Abansky District is characterized by a diversity of its population. Many people voluntarily migrated to this area, but some were exiled here as well. During the 18th–19th centuries, the region was a common destination for exiled insurgents and revolutionaries, including Poles and the Decembrists. Most, however, migrated here voluntarily in the beginning of the 20th century, after the revolutionary events of 1905 and as a result of the agrarian reforms by Pyotr Stolypin.