Etnic and social composition of the founders of the Kinel-Cherkasskaya free settlement

The article is based on various sources and contains an analysis of the processes of formation of the ethnic and social composition of the population of the Kinel-Cherkasskaya Sloboda (free settlement) in the Samara Trans-Volga region and the villages that arose from it, where the Malorosses (Cherkasy) occupied a special place. The authors trace the subsequent unification of the tax-paying population of the region, which occurred due to the transfer of different groups into the category of state (government) peasants.