“SHALL WE NOT TELL A STORY?”

The plot of the familiar work of N.V. Gogol “Dead Souls” was inspired by the population censuses regularly conducted in the Russian Empire. Remember how the protagonist of the poem Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov decided to take advantage of the flaws of the imperfect accounting system for people for personal enrichment. We will try to understand what happened in the Vologda region in the years marked by census campaigns, how high-quality information about our ancestors came to the capital.

By decree of November 26, 1718, Peter I ordered “to take fairy tales” from the landowners, “how many male souls in the village.” Thus, the exact number of taxable souls was determined. After 3 years, the government appointed the strictest audit to check fairy tales, because in the submitted documents the figures were incredibly underestimated (as you can see, the tradition of avoiding taxes has long been rooted in our country). As a result, subsequent censuses and fixed the name - audit. The unit of accounting of the inhabitants becomes the audit soul, which was considered cash until the next census even in the event of the death of a person, here they are “dead souls” that existed only on paper.

The Russian soul loves the score

Each audit fairy tale, its compiler completed with a kind of oath that “he gave information without concealment,” and in case of detection of omissions or inaccuracies, he agreed in advance to be subjected to penalties “without any mercy.” However, errors in censuses were inevitable. In large families, the names of children were confused: a girl named Anna was recorded by Barbara. Some spouses could attribute someone else’s child, others the number of freeloaders decreased accordingly: “Artemiy Filippov Razdoburdin has a daughter of Paraskov, which he does not have, and is such in the family by the same number in his brother, Thaddeus, in the fairy tale is not shown.” Married women often, according to old memory, were fixed in the homes of their parents. The questioning of age also led to curiosities, when 5-year-olds were turned into 50-year-olds with one careless stroke of a pen. So a good “fairytale” did not work out of every person.

If someone, intentionally or negligently, did not timely make all family members in the audit tale, then subsequently suffered material losses. They say, “Trust, but verify.” Therefore, first by local authorities, then by provincial officials, census data were refined for many years. The more time passed from the moment of compiling a fairy tale to detecting a mistake, the higher was the size of the penalty from the perpetrator. For example, in 1835, the philistine of the city of Kadnikov Vsevolod Ivanov forked out 3 rubles due to the fact that he did not include his son Alexander in the census list. He was the cause of paperwork negligent father, because the payment receipt required to attach a certificate from the church confirming the birth, as well as make a new fairy tale.

Various people came from Vologda to the remote province to check the results of the census, in accordance with the instructions they scrupulously kept travel journals, describing in detail the work done. However, when the desire to return to Vologda prevailed over the others, ingenuity was used. Officials explained their departure by bad weather conditions, the need to wait for floods or complete urgent business in the provincial center. And the inspector of the Yarensky district, A. Popov, without thinking slyly, simply referred to a headache. Whether they believed him is unknown.

Male forgetfulness

10 audits took place in Russia, but none of them covered the entire territory of the country. Only in 1897 was the first general census of the population organized, lasting about three weeks. Finding enough literate men to work as counters proved difficult. It was necessary to order from above to collect information to allow women. The scribes literally became prominent figures. Each received a special breastplate, briefcase and inkwell. However, according to the direct participant of the census A.P. Chekhov, the emblem more resembled the label of a beer factory, the inkwell looked disgusting, and the census sheets were not placed in the portfolio.

Every day, covering considerable distances separating the settlements of our vast province, activists conducted a survey of residents on 14 positions, including information about the nickname and physical disabilities. The problems, as always, came unexpectedly. What to say if another peasant was confused by the simple question of the name and patronymic of his wife? In response, the words were: “I will praise her!” Baba is, and there is no more name for it.”

The state generously paid for the work of counters. Although they received from work, earnings in the village reached up to 25 rubles, in the city income was less – 7-10 rubles. At the same time, 100 eggs cost 5 kopecks, and the average monthly salary of a minor official did not exceed 12 rubles.

The census of 1897 was the only source of reliable data on the size and composition of the population of the empire at the end of the century. Of the 130 million Russians in Vologda then lived 27,705 people.

Olga Yakunina

Facts:

It is known that the population records in China were already more than 4 thousand years ago.

In ancient Rome, they were called censors and scribes were called censors.

In Russia, the history of censuses began with the time of the Tatar invasion, when the registration of houses was introduced in order to tax tribute.

In the XIV-XVI centuries, scribe books described settlements in detail.

Since the seventeenth century, yards have been registered in census books.

From 1719 to 1860, 10 revisions of the population of the Russian Empire were carried out for polling the population.

From 1920 to 1989, 9 censuses of the population of the USSR were held.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Statistics:

The first general census of the Russian Empire in 1897 cost the state 7 million rubles.

Its results were processed by mid-1905 and published in two volumes containing 25 summary tables.

At that time, 129.9 million people lived in the country, including 77% - peasants, 10.7% - philistines, 1.47% - nobles and officials, 0.49% - honorary citizens, 0.47% - persons of the spiritual title of the Christian confession.

19.8% of the population considered themselves competent.

More than half of the population was unmarried.