Militarized Settlers
An instrument of demographic and military expansion that combines military service with agricultural labor and the physical settlement of territories. It is employed by the state to create an armed buffer on the frontier, to displace Indigenous populations from their lands, and to radically reduce the cost of maintaining an army of many thousands. The settlers are shifted to self-sufficiency, bound to the land, and placed under the total control of the military command. Historical incarnations: the irregular Cossack hosts (Terek, Greben, Kuban), as well as the institution of military settlements deployed on a large scale in the Russian Empire by Alexander I under the direction of Count A. A. Arakcheyev. In introducing this system, the emperor drew on European experience: the model was the Prussian cantonal system of army recruitment (Kantonssystem), under which the country was divided into military districts and a soldier's service was combined with cultivating the land, including on the territories seized after the partition of Poland.
Techniques Used
| ID | Name | Use | |
|---|---|---|---|
| T0139 | Construction of Fortresses |
The Government of the Russian Empire built up a military line through the engineering construction of fortified militarized outposts to isolate the Indigenous population: historian Ya. Z. Akhmadov states that in 1736 «three new Cossack stanitsas: Borozdinskaya, Kargalinskaya, Dubovskaya»[1] were established, which, as historian I. Kh. Tkhamokova records, served as fortifications, since each such stanitsa «was in effect a small fortress serving for protection against enemy raids»[2]. |
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| T0041 | Implantation of Officials and Military Personnel |
Militarized Settlers of the Russian Empire were used for the mass settlement of new frontiers: historian Ya. Z. Akhmadov points out that at the new fortress "1 thousand families of Cossacks from the Don are being settled"[1]. |
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Actors Using This Instrument
| ID | Name | References |
|---|---|---|
| G0009 | Russian Empire |
Campaigns
| ID | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
| C1134 | Construction of Fortified Stanitsas, Settlement of Cossacks on the Borders, and Holding of Hostages (1736–1740) |
The Government of the Russian Empire built up a military line through the engineering construction of fortified militarized outposts to isolate the Indigenous population: historian Ya. Z. Akhmadov states that in 1736 «three new Cossack stanitsas: Borozdinskaya, Kargalinskaya, Dubovskaya»[1] were established, which, as historian I. Kh. Tkhamokova records, served as fortifications, since each such stanitsa «was in effect a small fortress serving for protection against enemy raids»[2]. |
| C1130 | Construction of the Holy Cross Fortress and Forced Resettlement (1722–1724) |
Militarized Settlers of the Russian Empire were used for the mass settlement of new frontiers: historian Ya. Z. Akhmadov points out that at the new fortress "1 thousand families of Cossacks from the Don are being settled"[1]. |