Diaspora Communities of the Don Cossack Region in the 19th century: the Experience of Systemic Characteristics

The presented article is devoted to a comprehensive description of the Don diaspora communities of the 19th century, which functioned together in a single socio-economic, political and cultural space of the historical region. The team of authors analyzed the historiographic tradition that characterizes the synchronous development of the Don ethnic diasporas in the context of the systemic modernization of traditional social institutions. The comparative approach allows us to imagine the immanent features of regional ethnic communities that took shape during the previous era and were transformed under the specific influence of the imperial authorities and the Cossack environment. The source base includes both a variety of official and expert statistical data and unpublished documentary materials that reveal the features of regional administrative practices. The daily life of diaspora communities is considered in the general cultural context of a developing region that forms a new model of collective identity.