Olonets Province Peasants at Military Transportations near St. Petersburg in the Period of the Napoleon’s Invasion

Abstract

The article analyzes an unknown episode of Patriotic war of 1812 — the participation of mining peasants of Olonets province in military transportations near St. Petersburg. When Napoleon occupied Moscow the capital of the Russian Empire St. Petersburg found itself in semi-isolation from the main part of the country. In that conditions the only secure communication became Yaroslavl high road. But its uninterrupted functioning depended from carts and carters abundance. In that period Committee of Ministers protected administrative and economical measures for St. Petersburg defence, and it arrived at a decision to mobilize 3000 peasants from Olonets province with horses and carts for service at Yaroslavl high road. Until now this episode never researched in historiography. The article made an attempt to uncover it from historical anthropology point of view on the base of published and archive sources. Nearly half of Olonets province peasants, involved in military transportations, were 1408 mining peasants from Petrozavodsk district. They were situated nearly city of Tikhvin and were divided into several groups. Every group was headed by a small mining official. These officials were obliged to send reports about their activity to Petrozavodsk regularly. The file with these reports is keeping at National archive of the Republic of Karelia. The analysis of its reports allow to introduce everyday life of these peasant carters and character of their works, to display their relationships with local and mining authorities, to reveal elements of social protest, etc. So participation of Olonets province peasants in military transportations demanded from them huge efforts, was accompanied by heavy asperities and displays of social protests.