Abstract

When setting the goal and objectives of this article, the author proceeded from the fact that the well-studied early history of the palace settlements (dvortsovoe settlements) of Moscow uyezd and other central uyezds of the Russian State is very rarely integrated into the study of their current state, largely formed under the influence of their past as palace settlements. The sources for the article comprise numerous reference books on the history of the former palace estates, as well as online resources based on official primary sources on the current state of particular settlements. The author has identified the main socio-demographic characteristics of 162 out of the 178 settlements included in the List of palace volosts and villages for 1705. The settlements whose historical fate has not been identified are either those whose names have changed beyond recognition or the ones that have completely melted into other settlements. A quantitative analysis of various administrative and socio-demographic parameters of the former palace villages, first of all, made it possible to trace changes in the settlement status of the former palace villages of Central Russia in the 18th — early 21st centuries and to reveal isolated cases of the complete disappearance of the former palace settlements. The analysis of the changes in the administrative status of the former palace villages has shown that the potential given to them when they were founded, was eventually instrumental in the transformation of the two-thirds of them into local administrative centers. The article interprets population growth in 70% of studied palace settlements, which continued up to the end of the 20th century, as an indicator of their successful demographic development. A study of the socio-economic development of the palace villages led to the conclusion that many of them in the 18th–19th centuries became and now remain local commercial, industrial and socio-cultural centers. In conclusion, the article states that a number of long-term historical, historical-geographical, historical-cultural factors contributed to successful, and unparalleled at present, socio-demographic development of almost one and a half hundred former palace settlements. This relative success manifested itself against the backdrop of the withering of thousands of Russian rural settlements.