Settlements in Tobolsk District (County) from 1860s to the 1920s: Formation and Development Characteristics

This study explores the process of formation and subsequent development of settlements as a distinct type of rural locality within the settlement network of the Tobolsk District. Utilizing the “Lists of Localities” as a primary source, the research analyzes five temporal snapshots (for the years 1869, 1893, 1903, 1909, and 1926) to trace the dynamics of settlement populations and to determine their proportion within the overall number of localities in the district. The study calculates the number of newly established settlements of this status in comparison to each preceding period, establishing their average size (in terms of households and population). It concludes that the practice of relocating from “parent” settlements to form new ones was predominantly observed among the indigenous Russian population and settlers. Notably, approximately one-third of the settlements that emerged in the 1860s had disappeared from the map of Tobolsk County by the 1920s, while most of those that persisted achieved village status. Favorable factors contributing to the continued existence of these settlements included their location along postal or zemstvo routes, access to water sources, proximity to local trade and industrial centers, and the economic strength of households that relocated from their ancestral villages to settle on unoccupied lands.