Natalia Tkacheva

Sergei Tkachev

The authors of this paper describe the first attempts by Russian scholars and officials to find out the sociodemographic situation in the Ussuri area associated to the Russian Empire in 1860 by means of census. Despite wide popularity of N. M. Przhevalsky’s activities, his sociodemographic edge research still has not been analysed/criticized, and its information is accepted by scientists as an absolute truth. In the view of the authors of this paper, although collection of statistical data in the region was the main task of the traveler in his 1867–69 expedition, it is necessary to treat statistical data provided by him devoted to South Ussuri area with reservations. At the same time it is been shown by authors that statistics collected by Mr. Vislenyov in South Ussuri area in 1879 display a high degree of reliability. Data of his report ‘Koreans and non-Russians of South Ussuri area’ are very extensive, and their scientific interpretation allows to look in a new way at sociodemographic situation in this acquisition of the Russian Empire in mid-19th century.