Based on archival and field materials, the article recreates fragments of the history of the village of Bichura, the largest in Eastern Siberia. Its settlement by the first settlers, their living conditions, and relations with the indigenous local population are described. The article examines the dynamics of the village population over almost two and a half centuries.

Keywords: settlement, Old Believers, population size, agricultural development, migration.

Bichura is the largest Old Believer village not only in Transbaikalia, but also in the whole of Eastern Siberia. Now it is the center of the Bichursky district of the Republic of Buryatia. The village is approx. long. 20 km is spread along the banks of the Bichurki River, which flows into the Khilok River. The appearance of villages of this scale and the rapid growth of their population did not go unnoticed by well-known researchers and travelers, not only Russian, but also foreign. In 1735, G. F. Miller reported on Bichur, in 1772 - P. S. Pallas. The publicist and ethnographer M. I. Orfanov, the researcher of the communal life of K. I. Kropotkin, wrote about it in a heartfelt way. Mikhailov, doctor, archaeologist and ethnographer, Prof. J. D. Talko-Gryncewicz University of Krakow. In January 1861, the writer and ethnographer Sv. Maximov. In 1871, the largest Slavist P. A. Rovinsky lived there, and in the 1890s, the famous doctor and researcher N. V. Kirillov lived there. At the beginning of the 20th century, the French traveler Paul Labbe wrote about Bichur, who stayed with the Bichurian Mikhail Klimych Petrov.

Bichura, for a number of reasons, was not forgotten by officials. So, in connection with the revolt of the Old Believers-Semeyskys against the closure of their church and the "shelter" of a runaway priest, the Governor-General of Eastern Siberia N. N. Muravyov-Amursky himself rode to the village from Irkutsk. Interesting observations were made by the police chief V. Glukhovtsev and many missionaries who fought against the Old Believers.

Despite the numerous historical and ethnographic descriptions, the initial stage of settlement and agricultural development of the territory of the Khilotskaya patrimony of Transbaikalia, where Bichura was founded in the first third of the XVIII century, is still poorly covered in the historical literature. On this subject, there are works by E. M. Zalkind, V. I. Shunkov, L. V. Mashanova, M. M. Shmulevich, F. F. Bolonev. These authors report that the settlement of the Trans-Baikal Territory, which occupied a particularly important place in the economic life of Eastern Siberia, occurred in the XVII - early XIX centuries largely spontaneously. This was a rather turbulent area, where the ploughed peasants, surrounded by a nomadic aboriginal population, did not feel completely safe. Some stability in the Trans-Baikal region as a whole came only after the conclusion of the

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1727 of the Burinsky treatise. Since that time, a more lively Russian agricultural colonization of the region began, and the foundations for rapprochement between the newcomers and the local population, as well as mutual farming, began to be laid. Newly baptized Buryats and Yasachs mastered new methods of farming, adopted Russian customs, moved to a sedentary lifestyle, and peasants and Cossacks got acquainted with the economy of nomadic pastoralists.

An important role in the development of the territory and the emergence of settlements here was played by the Trinity-Selenginsky Monastery. In 1704, he received the richest and largest patrimony on the Khilok River - Khilotskaya. The foundation of Russian settlements in it dates back to the first quarter of the XVIII century. According to archival data, in 1723 there were 11 courtyards in the village of Kunaleyskaya, 6 in Buiskaya, and 10 in Yelanskaya, and by 1731 there were 14 courtyards in the village of Topkinskaya [Mashanova, 1973, p. 154; Shmulevich, 1985, p.9]. In 1729, the monastery received extensive hay mowing between the Chikoy and Khilok rivers. In 1720, the Verkhnekhilotskaya village of Bui became his property. In the same year, the Selenga zemstvo izba issued a decree, according to which arable land and cattle output along the left bank of the Khilok River to the Bichura and Kiret rivers passed into the possession of the Trinity-Selenga Monastery [Shmulevich, 1982, p.19]. More active settlement of these rich places begins.

In the materials of G. F. Miller for 1735, the historian A. H. Ehlert found a document called "Russian villages of the Selenga department, namely by Khilk"*. It names 12 settlements. Among them are listed: "Elan of the Trinity Monastery Bichyurskaya of the same monastery on the left side of the shore 5 versts, and from Elan of the village 15 versts above the river Bichyura, which fell into Khilok. Kunaleyskaya is in the courtyard of the monastery on the left side of the Bichyur village, 15 versts away." The document contains the following names: Krasnaya Sloboda, Monastery Palace, Buyskaya village, etc. As we can see, the village of Bichyura (Bichura) in the system of Khilotsk settlements has probably existed since the early 1730s.

F. F. Bolonev found a curious document about the monastery peasant Stefan Vasiliev, the son of Novokreschenov. "During the interrogation," he said that "he is a native of the Trinity Monastery of the deceased former peasant Vasily Novokreschenov, and from birth I was thirteen years old and in the current seven hundred and thirty-sixth year-in the same Trinity Monastery they recorded to be in the patrimony on Khilka in the Bichur village in the peasantry and in the poll payment instead of the deceased the peasant brother of Kalina Mityashins and pay poll money to this monastery for this seven hundred and thirty-sixth year on a full salary... and if I Stefan said in this fairy tale that it is possible or concealed and instead committed to me after the imperial Majesty's decree, which I will be worthy of " (GARB. F. 262. Op. 1. D. 13. l. 4 vol.). For our research in this certificate, it is important to mention the surname Novokreschenovs, i.e. its bearer was a newly baptized Buryat, as well as information about the relocation of a teenager from the Trinity Monastery to the Bichur village and his registration in the peasantry, in a poll payment, and in 1736. Therefore, the village of Bichura existed until 1736.

According to archival materials discovered by L. V. Mashanova, in 1737 Bichura peasants lived in six courtyards, which probably belonged to the Trinity-Selenginsky Monastery [1973, p. 154], since the lands along the Khilok River were its patrimony. The first yards of Russian peasants on this land appeared on the site that is now called Staraya Bichura, behind the Stone (now Kirova Street). Thus, it is documented that in the early 1730s the village of Bichura already existed.

What was the composition of the peasant population in these monastic villages along the Khilok River? By 1723, 56 ploughed peasants were settled there, mostly from the cities and counties of Pomerania. A significant proportion were baptized Buryats and exiles. Thus, the village of Elanskaya was settled by newly baptized arable Buryats. There were many baptized Buryats among the inhabitants of other villages - Maly Kunalei and Bichura. It is noteworthy that 17 villages along the Khilok and Chikoy rivers were founded by residents of Selenginsk. Initially, these localities or villages usually consisted of one or three courtyards. Later, with the influx of population, their number gradually began to grow, which is typical for most villages in Transbaikalia.

The Trinity-Selenginsky Monastery was a feudal fiefdom. His economy was based on the labor of personally dependent people. For the development of land on the vast expanse of the Selenga and Khilok Rivers, the monastery needed primarily arable peasants. The monastery tried to "put them on the ground", identify them in new villages. According to the decree of March 2, 1694, the monastery had the right to register free walking people who found themselves in Transbaikalia in its economy, "marry foreign women and girls bought by the monastery", endow them with land, money, grain and cattle loans. For example, in 1734, Ilya Kochmarev, a peasant, was allocated monastic land "on a hill for arable land for hay mowing and for a yard in the village of Kunaleyskaya", a state loan, "an iron coulter, an axe, a scythe, two sickles, and twenty poods of rye, and a horse, and instead of a cow a mare", as well as benefits with the condition that " me

* A photocopy of it was kindly provided to us by A. H. Elert, for which we are grateful. Now a copy of the document is kept in the personal archive of F. F. Bolonev.

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Ilia Kochmarev and my children will never leave the monastery's tax, but will remain forever in their families", i.e., be enslaved [Bolonev, 2005, p. 152]. Thus, in the Khilok villages, a peasant arable population was formed. When settling, the peasants were given land "for the yard, for arable land and for hay mowing". In other words, the peasants were completely dependent on the monastery as serfs. The village of Bichura in the Khilot monastery settlement system was no exception.

In the 1768 - 1980s, many families of Old Believers who were brought from the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and received the name "Semeyskiye"came to the lands of Bichura. After their settlement, there was a rapid population growth and a significant increase in agriculture. Much later, P. A. Rovinsky wrote the following about the time of the arrival of the Old Believers in Transbaikalia:: "The entire region along the Selenga River and its tributaries at the end of the last century was a desert. Only in the lower reaches, and in the area of the Verkhneudinsky district, the population was grouped, they could be called a village, the rest of the space was empty, or occupied by nomads, and only in some places zaimki and hamlets appeared. At this time, the Semeyskys come in considerable numbers, with their arrival Chikoy immediately becomes cramped, and at the end of the last century they have already found settlements in Khilk and the surrounding area... They came in a large mass and from the very beginning prevailed over the old-timers in numbers. We do not find such a rapid settlement of such a vast area anywhere in Transbaikalia, and it seems that we will not find it in the whole of Eastern Siberia. The rapid growth of this population was accomplished by birth" [1872, p. 132].

It is known about the arrival of the Old Believers in Bichura that first of all " they settled the lands along the Chikoyu and along the Djida River, a tributary of the Selenga. The former were under the jurisdiction of the Troitskosavsky Border Commissioner, and the latter belonged to the Selenga department. Those who settled along the Chikoyu stayed there, but Djida did not like it, so the new settlers went to Khilok, where Buryats roamed at that time and in some places there were settlements from yasachny... Some of them sat down on the Springs, near the Dry River at the southernmost knee of Khilk. There lived at that time a rich and noble Buryat Akin, after whom the river Akinka, which flowed into Khilok, is now dry, clogged with sand and flows only in spring and during heavy rains, is called. Others went further, where in the depths of the Bichur valley there were already 2 or 3 houses of old-timers, and the entire plain was occupied by Buryat Cossacks for about 10 versts in width " (GAIO. F. 293. Op. 1. D. 511. L. 15, 15 vol.). For the first time, data on the number of people living on the r. S. V. Maksimov published about people. He reported 26 families, or 70 souls of men, and gave the surnames of all the families [1871, p. 323]. "They were not afraid of any work and struggle with nature," PA wrote. Rovinsky - they met no resistance in the Russian villagers who were sitting in a slum, in the narrowest part of the Bichur Valley, among the swamps, which is why this part is called Gryaznukha... Initially, they occupied the opposite side of the river to the Orthodox" (GAIO. f. 293. Op. 1. d. 511. l. 21 vol.) (Fig. 1).

From the old-timers of the village E. A. Petrov and Evstigney Antonovich Kupriyanov (born in 1898) F. F. Bolonev in 1969 it is written:"...The Semeyskys were traveling in Transbaikalia for three years... Residents of Elan, Maly Kunalei, Buya for 40 years

1. One of the first houses in the village of Bichura. The second half of the XVIII century. Photo by F. F. Bolonev.

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earlier, the Semeyskys settled in their villages. And one of the Buryats helped settle in Bichur, he pointed out a paddy that was not occupied by anyone." "Bichura began to settle in what is now Maskova Street. The border with the Buryats and Mongols was along a Cliff, " said Philip Ivanovich Avdeev (78 years old). In 1982, Evdokim Nikitovich Gneushev (born in 1900) said: "The Gneushevs had two brothers in Bichur. One is black, the other is white, and there are still nicknames: belousyats and korneushats, i.e. indigenous, similar to Buryats. Then the Savelievs were the first Russians to come here. The Buryat surnames Shoidurovs and Sharapovs are still preserved. Later, the Chubarovs emerged from the exiles... " Martin Ipatovich Afanasyev (75 years old), a resident of Motnya village He pointed out: "The Semeyskys settled in Bichur in 1666 (The same date was called in Tarbagatai, the old people are aging their settlement for a whole century. - Author). At first, the Semeyskys stopped in Hayan, Torm, then they were told that there was a big river in Gryaznukha, but there was no water in Torm. They started building huts in Gryaznukha. What the Semey peasants will build in a day, and the Mongols will drag them across the steppe at night." According to Agafon Ankindinovich and Ekaterina Karpovna Pavlov (1890 and 1900). R.), "7-12 families first came to Bichura from the Pro (river). They settled in Gryaznukha (this is the island opposite the Cliff). But it became crowded, and then they began to populate Bolshaya Street. Petrovs were the first to be built there. How many logs (crowns) of salary for the day will be put. During the night, the Buryats will pull them apart. Then one of the Semeyskys went to Irkutsk to see the governor, a commission came with him, and things were settled."

The first Semeyskys ' settlements in the village, according to E. D. Lugovsky, a resident of Bichura, appeared on the Romashenka uval, behind the cliff (Fig. 2). According to Andrey Immanuilovich Ivanov (born in 1890), a resident of Petropavlovsk, nine or ten housewives came to Bichura: Ivanovs, Slepnevs, Afanasyevs, Tkachevs, Savelevs, Perelygins, Avdeevs, Teryukhanovs, Belykh, Prosvirennikovs.

In the "vedomosti" of Major-General P. Ivashev found and published by N. N. Pokrovsky on September 25, 1768, Bichura is not yet mentioned. Future Bichuryans-Old Believers - 72 souls of young Peasants and 68 souls of women, a total of 140 people-are still listed in the village of Pokrovsky "in places on the top of Selenginsk" [Pokrovsky, 1975, pp. 111-111].

In the "Vedomosti, made by the power of the order of Major General Larion Timofeevich about the Old Believers-settlers living in the Verkhneudinsky district, brought out of Poland in different villages" in February 1795, the "number of souls in the settlement" of the male sex - 70, the female sex - 66." According to the 4th revision " (1781- 1782) recorded male souls-129, female-106. " Transferred from Poland and settled first on the river Iro sloboda under the name of Pokrovsky village. Of these, it remained at this river according to the 4th revision of the male sex 2 and female 2 and attributed to the Zhidinsky department. And then they were transferred to the Bichura River under the name of the Bichura village... Now newly born men. p. 77, women. p. 85" (quoted in: [Bolonev, 2009, p. 312]). The village belonged to the Uskolut society.

F. F. Bolonev found lists of Old Believers in villages for 1795, compiled by villagers-peasants of these villages. In Bichur, there were 31 families and 186 men and 185 women, a total of 371 people. [Ibid., p. 316]. The list includes the heads of families-Pyotr Nesterov, Semyon Gladkikh, Trifon Prosvirelnikov, Andrey Beloy, Nikifor Afanasyev, Fyodor Razuvaev, Semyon Nesterov, Sidor Kipriyanov, Sylvester Panteleev, Mamant Ivanov, Epifan Tyuryukhanov, Login Ivanov, Andronnik Gavrilov, Vasily Petrov, Dmitry Savelyev, Vasily Puzanov, Trofim

2. One of the first houses in the village of Bichura. The end of the XVIII century. Photo by F. F. Bolonev.

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Timofeev, Firs Ivanov, Nikita Tkachev, Ivan Tkachev, Ivan Golovanov, Ivan Rodionov, Avram Utenkov, Yefim Martynov, Sergey Perelygin, Danilo Perelygin, Mikhailo Turchaninov, Andrey Slepnev, Nikita Klychin, Fedor Mikheev, Timofey Avdeev [Ibid.].

E. D. Fedotova collected and analyzed statistical data that allow us to trace the dynamics of the population of Bichura and its ethno-confessional composition. Among the inhabitants of the village, Old Believers predominated-90 %, the old-time Orthodox population was 10 %. This ratio remained virtually unchanged throughout the entire pre-revolutionary history of Bichura. A small share of the total population was made up of so-called settlers. In the documents about Bichur since 1810, there are decrees on the establishment of settlements in their places. About this population in one of the orders of the Verkhneudinsky zemsky commissar Izmailov, the following is reported:: "In all the villages I see that the exiles who are sent for food, instead of earning it by working as hard as possible from the villagers, are shamefully wandering around the world from one village to another... completely vagabonds, through which sometimes bad consequences can occur due to the depravity of morals" (GAIO. F. 293. Op. 1. D. 511. l. 19 vol.). It also says about the need to attach them to a specific territory. Poselschiki, as a rule, settled among the Orthodox and were attributed to them. The Semeyskys lived separately; according to the documents, "exiles, even if they fell into their midst, immediately dissolved into it" (Ibid.).

P. A. Rovinsky collected valuable data on the initial stage of the migration of Old Believers to Bichura and on the growth of their number over more than 50 years, working with materials from a number of volost archives, which later did not survive [1872]. According to his information, in 1804 there were 186 Old Believers in Bichur M. P. In 1809 there were 220 revision souls in the village, and in 1820 - 472. In 1825, Old Believers were recorded in it - 381 revision souls (in 150 houses), old-timers-34, various settlers-57, a total of 614 men and 584 women, of which 530 men and 539 women are Old Believers. In 1825, there were only 1,069 Old Believers living in 150 houses in Bichur. In that year, 45 children were born to the Semeyskys, 23 died, i.e. the increase was 22 people. Among the Old Believers, 1 person died at the age of 55, 5 people - from 6 to 14 years, the remaining 17 people-up to 5 years. These data indicate a high infant mortality rate. In 1825, the oldest age group consisted of two men aged 81 years and 77 years, the group from 72 to 75 years - six men, 70 years-three women. Consequently, the general population was young [Ibid.].

By 1835, the number of Old Believers in the village had increased - 764 men and 778 women. In 1860, the population of Bichura included 1,178 Old Believers and 1,258 women, and 172 Orthodox Siberians and 102 women. From 1808 to 1860, the population of the village increased 4.5 times. In 1830-1860, the number of Old Believers increased almost 2 times, and the number of old-timers in Siberia increased almost 1.5 times [Ibid.]. Such a high growth rate was not found anywhere else in the entire history of the peoples of Siberia. The intensive growth of the village population was based on the high birth rate, which reached the maximum possible indicators for women. Religious and ethical norms of the Old Believers were fixed ideological attitudes towards a high birth rate and strengthening family and marriage relations. However, the lack of recognition of scientific medicine was the cause of very high infant mortality.

According to Y. D. Talko-Gryntsevich, in 1894 there were 700 houses in Bichur, the population was more than 5 thousand people. The village stretches for 11 versts. At the end of the 18th century, it was inhabited by 31 families, including two families of the Nesterovs, Tkachevs, and Perelygins. In 1894, the Bichuryan family clans grew greatly: the Perelygins - 64 houses (450 people), the Afanasievs - 43, the Savelevs - 39, the Teryukhanovs - 88 houses (547 people), the Whites - 20, and the Utenkovs - 41 houses. Consequently, the population of Bichura increased 17-fold (Talko-Gryntsevich, 1894).

The rapid growth of the population caused a shortage of land in the Bichura farms. This caused migration to new places of residence. At the beginning of the XX century, Bichuryans founded several new villages: Motnya, Novosretenka, Petropavlovsk, Pokrovka. Part of the Bichurians migrated to the Amur and Primorye. The population of Bichur continued to grow during the First Russian Revolution, the Russo-Japanese War, and the First World War. At the beginning of 1919, the village had a population of approx. 7 thousand people. Since the settlement of the Semeyskys in Bichur and until the beginning of the XX century, the number of inhabitants of the village has increased approximately 50 times.

The high moral principles nurtured by the Old Believer church for centuries, a healthy lifestyle, hard work, rejection of alcohol and tobacco, and permission to establish marriage ties within one's community only after seven generations-all this undoubtedly contributed to the formation of a spiritually and physically healthy population. This was written by Decembrists, travelers and researchers of the life of the Old Believers. As M. Gedenstrom noted, " the Old Believers in Transbaikalia formed the indigenous, most useful part of the villagers here. The people are tall and handsome, in what they differ favorably from the Siberians, in the structure of their houses and villages, in their food and clothing, in their dialect they have a perfect resemblance to the Russians of the inner provinces, who are even superior in cleanliness and neatness-

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they go. When we see the Old Believers and their villages, we forget that we are in deep Siberia, and imagine that we have been transported to rich villages in the middle of Russia. The Old Believers firmly adhere to the faith of their fathers. For the most part, they have a runaway priest, whose main advantage, in their opinion, should consist in the fact that he does not have a passport and was brought from their monasteries in Russia, where for this purpose they send special people at great expense... There is between them both united and bespopovschina... " [1830, p. 63].M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin called the Old Believers the color of the Russian common people [1955, p. 5].

M. I. Orfanov collected material about Bichur; he lived in the village for about two months in the apartment of "an inveterate Semey venerable old man, the father of 8 sons, each of whom would have been suitable for the right-flank guards" [Mishla (Orfanov), 1883, p. 44]. Old Believers from Chernihiv and Mogilev gubernias. in Transbaikalia, they bred such a grain cultivation that made the whole area "an inexhaustible breadbasket of this whole region and the distant Amur". M. I. Orfanov enthusiastically wrote about the beauty of the Semeyskys: "What beautiful people! What heroes!..<... Not only are there many beautiful people among them, but they are also a very large and strong people. I have even met women, and not particularly infrequently, tops in 8-8 1/2 and more growth. Old people are so beautiful, dignified, that they directly ask to be painted. They could serve as excellent models for biblical subjects" [Ibid., pp. 41-44] (Fig. 3). The Semeyskys, according to M. I. Orfanov, preserved their everyday features in all their purity. They " work tirelessly, but work, according to their rivals, old-timers, for five each, and therefore, in comparison with their neighbors, Russians and Buryats, are rich. Their main focus is S. Bichura, has a length of up to 9 versts" [Ibid., p. 43]. M. I. Orfanov's book contains very important information about the settlement of the village by Old Believers, their relations with the local population. From the "inveterate Semeysky" the author wrote: "One official was appointed to manage them and was called a commissar. He was a dashing man, and our people had a hard time of it. At least he took a little-he could live - but he was strict-so that his will might be fulfilled. For example, he demanded that they be built up in one winter" [Ibid., p. 44].

With the establishment of Soviet power, the Old Believer Church was gradually pushed out of the Semeyskys ' life, and its influence on new generations was significantly reduced. The process of secularization has become widespread. Religious and ethical norms governing marriage and family relations,

3. Bichur women. Photo of the 1920s from the Chita Regional Museum of Local Lore.

Fig. 4. Modern Bichura Street. Photo by F. F. Bolonev.

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reproductive attitudes - one of the determining factors of high birth rates-have ceased to be unshakable. Gradually, the use of contraception and abortion became the norm; the population switched to conscious family planning. However, even in the 1950s, the worldview of a small part of the population remained set on a high birth rate. In the 1960s and 1970s, population growth rates in Bichur were higher than the national and union averages. The population growth of the village continued in the 1980s, although its rate decreased.

In 1995, 11,783 people lived in Bichur. This is the maximum indicator of the village population for the entire period of its existence. Since 1996, the population has been declining. As of 2008, Bichur had 9798 inhabitants. The decline of its population is partly restrained by the influx of residents from small villages. Never in the Old Believer villages has the population declined so much as in the last 10-15 years. Trends towards declining birth rates, aging of the population, etc. are stable; they have developed over the past 20-40 years, and the current economic state of agriculture only contributes to their development. The potential reproduction capabilities of the Semeyskys ethnographic group are significantly weakened, which increases the process of loss of ethnocultural flavor and unique traditions.

Today, the village of Bichura remains the largest Siberian village with the world's longest rural avenue (now Kommunisticheskaya St.), listed in the Guinness Book of Records (Figure 4). Old Believers have always lived in difficult conditions. At the same time, historical memory and self-belief saved more than one generation of the ancestors of the Old Believers-the Semeyskys, and allowed them to preserve the face of the people, their spiritual fortress, traditions and culture.

List of literature

Bolonev F. F. New documents from the materials of the Selenginsky Trinity Monastery for 1734, stored in the National Archive of the Republic of Buryatia // Problemy transmissii i bytovaniya etnokul'turnykh traditsii slavyanskogo naseleniya Sibiri XVIII-XX vv [Problems of transmission and existence of ethno-cultural traditions of the Slavic population of Siberia in the XVIII-XX centuries].

Bolonev F. F. Staroobryadtsy Zabaikal'ya v XVIII-XX vv. - Ulan-Ude: BSC SB RAS Publishing House, 2009. - 340 p.

Gedenstrom M. Excerpts about Siberia. - St. Petersburg: [Tip. med. department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs], 1830. - pp. 60-63.

Maksimov S. V. Siberia and hard labor. - St. Petersburg, 1871. - Part 1. - 323 p.

Mashanova L. V. Khozyaistvo Selenginskogo Troitskogo monastraya v pervoi polovinei XVIII v. [Economy of the Selenginsky Trinity Monastery in the first half of the XVIII century]. Novosibirsk: Nauka Publ., 1973, pp. 150-165.

Mishla (Orfanov M. I.) V. Dali. (From the past). Stories from free and involuntary life. - Moscow, 1883. - 105 p.

Pokrovsky, N. N., On the history of the appearance of the Trans-Baikal "Semey" and Altai "Poles"in Siberia, Izv. - 1975. - N 6: Ser. societies, sciences, issue 2. - p. 109-112.

Rovinsky P. A. Etnograficheskie issledovaniya v Zabaikalskoi oblasti [Ethnographic research in the Trans-Baikal region]. Izv. Sib. otd. IRGO - 1872. - Vol.3, N 3. - pp. 128-132.

Saltykov-Shchedrin M. E. Trifles of Life, Moscow: State Publishing House of Art Literature, 1955, 356 p.

Talko-Gryntsevich Yu. D. Semeyskiye (staroobryadtsy) Zabaikal'ya [The Family (Old Believers) of Transbaikalia] / / Protocol of the Troitskosavsky Kyakhtinsky department of the Priamursky Department of the Russian Geographical Society-1894, No. 2 (October 28), pp. 14-15.

Shmulevich M. M. essays on the history of the Western Transbaikalia XVII XIX C. - Novosibirsk: Nauka, 1985. -286 p.

Shmulevich M. M. Troitsko-Selenginsky monastery. Ulan-Ude: Buryat, Publishing House, 1982, 64 p.

The article was submitted to the editorial Board on 08.05.13, in the final version-on 13.05.13.

Abstract

Based on archival and field data, the early history of the largest eastern Siberian village, Bichura, is reconstructed. Initial colonization, the life of the pioneers, and their relations with the natives are described. The growth of the village population is traced over nearly two and a half centuries.

Keywords: Siberia, Old Believers, population growth, agriculture, colonization, migrations.

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