К вопросу о раскладке окладных сборов у калмыков в XIX в. (на примере южной части Малодербетовского улуса в 1882 г.)

Abstract

Introduction. The article analyzes tax apportionment for Kalmyk population in the 19th century through examining aimak-level (Kalm. ‘locality, settlement’) data. Goals. The study mainly aims at identification of categories of taxes adopted at the aimak level, determination of the tax apportionment mechanism, analysis of average amounts of taxes across different aimaks. Materials. The analyzed documents include reports of 1882 on taxes from southern aimaks of Baga Dorbet (Russ. Maloderbetovsky) Ulus housed by the National Archive of the Kalmykia (Coll. И-15). Results. Apportionment, i.e. a financial method which assumes distribution of the total amount of a certain type of income for a set of taxable objects, was officially adopted by Kalmyks in the second half of the 19th century. The materials show the form in which it was used by the Kalmyks on the eve of the obligatory relationships’ cancellation, i.e. in the 1880s. Kalmyk commoners paid both official and non-official taxes — in terms of the Regulations introduced by the Imperial Court for the Kalmyk People’s Directorate. The non-official ones included ‘dark’ and household fees, as well as a ‘public needs’ fee, which, in our view, went to ulus-level budgets. The period under study witnessed the application of the apportionment principle (guideline) to the entire amount of taxes. Aimak meetings decided which families would not pay taxes to further divide the entire amount into two parts: the first one was apportioned for a certain number of heads of cattle, while the other was paid by each truly dutiable family at a rate set by the meeting. There was a rather tangible difference between aimaks in the average values of taxes per family. This indicator depended mainly on the share of tax-exempt families and the specific value of ‘unofficial’ taxes in the aimak.