What were the causes, characteristics, and effects of the great flood of migration over the Ural Mountains into Siberia in the late 19th and 20th centuries? The author studies the background conditions fostering the migration and then the migration itself: its actual course; the establishment of settlements; the legal, political, and economic factors involved. It is the thesis of this book that the Siberian migration was related to other developments in Russian society of late Tsarist times which were tending to break clown legal barriers between social classes and to provide all groups with greater access to economic opportunity.Originally published in 1957.The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.