Economical activity and land use of Transbaikalia old-believers in the late XVIIIth – early XXth centuries

The objective of the study is to analyze the economic activity and land use patterns of the Semey Old Believers, to reveal their significance in the development of the region, and to show the development of arable farming in the region. Objectives: to show the role and significance of the peasant community in regulating land relations, to reveal the specific way of life and economy of the Semey. Research methods general scientific (analysis, generalization), specific historical methods (retrospective, descriptive, chronological, comparative) made it possible to recreate the history of economic activity and reveal the land use patterns of the Semey Old Believers. Transbaikalia in the 18th-20th centuries was a multinational, multi-confessional region, which left its mark on the economic activity of the inhabitants and on the formation of land relations. It is noted that with the growth in the number of Semey, their role in agriculture increases. They become the main producers of grain. For peasant farmers, the main thing was arable farming, cattle breeding was only an appendage, and from the 2nd half of the 19th century, it was replaced by agricultural farming. The Semey began to engage in trades and crafts. For foreigners (Buryats and Tungus), arable farming is an appendage to cattle breeding and trades; the Cossacks combined both. Due to various historical reasons, the Semey created closed communities in which a specific way of life and features in land relations developed. There was a capture form of agriculture. The right of seizure was the basis for household-hereditary land use. The authors emphasize that the peasant community became the main regulator of land relations within society. The community regulated the right to use and the right to own land (allotments, pastures for grazing cattle, forest plots, arable and hayfield plots, manor places), the right to dispose of land remained with the state. Research based on materials from the State Archives of the Transbaikal Region and the State Archives of the Republic of Buryatia.