UKRAINIANS AND CITIES 1861-1917. NOT SO RURAL AND NOT SO RUSSIFIED

Анотація

This article claims that not only was the total urban population of the Ukrainian provinces greater in reality than indicated in the 1897 imperial census, but that the mass migration of Ukrainian peasants at the turn of the century into cities and, in particular, smaller towns, meant that the degree of Ukrainians’ urbanization should not be underestimated nor the degree of their political russification exaggerated. It argues, first, that the urban population figures in the 1897 census must be re-calculated because of the then official category
‘urban’ did not include all de facto urban settlements. And second, that a detailed critical re-examination of all available pre-war statistics not using the official definitions will probably indicate more Ukrainians in towns on the eve of 1917 than shown by the official data.

A critical re-examination of all available pre-war statistics without using the official definitions will indicate a higher degree of urbanization and Ukrainization by 1917 than shown in official data. The massive demographic shift these figures indicate, also suggests a need to reconsider the broader social trends, contexts, and political issues present in Ukraine in 1917. Because of real rates of Ukrainian language-use and urbanization outside the four largest cities were higher than officially indicated, historians should not underestimate support for the national movement nor exaggerate Russian loyalist opposition to it. The revised data would support the argument that modernization and urbanization in Ukraine under tsarist- Russian domination was not necessarily inimical to nationalization.