On the Chief Administration of Kalmyk people within Accounting and Statistics between 1873-1892

Abstract

The article deals with the development of departmental reports of the Chief Administration of Kalmyk people between 1873-1892. According to one of the greatest Russian statisticians D.P. Zhuravskiy, “accounting and statistical work in the steppe of Kalmyk people from the very beginning was fully organized by the state…”. Before the reform of 1892 on the abolition of Kalmyk mandatory relations, there were no specialized bodies of accounting and statistics in the steppe of Kalmyk people located in the Gubernia (governorate) of Astrakhan except for government and local authorities. Therefore, in 1867, the Administration of the Kalmyk people renamed the “Horde branch of nomadic peoples” into the “Chief Administration of Kalmyk People”, which turned out to be the main authority that dealt with accounting and statistical work in the steppe of Kalmyk people. In the last third of the XIX century such Kalmyk structures as uluses, khotons and aimags were subordinate to the Chief Administration, which was considered to be in charge of accounting and statistics and sending the obtained data to the main Headquarters in Astrakhan. The article describes the process of gradually clearing specific record keeping documents, which found expression in the summary tables, lists, certificates, a plan diagram instructions. From the analysis of annual reports of the Chief Administration, it is evident that officials were to be occupied with collecting and processing a huge amount of information on statistics and accounting. Thus, the Chief Administration had to deal with a great amount of statistical information to be sent not only to higher institutions but also to the statistical body of the gubernia (governorate). Almost all of the annual statistical information, which are now used by historians, was gathered by the Chief Administration. The article can help to fill in some of the major gaps in the knowledge of the Chief Administration’s activity in the field of accounting and statistics.