ABSTRACT
Discussion of rural-urban migration and its contribution to the development of the urban sector in eighteenth-century Russia has been impeded by the discrepancy between official classification of population groups and actual patterns of residence and economic activity. Peasants wishing to transfer to the urban classes had to secure the consent of various authorities, including the urban commune and their lords or "commands". Crown peasants needed the authorization of their village communes and after 1797 of the Senate. The posad was eager to recruit new taxpayers and normally accepted applicants who demonstrated an ability to meet the fiscal obligations of urban citizenship. Socio-economic differentiation in the village, resulting in the pauperization of part of the rural population and its effective expulsion from the agricultural economy, was responsible for the appearance of some immigrants in the urban population.
