Socio-demographic case study of the jewish community of Mariupol and Azov region during the pre-soviet period (based on the 1897 census)

Abstract

The article analyzes socio-demographic indicators obtained during the all-Russian population census in 1897, which characterize the socio-cultural aspects of the Jewish community of the Azov region and Mariupol. The share of the Jewish population in Mariupol was much larger than in the countryside. The urban population significantly prevailed over the rural population. Jewish and German agricultural colonies, as well as Ukrainian and Greek villages, were the centers of Jewish settlement in the countryside. The Jewish community of both the city and the countryside was predominantly young with a predominance of people of working and reproductive age. The identification of the Jewish community was determined by linguistic (Jewish language) and religious (Judaism) characteristics. The number of followers of Judaism was greater than the number of speakers of the Hebrew language due to the fact that some Jews communicated in other languages, mainly Russian. The share of Russian-speaking people in the city was higher than in the countryside, due to the greater number of Russification factors in the city. The social structure of the Jewish community of the city of Mariupol was determined by the total predominance of the bourgeois component with an insignificant presence of others, in particular, the peasantry and merchants. The rural area was characterized by the predominance of peasant and bourgeois classes. The structure of professional activity basically repeated the one that the Jews brought from the towns - craft and trade activity. In the countryside, a significant layer of agricultural activity was added, and in the city, a variety of free professions (journalists, lawyers, doctors, education workers) were spread.