Russian Otkhodnichestvo: Milestones of a Centuries-Old History

Abstract

Otkhodniks are the self-name of Russian internal temporary work migrants. These are commonly seasonal workers, though different from seasonal agricultural workers or from circulatory migrants and gastarbeiters. A lot of them are small business entrepreneurs. But mostly they are hired workers. The key attributes of the otkhodniks are the following: They live permanently in villages and small towns but seek work in the capitals (Moscow and St. Petersburg), or industrial development centers in the North and in Siberia. They do not want to change their permanent residence in order to move closer to their work place. The main labor motivation of these migrant workers is increasing their family welfare. The basic life motivations of otkhodniks are independence, initiative, self-activity.This paper briefly reviewed the 5-century history of Russian otkhodnichestvo identifying the main causes of this type of migration in the imperial period (XVII–XX century) and over the past 30 years of present time. The author identified factors that stimulate or suppress the migration activity of provincial residents and estimated the current number of otkhodniks comparing them with other estimates for the XVII – XX centuries and revealing the secular dynamics. The author also provided estimates of otkhodniks’s structure of employment from the 1990s describing the evolution of modern working migration. The most important features of the evolution are dynamism, variability and expansion. The author concluded that seasonal migrants-otkhodniks are a new class in Russia – the precariat.