Admiralty settlements

Admiralty settlements. Special colonies for state peasants established in the Russian Empire at the end of the 18th century. The inhabitants of the settlements were forced to work in farming and in enterprises of the naval department. In Ukraine such settlements existed near Mykolaiv and Kherson. In 1860 the admiralty settlements contained about 17,000 peasants, most of whom came from the central Russian gubernias. The colonies were also inhabited by voluntary settlers from Right-Bank Ukraine and escapees from serfdom.