The Census of Sergeant Peter Sornev (1720) as a historical source for the study of the settlement network of Tatars-Mishars in the Peter the Great era

Abstract

The article is about the analysis of unpublished source on the history of the Tatar-Mishars of the Ural – the Census of Peter Sornev (1720). On the territory of the Ufa district the service class Mescheryaks first fixed in the second half of the 16th century, due to the needs to protect the borders of the Russian state from nomads. They were “called for service” from the Simbirsk, Sviyazhsk, Alatyr and Temnikovsky districts. The earliest Tatar-Mishar villages are known through the list of Ufa Chancellery (Prikaznaia Izba) at the 1658–1659: Urazaevo, Kulbarisovo, Nalmasovo, Baybakovo, Ishmaevo, Kulaevo, Bayburino, Sikiyady, Chetvertakovo, Basy. By the end of the 17th century the Mishar population was replenished by new settlers, and a significant part of them arrived voluntarily. In order to clarify the circumstances of their appearance at the area Sergeant Sornev and latter Captain Belavin conducted a census of the service class Mescheryaks of the Osinskaya and Kazan districts of Ufa county, covering 41 settlements. The census data allows us to trace the development of the settlements network of Tatar-Mishars in Ufa county, to identify the number of emigrants and its dynamics and their origin.