Ethnoconfessional Structure of the Population of the Kalmyk Steppe of Astrakhan Province According to the 1897 Census (the quantitative approach)

Abstract

For the first time, the article reviews the materials of the First General Population Census of the Russian Empire of 1897 in order to reveal the ethno-confessional composition of the residents in Astrakhan province of that time. The Census provides invaluable material for the analysis of the ethno-confessional structure of the population though it was not carried out specifically with the purpose of collecting this kind of data. However, it allows to see that the religious accessory was one of the basic parameters for the inhabitants of the Russian Empire of that time along with ethnic and other characteristics. At the same time, the Census organizers were particularly interested in, for example, what languages believers of various religions recognized as being their native. The author came to the conclusion that the First General Population Census of Russia is an extremely useful statistical source allowing us to imagine in greater details the ethno-confessional characteristics of both the Kalmyk steppe and the whole Astrakhan province at the end of the 19th century. Besides, the study demonstrates a great informative saturation of this type of data enabling it to be applied in numerous research depending on their goals. The experience of the quantitative analysis indicates that the census data is a valuable, multi-dimensional source of information which is not enough appreciated by researchers and still not in use 100 years after its publication.