CONTRACTING OF FOREIGNERS DURING LAUNCHING THE PROJECT OF COLONISTS’RESETTLEMENT TO RUSSIA (1760s)

Abstract

The article presents a comparative analysis of different kinds of contracts concluded du-ring the resettlement of foreign colonists to Russia in the 1760s. The agreements are classi-fi ed and characterized in terms of form, structure of content and composition of counterparts. The content of the contracts is correlated with the legislative norms as well as with other sourc-es, which infl uenced the creation of such a kind of document. The paper studies the agreements with different subcategories of foreign colonists: manufacturers, recruiters (“vyzyvateli”), plowmen. The author demonstrates the process of the rights and obligations establishment in the contracts as well as how the working-out and discussion of conditions were conducted, fi nally - in what degree the foreigners could infl uence the results. If, for example, the foreign specialists, who were hired to the Russian service temporarily, had more chances to change and improve the terms of contracts, in the case of foreign colonists, the latter ones more often just had to accept the conditions offered by the government. The author concludes that the agreements with manufacturers in many ways were similar to those with hired foreign specialists; contracts with “vyzyvateli” were the most unifi ed and, with rare exceptions, strictly corre-sponded to the form determined by the law. The paper reveals the specifi cs of the content of contracts, in particular, chapters concern-ing the subject of agreement (the main task of a foreigner was to cultivate land, to organize a factory or to attract colonists-farmers), obligation of transferring knowledge and experience to Russian pupils, fi nancial issues, conditions of trade, possibilities of leaving Russia and ac-tions in the case of foreigner’s death.The author shows the involvement of agreements with colonists in the general develop-ment of contractual relationships between the state and foreigners as members of the Russian society.

Keywords

• контракт
• иностранные колонисты
• переселение
• договор
• Канце-лярия опекунства иностранных