SUMMARY:

This is an archival publication – a memorandum on the agrarian question and resettlement policy written in October 1907 by Fyodor Stepanovich Umnov, a longtime official in the Ministry of State Domains resettlement administration. Produced at the start of the Stolypin reforms, the memo offers a unique perspective on the period. It challenges existing historical narratives regarding the Stolypin reforms and the colonization of the Steppe Region. Umnov, drawing on his practical experience, advocated for following the established legal norms for land allocation and implicitly objected to the hierarchy of national groups embedded in Stolypin’s colonization policy. He proposed a radical, systemic reform of land-use standards across the entire empire, advocating for new, rational methods of land assessment. The goal of his memo was to ensure equitable and economically advantageous allotments for both European peasant settlers and local pastoralist populations including the Kazakhs and Kalmyks. While not discarding the resettlement program in principle, as a colonization official, Umnov aimed at a complete overhaul of land distribution standards. He called for treating the Indigenous peoples not merely as subjects occupying territory to be opened up for resettlement, but as equal stakeholders whose reliance on pastoralism must be factored into the new, universally equitable land norms.