The influence of mining industry on ethnosocial processes of the Volga-Ural region in 18th century
The article is devoted to the influence of mining industry on ethno-social environment.The formation of this successful achievement of the Peter’s time took place amid a active settling on the south-eastern part of the Volga-Ural region: migrations of the peoples of the Volga region and the spontaneous agricultural colonization by Russian. Industrial colonization was a imperial project to create a large metallurgical district on the periphery. Its privileged status has led to a shortages of resources (land, rivers, forests) for other colonists and indigenous peoples. Thus, destabilizing the region and slowing down non-industrial alternatives for its development. Peasants, Bashkirs and other peoples of the region perceived industrial expansion as a challenge and a threat, which they responded by social mobilization. The uncompromising struggle against it points to the value conflicts based not on the seeking of consensus but to preserving (or modifying) the hierarchy of identities. By the end of the 18th century, factories created a new ethnic-social balance, catalyzing of ethno-social processes, such as division, consolidation, self-identification of communities, while keeping of socio-cultural distance between actors.