The paper examines the economic, ethnocultural and linguistic adaptation of the settlers from the Vitebsk Governorate, known as the armoured boyars in Western Siberia in the second half of the 19th century. It has been established that key factor in the long-term preservation of the settler community was the ability of the armoured boyars to establish an independent rural association. This structure not only allowed them to resolve land and other economic issues independently of the old-timers, but also helped to preserve the original social organisation. At the same time, active everyday contacts with the old-timers, including the adoption of farming techniques and certain elements of the culture of subsistence, supported the settlers’ successful economic adaptation. The transformations of the ethnocultural and linguistic identity of different groups of armoured boyars varied significantly. These differences arose from the diversity of ethnocultural characteristics of the places of origin of the migrants, as well as from the nature of their interactions with the Russian old-timers of Western Siberia and other settler groups.

Keywords: Belarusian migrants, Western Siberia, rural community, ethnocultural processes, economic adaptation, ethnocultural and linguistic identity.

 

Funding. This research has been supported by the state task of Tyumen Scientific Centre SB RAS No. FWRZ-2021-0006.

 

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Accepted: 02.10.2025

Article is published: 15.12.2025