The Social Structure of the Pskov Province in Archival Materials from the 1760s

Abstract

The present research featured the social structure of the Pskov Province in the 1760s. The cities of Pskov and Velikiye Luki were the two most densely populated areas in the region, but this study also covered the less populated Gdov urban area. The author relied on church records, e.g. confession lists and metric books, from the State Archive of the Pskov Province. The research also included original and scientifically processed audit descriptions. They proved to be a novel and extensive source of data that made it possible to describe the demographic and social structure of pre-revolutionary provincial Russia. The analysis revealed the quantitative, gender, income, and religious characteristics of the local population in the 1780s. The population of the Pskov Province was mainly represented by Russians peasants, especially in the area of Velikiye Luki. Velikiye Luki and Pskov had an exceptionally large number of peasant city-dwellers, which was untypical for the provincial society of that time. In general, the 1760s saw a considerable growth of taxable population in the Pskov Province.