Forced Settlement of Novorossiya and Crimea in the Second Half of the 1770s and 1880s, and Attempts to Stop It (as Exemplified by Poland)
Forced Settlement of Novorossiya and Crimea in the Second Half of the 1770s and 1880s, and Attempts to Stop It (as Exemplified by Poland)

Summary/Abstract: The term Novorossiya was introduced in Russia in the eighteenth century and referred to a 'new Russia', newly acquired territories in the south, mainly those seized in the course of the wars with the Ottoman Empire. As these territories were sparsely populated, Russia carried out a large-scale settlement campaign there. According to a prevailing view in Russian historiography, the settlers were mainly willing people from the empire's hinterland and other countries. The article presents the actual methods used by the Russian Empire to settle the newly seized territories, methods previously unknown to readers, deliberately omitted or inconvenient for research analysis, especially in Russian publications that glorify the scope and progressive nature of the settlement of Novorossiya and Crimea. Tens of thousands of abducted citizens of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth is a rather conservative estimate; there were probably many more, as the vast majority of abducted groups were not reported. We do not have such studies for other countries, so we do not know the absolute scale of the phenomenon. The article also shows the helplessness of a country that, in view of its weakness, was forced to yield to the dictates of a stronger neighbour.

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