Communities

Categories / Population/Communities
Communities, an official or unofficial association of immigrants from any region, permanently or temporarily living in St. Petersburg. Their main aim is mutual help and interaction in a familiar cultural setting. In St. Petersburg, communities were founded as representatives of non-Russian ethnic communities (in literature sometimes they are called ethnic communes as a whole), as well as Russian communities: in the early 20th century, in St. Petersburg there were societies for the mutual help of natives from Olonetskaya, Vologodskaya, Kostromskaya, Ryazanskaya, Tambovskaya, Arkhangelskaya provinces. A much more developed society was the Yaroslavskoe community, which possessed three charitable organizations: Yaroslavsky Charitable Society in St. Petersburg (founded in 1894; towards 1907 it numbered 3,000 members. Under it was organized an orphanage, a refuge for boys, arriving in the city for work and a canteen for the poor), the Society for the Mutual Aid of people from the city and district of Uglich in St. Petersburg was founded in 1901, Myshkinskoe Charitable Society was founded in St. Petersburg in 1904. Representatives from different classes entered into the societies. Depending on the size of their temporary or yearly fee, members of the society divided on the basis of honorary, life, and full membership. Along with the immigrants’ assistance to compatriots in St. Petersburg, the societies also rendered financial help to needy inhabitants of associated provinces or districts. A broad spectrum of student communities were set up in the 19th and the early 20th centuries (until 1905 they functioned unofficially), which helped impoverished student-compatriots, organized charitable activities and entertainments (concerts, shows, lectures on popular science etc.), and granted loans. Only at St. Petersburg University in the 1906-07 academic year almost 45 communities were registered. After October 1917 communities existed, as a rule, unofficially (with the exception of those operating from 1950-80s, the society Baltikum, united students coming from the Baltic States). From the end of the 1980s began the official registration of communities in Leningrad. Up to 2002 in St. Petersburg along with organizations established on ethnic lines, the Pskovskoe, Vologodskoe, Surgutskoe communities, the Cossack community the Nevsky Village (Nevskaya stanitsa) and many others also exist.

References: Лурье Л. Я., Хитров А. Крестьянские землячества в российской столице: ярославские "питерщики" // Невский архив: Ист.-краевед. сб. М.; СПб., 1995. [Вып.] 2. С. 307-354.

A. Y. Chistyakov. Лурье Л. Я., Хитров А. Крестьянские землячества в российской столице: ярославские "питерщики" // Невский архив: Ист.-краевед. сб. М.; СПб. , 1995 Russians
State University, St. Petersburg