Land management and land use of the Russian empire cossack hosts at the late XVIII – early XX century (based on the Orenburg cossack host materials)

The aim of this study is to examine the characteristics of the traditional economic structure of the Orenburg Cossacks, revealing how these characteristics are determined by the nature of Cossack service, the resources available to the Cossack economy, and its adaptation to the conditions of a market economy. The chronological and territorial scope of the study is defined by the period of the deployment of the Orenburg Cossack Host in the Orenburg Region from the second half of the 18th to the early 20th centuries. The Host was recognized as the second most senior and third most numerous of the 12 Cossack Hosts of the Russian Empire. To address these objectives, specific historical research methods were employed, based on the analysis, synthesis, and comparison of materials from central and local archives, as well as legislative and statistical sources. A review of historiographic works (by N.A. Chernoshchekov, L.A. Selivanovskaya, L.I. Futoryansky, S.A. Devyatkin, E.V. Godovova, and others) allowed us to examine land management and land tenure institutions within the Orenburg Cossack Host in the context of comparing general and specific socioeconomic processes and their legal regulation within historical Cossack hosts. The combination of paramilitary service and land management constituted a distinctive feature of the class status of the Russian Cossacks. Combining public service obligations with self-sufficiency made the Cossack hosts relatively inexpensive but economically ineffective. A study of the experience of land development in the Orenburg Cossack Host allows us to draw conclusions about the variability of the status of Cossack land, both in practice and in its legislative formulation. In the context of the revision of the functions of the Cossacks, the destruction of their class isolation, the reduction of land reserves, and the development of market relations, this gave rise to conflicts, hindered the effective use of land resources and the competitiveness of the Cossack economy. The consolidation of the allotment-based, equalizing system of land use and specific class-based duties for ordinary Cossacks, special land rights for military officers and officials, and the rejection of individualized Cossack land ownership during the Stolypin reforms led to economic decline and social stratification of Cossack communities.