EMERGENCY LEGISLATION IN WORLD WAR I AND THE RUSSIAN MIGRATION POLICY ON THE TERRITORIES OF EASTERN SIBERIA AND THE RUSSIAN FAR EAST

The article analyzes the migration policy of Russia in Eastern Siberia and the Russian Far East during the First World War. The studied archival documents have never been reported in press. Materials on the activities of authorities regulating migration legislation of the period are being introduced into scientific use for the first time. The subject is doubtless of great significance with relation to recent developments in Russia. International sanctions against the nation may lead to changes in legislation, including migration legislation, aiming to bolster economic development, as the emergency legislation did during the First World War. The author assesses migration process dynamics citing various statistical data researched while working with archival documents, analyzes causes and circumstances that contributed to changes in migration policy. He identifies the pros and the cons of changes in legislative framework in order to use the historical experience at the present stage of development of the Russian state. Drawing on materials from the Archive of the Foreign Policy of the Russian Empire, the Russian State Historical Archive, the State Archive of the Irkutsk Region and materials for studying the Amur region, as well as on available historiography, the author concludes that during the First World War economic necessity forced the Russian authorities to circumvent migration legislation and encourage Chinese labour migration.