UNDERGROWTH IN SPACE

Abstract

The topicality of the theme lies in the fact that the spatial mobility, which has not yet been sufficiently studied, helps to understand the social and economic processes taking place in the state. The beginning of the 18th century was an important period: the reforms of Peter I affected all social and age categories of the population The movement of people for state and personal reasons acquired, as never before, a massive character. We consider records of surveys (skazki) of noble levies who were examined in Nizhny Novgorod in 1723–1725 as a source on children's spatial mobility. The author used the comparative-historical method of the research and comes to the following conclusions: about 25% of the levies who arrived for the inspection had already had the experience of moving long distances - from Arkhangelsk in the north to Astrakhan in the south of the country; most often this experience was caused by the death of the father, when a child, a teenager moved to live to relatives; in some cases, the relocations were associated with the desire of the father to send his son to study to a relative who was successful in his career. Some children were forced to move because after the death of their parents they were not taken by their relatives and were forced to wander around the country. Those children often came in monasteries, which allowed them to survive and then enter the military service.

Keywords

• levies
• muster
• spatial mobility
• early 18th century
• peter's time