Modernization processes and migration in Russia on the example of the Southern Ural (1891-1914)

The article analyzes the role of the Transsib in the state migration policy of Russia in the late XIX - early XX centuries, connected with the modernization of the economy and society. Conclusions are drawn that with regard to the in connection with the construction of the Great Siberian Railway, the mass resettlement of land-poor peasants from the central regions of Russia to Siberia intensified, many of whom settled in the South Urals, mainly in cities, and especially in Chelyabinsk, the gateway to the Siberian region. In the Chelyabinsk press, Chelyabinsk was described as a «gateway» from Europe to Siberia. Some of the settlers remained to live in the city. The population of the strip along the Transsib increased after the Great Siberian Route was laid. There is a rationalization, or, what is the same, the process of modernization of social relations - and this was one of the fundamental changes in the nature of Russian society, including in the South Urals after the construction of the Siberian railway. During the studied period in the South Urals, there is a change in the social structure of the population in cities located on the Great Siberian Railway. The processes of transformation of class groups showed a decrease in the share of the nobility, clergy, merchants, with an absolute and relative increase in the peasantry in the cities. Rural stereotypes brought by peasants to the cities hampered the processes of social modernization. During the period under review, in Russia, and in the South Urals, in particular, there were contradictory processes, an increase in unevenness in the dynamics of various segments of society. The modernization processes taking place in the South Urals proceeded slowly and steadily, but did not manage to be completed by 1914.