Опыт выборочного обследования станичного быта Терского казачьего войска (1875–1880 гг.). Часть II

In Russia in the 1870–1880s, when the development of empirical sociology was out of the question, statistical surveys of the population on the widest range of socio-economic issues were actively carried out by provincial and regional administrations, and later, in cooperation with them – by zemstvo's institutions. And if the activities of the zemstvo statistical bodies that functioned in some provinces of the European part of the Russian Empire have been sufficiently studied, the results of studies of the provincial (regional) statistical committees, covering almost all regions of the Russian Empire, still to remain outside the field of scientific analysis. The article to a certain extent fills this gap, considering the methods and results of the activities of its employees, their contribution to the development of research procedures, in particular, pioneering practice of the sampling method application, using the example of the Terek Regional Statistical Committee. The focus is on the organization and results of a survey on the study of the life of the Terek Cossack troops on the example of 12 "typical" villages, conducted under the leadership of N.A. Blagoveshchensky in 1875–1880. The article substantiates the conclusion about extensive practice of statistical surveys of rural life in the last third of the 19th century as a unique feature and indisputable achievement of domestic statistics, its contribution to the development of world statistical science, as well as a pre-sociological stage of empirical research in Russia.