence. As a result, there was an increase in the Bukharans in the Tarsky district due to the Tatar population of the district, whereas the former Bukharan population of the Tobolsk and Tyumen dis-tricts was counted as Tatars in the Census of 1926.