Abstract

The process of settlement and economic development of the vast Far Eastern territories began after the annexation of the Amur region to Russia in the second half of the 19th century. Among the colonists were Old Believers from the central and Siberian provinces of the Russian Empire. Additionally, in 1908–1914, Russian Old Believers Lipovans from the Danube countries (Austro-Hungary, Rumania and Bulgaria) started to move to the Amur. In the second half of the 19th century, considerable privileges were introduced for peasants who moved to the Amur region. In the beginning of the 20th century, the economic development of the region evolved in accordance with the “Temporary rules for the formation of resettlement plots in the Amur and Primorskaya regions” approved on 22 June 1900. Each male member of a resettlement family, regardless of age, was entitled to 15 desyatinas of land from 1 January 1901. As a rule, in the new areas Old Believers settled in separate communities. Although they had diff erent trades agriculture was their main occupation. Trade was not well developed. Old Believers, who were isolated from major administrative centers and transportation routes, practiced mainly subsistence economy. Contrary to popular belief, the Amur peasants did not ignore using agricultural machinery. Bila Krynytsia Old Believers, who were conservative in the religious and household spheres, skillfully employed the best practices in their economy. The use of agricultural implements was not widespread among the new settlers not because of religious beliefs, but because of a lack of money to buy them. The religious communities of the Far Eastern Old Believers survived until the collectivization of agriculture in the region at the turn of the 1920s. This article examines the economic activity of Old Believers’ peasant communities and their effi ciency, the process of transformation of traditional economic practices under the Soviet power and in the circumstances of the development of the socialist economic model in Platovo and Rozhdestvenska villages. It also examines the passive resistance of Amur Old Believer peasants to collective-farm construction.