Population of the Kargopolsky Uyezd at the Beginning of the 18th Century (According to the Census Book of the City of Kargopol and the Uyezd of 1712–1713)

Introduction. The article examines the population of the Kargopolsky Uyezd (the Onega River basin) at the beginning of the 18th century (numbers, social structure, population migrations, and marital relations). Methods and materials. Methods of historical research are used: analysis, synthesis. The source base consisted of census books. Analysis. At the beginning of the 18th century, the population of 25 volosts and the Oshevenskaya settlement of the Kargopolsky Uyezd consisted of 95% of tax-paying peasants and only 5% of other categories of the population (the clergy of a parish, beggars, sharecroppers, batches, farmsteaders, and Cossacks). A large number of monasteries (11 monasteries and pustyns) and the presence of a city with a townsman population – owners of land plots in the county – led to the formation of large and medium-sized landowners represented by individual monasteries and townspeople. In turn, this created a need for labor. As a result, the author came to the conclusion that the existing structure of land ownership was the reason for the activity of migration processes. There are a significant number of newcomers in the monastery and township courtyards; these were mainly immigrants from the Olonetsky Uyezd. Marriage ties were between representatives of neighboring volosts, often within the same volost and village.