Interethnic division of labor in Perm Province according to the Census of 1897
Authors:   National Research Tomsk State University, Zinoviev Vasiliy P. 
Published: December 2024

The aim of this article is to identify the phenomenon of interethnic division of labor in Perm Province. The only way to determine the ethnic composition of the social strata of the population in relation to the whole of Russia is provided by Table No. XXII, Distribution of the Population by Occupation Groups and by Nationalities Based on the Native Language, of the provincial census volumes. The same table makes it possible to determine the level of security for the reproduction of the workforce by field of activity. In Perm Province, the 1897 Census counted a total of 2,994,302 people, including 804,016 employed persons and 2,190,286 persons living at their expense. Thus, the employment of the population in the province as a whole did not provide a simple reproduction of the labor force. One employed person supported himself and an average of 2.7 family members. In cities, there were 0.91 family members per amateur citizen. The cities of the province did not ensure the reproduction of the population. In rural areas, there were 2.96 family members per employed resident. The simple reproduction of the labor force in rural areas of the
province was carried out almost on the verge of survival. Only those engaged in agriculture provided an expanded reproduction of the labor force: one fed another four people. Farmers covered the shortage of personnel in other industries. Residents of Perm Province (mainly Russians, Finns, and Turks) were engaged in agriculture – 425,305 people (52.9% of all workers), industry – 158,654 (19.7%), services 62,133 (7.7%), transport 27,642 (3.4%), trade 26,727 (3.3%), forestry 12,378 (1.5%). Among the ethnic features of the division of labor, phenomena can be noted that are no longer associated with traditional occupations, but with the industrial and cultural development of the region. Zyryans were mainly engaged not in agriculture, but in forestry and in industry (1,768 and 505 people, respectively, out of 3,170 employed persons of this ethnic group registered by the census in the province). Poles were employed in military service (312 people), in industry (155 people), in management (141 people), in transport (122 people), with a
total of 1,218 employed representatives of the ethnic group in the province. Germans were employed in industry (153 people), in culture and education (92 people), with a total of 519 employed persons. Jews mainly concentrated in crafts (357 people), trade (204 people), with a total of 760 employed people of this nationality in the province. Finns and Turks acquired almost the same employment structure as Russians. However, they were poorly integrated into the urban community. The Great Russian population performed the main connecting economic, cultural and managerial functions, preserving traditional agriculture as the leading occupation. Poles, Germans, and Jews, making up small proportions of the entire population of the province, concentrated in cities and played an important role in commercial and industrial life, in the management and the cultural sphere of the region.