Documenting Vagrants and ‘Cripples’ in Late-18th-Century Sloboda Ukraine (Evidence of Revision Lists from the Kharkiv Viceroyalty)

The article is concerned with issues of population counting and taxation in Sloboda Ukraine towards the end of the 18th century. The purpose of the study is to analyze the evidential value of primary census documents (revision lists, literally ‘revision tales,’ revizki kazky) and accompanying administrative records from the period of the Kharkiv Viceroyalty, with a particular focus on the category of vagrants and ‘cripples.’ The author outlines the main phases in the evolution of the census procedure, taking into account its distinctive regional features. It is demonstrated that a reliable categorization of population for tax purposes was introduced in Sloboda Ukraine no earlier than the first quarter of the 18th century. Throughout the century, population counting in the region remained variable in form and approach to the recording of individual information and verification of census results. The fourth ‘revision’ (1782–1783) covered the entire taxable population of the region and most of the non-taxable social groups that had not previously been subject to population counts. In addition to the standard census information, revision lists produced in the last two decades of the 18th century contained supplemental biographical data that make it possible to sketch out collective portraits of individual social groups. The vagrants and ‘cripples’ of Sloboda Ukraine are represented in these statistical records as a numerous population category that required the attention and care of local authorities. Using methods of source criticism, the author was able to indentify characteristics of population counting related to the functioning of the regional bureaucratic apparatus. The article expands the range of mass sources that can be used in historical-demographic, genealogical, and prosopographic research, as well as in the study of the history of medicine and everyday life of marginalized groups in Sloboda Ukraine.