It is known that in Russia there was no division, typical of multinational Western empires, into a metropolis (nation state) and a colonial periphery as a donor. On the contrary, the colonial nature of the expansion of the Russian Empire contributed to the formation of a center-province-borderland system.
As a rule, passionate people were concentrated not in overseas colonies, but in capitals and on the dynamic border of the state (frontier, "serif" and other fortified lines). There was a redistribution of material and spiritual (passionary) forces from the center and the province to the borderlands. The centuries-old exodus of explorers, Cossacks, exiles, schismatics and Old Believers, repressed and dispossessed people, virgin lands and romantics from the historical core of Muscovy Rus' blew out the central regions, which, shortly before the collapse of the USSR, had to be declared a "new" zone of development of the Non-Black Earth Region, which by itself was a harbinger of the poor. And after the collapse of the Soviet state, millions of Russians ended up outside the borders of the Big Motherland.
Particularly in the Russian state stood out Under-steppe - the border of forest and steppe. Here the southern and southeastern border of the state ran and after the collapse of the Golden Horde colonization took place.
This is how the borders of the Russian lands looked at the end of the 14th century. The Novgorod Republic and the Grand Duchy of Moscow stood out.
After the collapse of the Mongol Empire, the Golden Horde was formed on its eastern borders.
As the Golden Horde disintegrated and the Kazan, Astrakhan and Crimean khanates weakened, the Russian frontier (border) gradually shifted to the southeast in the Wild Pole.
The territories of the predominantly former Golden Horde, Kazan and Astrakhan khanates, annexed to the Russian state in 1490-1600 (dark green).
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Archival documents date back to the 17th century that the first settlers - Great Russians and Little Russians from the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth - appeared on the virgin lands of the Wild Field. In the Russian state, servicemen were primarily resettled to the southern border. There are several legends about the resettlement of Little Russians, but it is reliably known that people fled from the Ruins.
In the ruins of Little Russia, there were frequent uprisings of the Cossacks and slaves. The peasants fled from instability to the east to the black earth steppes of the Wild Field. In the era of Ruins at the end of the 17th century, the rebellious Little Russia, in which about 4 million people lived, was divided between Poland and Russia. As a result, over time, there have been significant changes in the mentality of Ukrainians. The lands of Sloboda Ukraine, which occupied vast territories east of Poltava, were formally part of the Russian Empire, but were practically deserted due to the threat of Tatar raids. The tsarist government willingly allowed refugees from Ukraine, torn by strife, to settle here. In the middle of the 18th century, Ukrainian refugees in the new lands were granted autonomy according to the Cossack model.
Colonization of the Wild Field intensified during the Great Northern War, which began in 1700 and lasted two decades. Ukrainian Cossacks partially supported the Swedes, Turks and Russians, solving the main national idea - "who to lie under." For Hetman Ivan Mazepa, the “European choice” ended in defeat.
In the spring of 1700, at the Voronezh shipyard located on the Belgorod border line, the first Russian linear 58-gun ship "Goto Predestination", built according to the drawings of Tsar Peter the Great, was launched. In July, following the results of the Russian-Turkish war of 1686-1700, the Treaty of Constantinople between Russia and the Ottoman Empire was signed. Russia received Azov with the adjacent lands and fortresses: Taganrog, Pavlovsk, Mius, Turkish fortresses in the Dnieper region were liquidated. The annual tribute to the Crimean Khan was canceled. This historic event served as the beginning of the intensive development of the Wild Field by the Great Russians and Little Russians.
After the organization of the border guard service in Dikom Pole, and especially after the construction of fortresses on the Volga from Astrakhan to Samara, the "empty" virgin lands began to be mastered by serving sovereign people and fugitive peasants.
The next wave of Little Russians immigrants is associated with the abolition of the Zaporozhye Sich, which began under Peter I and ended in 1775 under Catherine II.
A popular theory in Soviet historiography was that the Wild Field was settled mainly by runaway peasants who fled from the serfdom. In fact, the main force of colonization was the class of state peasants, who, unlike the landlord peasants, were considered personally free, but attached to the land. This estate was formalized by decrees of Peter I from the remnants of a non-enslaved agricultural population, including Siberian plowed peasants and one-yard villagers (service people on the black earth borderlands of the Wild Field).
The number of state peasants increased due to the confiscation by Catherine II of the church holdings of the Russian Orthodox Church, annexed territories, former serfs, confiscated estates of the gentry of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, etc.
The number of state peasants was replenished by fugitive serfs who settled on the lands being developed in Novorossiya, the North Caucasus, the Lower Volga region, etc. The transition of fugitive serfs to the ranks of state peasants was secretly encouraged by the imperial power. Foreign colonists (Germans, Greeks, Bulgarians, etc.) also increased the number of state peasants who received self-government within the rural community.
In the colonization of the Wild Field, the palace peasants who belonged to the king and members of the royal family took part, their main responsibility was to supply the royal court with food. In 1753, most of the palace peasants were freed from corvée and natural duties and transferred to monetary dues. The economic position of the palace peasants was somewhat better in comparison with the landlord serfs; they enjoyed greater freedom in economic activity. Among them were the rich peasants, merchants and usurers. Under the reform of 1797, the palace peasants were transformed into appanage peasants. The created appanage departments carried out the management of the property of the imperial family, including appanage serfs.
The communication nature of the borderland, with relative economic freedom, intensive trade and information exchange, contributed to the development of talent. So, for example, "Oryol Borderlands" gave a constellation of talents: Tyutchev, Leskov, Fet, Leonid Andreev, Pisarev, Bunin, Prishvin, Mikhail Bakhtin and Sergei Bulgakov. The genius of Leo Tolstoy arose in the borderlands. The Yasnaya Polyana estate is located in a slash forest. In the fertile ground is the small homeland of Alexei Koltsov and Ivan Nikitin, Andrey Platonov and Yesenin. Radishchev, Karamzin, Belinsky and Kuprin were born in the southeastern borderland in the Volga region.
Natural landscapes of local development through passionate nostalgia evoke in creative people a high energy of emotional and value perception of the world and contribute to the creation of products of crystallized passionarity. A classic example of describing the landscape of life is the work of Ivan Bunin, who created the poignant lyric and philosophical story "The Life of Arseniev", which became the anthem not only of Central Russia - the Substep region, but also one of the peaks of Russian and world literature.
Through a philosophical, contemplative and supersensible attitude to nature, the landscapes of the human soul are revealed. This is the story of the discovery of the happiness of creativity and the formation of the human spiritual world, which is impossible without an anthem of love for nature and a woman - mother.