ABSTRACT

Straddling both sides of the Ural Mountains, Perm Province had long occupied a position within the Russian psyche of being the “Gateway to Siberia”. However, as the centre of nineteenth-century Russia’s metallurgical industry, it possessed long-established migration networks and the number of migrants on its roads and waterways increased following the Emancipation Edict of 1861. Whilst official sources such as passport data provide the researcher with a quantitative statement of origin and destination, they are unable to provide detail of the journeys of these migrants, which were often incredibly arduous and fraught with danger. This chapter outlines the different migration networks identifiable in Perm Province in the nineteenth century, followed by a critical discussion of the sources available to historians in ascertaining the lived experience of a large number of migrants, the majority of who were illiterate and who left little record of their journeys. In this case, examples will be drawn from key literary sources, such as the travel writing of both Russian and English travellers, that allow for a more nuanced assessment of migration in Perm Province at the turn of the twentieth century.