As early as the 16th century, there were large numbers of immigrants in Russia. The famous German settlement was considered part of Moscow, where Georgians and Armenians were engaged in various crafts and trades. At the beginning of the 17th century, settlers from Bulgaria, Moldavia and Greece appeared in many cities in southern Russia.
Militant Cherkasy
At the same time, the Russian government actively attracted immigrants to live in their suburbs ("Ukraine" as they said at the time). Here, Russia felt the need for colonists who would simultaneously perform military service while developing the newly acquired lands.
In the first half of the 17th century, a large number of Ukrainians (they were called Little Russians or Cherkassy people) fled the violence and oppression of their lords and migrated to the southern border of the Moscow Oblast. These colonists laid the foundation for Sloboda Ukraine to the south near Kharkov, Sumy, Belgorod and Voronezh. In the second half of the 17th century, Left Bank Ukraine became part of the Russian state. Due to the ongoing Russian-Polish, Russian-Turkish and Polish-Turkish wars, as well as the civil war between different Ukrainian chiefs, many immigrants from the right bank of the Dnieper River moved to the left bank of Ukraine.
In the 18th century, Russia continued its policy of attracting immigrants and extended it to other ethnic groups. The main territory to which settlers were sent remained the southern suburbs of Russia.
Serbs
In 1723, Serbian officer Ivan Albanez of the Austrian army began a large-scale resettlement of Serbs within Russia. In Austria, the Serbs had a border ("border") service on the border with Turkish . The location of the border reminds one of the location of the Russian Cossacks, who were accustomed to war. But the Austrian government continued to put pressure on the Serbs to accept the Catholic faith. Peter I ordered the Serbs who came to settle in the Tor fortress area of ​​Seversky Donets (later the city of Slavyansk).
In the middle of the 18th century, Austria began to abolish the border regiments, and many Serbs began to express their desire to transfer to Russian citizenship. In 1750, the government of Elizabeth Petrovna managed to reach an agreement with Austria to accommodate those who wished to move. On December 24, 1751, the Empress issued a proclamation to attract Serbs and other foreigners to free settlements associated with frontier services.
The settlers were assigned territory on the right bank of the Dnieper River, bordering the lands of the Crimean Khanate , at the confluence of the Seversky Donets and Lugan rivers. The first region was named New Serbia and the second was named Slavic Serbia. Its centers are the cities of Novomirgorod and Bakhmut.
Along with the Serbs, a large number of Moldavians , Vlach and Bulgarians immigrated to Russia. The 1763 revision showed that the Serbs were a minority among the colonists. In both areas, fewer than 2,000 Serb males were counted in total.
Irregular regiments were composed of settlers: Bakhmut Hussars, Serbs, Moldavia, Voloshskis, Dalmatians, etc.
Their own bosses robbed the colonists, which aroused their indignation and also prompted them to rob neighboring countries - Poland and the Crimean Khanate. In 1764, Catherine II abolished the special structures of New Serbia and Slavic Serbia. The colonist regiment lasted until 1783. Most of the settlers were then transferred to the category of state peasants, and officials received the rank of nobility. Being Orthodox, the descendants of the settlers merged with the masses of Little Russian peasants.
Bulgarians
In Bulgarian historiography, there is a view that the Russian tsarist government harmed the development of Bulgarian lands by luring Bulgarians into the Russian Empire .Modern historian O.V. Medvedev refutes this, emphasizing that the attitude of the Russian government towards resettling Bulgarians varied at different times. It is said that as early as the 17th century, the first Bulgarians in the Ottoman Empire fled to Russia. During the 18th century this traffic increased. It became particularly intense at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries. during the first third of the 19th century. The Russian Imperial government was then forced to artificially restrict those who wanted to move.
Among those who arrived in New Serbia were 620 Bulgarian families - former Austrians. In 1760, a Bulgarian regiment was formed there on the model of a frontier regiment of light cavalry. The influx of Bulgarians increased after Catherine II's declaration on December 4, 1762 about attracting foreigners. In 1769 an Ottoman legion, composed mainly of Bulgarians as well as Moldavia, Wallachs, and Greeks, crossed over to the Russian side. At the end of the war with Turkey, this regiment became the basis for the creation of the Bug (in South Bug) Cossack army in 1775. It was abolished in 1797 and then rebuilt for a short period from 1803-1817.
Due to the ongoing war between Russia and Türkiye, large numbers of Bulgarians continue to leave their homes. Most settled in the Danubian principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia , but many also reached Russia. Bulgarian men joined the Hussars. Bulgarian sailors are also valued in Russia. Total Bulgarian population from the end of the 18th century to the beginning of the 19th century. The Russian body was not fully taken into account, but clearly numbered in the tens of thousands. Since 1812, Bulgarians living in Bessarabia , together with this region, have been part of Russia. During the war with Türkiye 1828-1829. Russian troops occupied most of Bulgaria for the first time, and the government of Nicholas I stopped their resettlement in Russia because it wanted to keep them in Turkey as a tool to put pressure on the Turkish government.
Albanians and Greeks
Likewise, at the end of the 18th century, orthodox Albanians (Arnauts) and Greeks migrated to Russia from the Ottoman Empire. In 1775, the Albanian Cossack army centered on Taganrog was established. Its distinctive feature is that these "Cossacks" served in the navy. In 1797, Paul I, , who did not like this experiment, deposed the Albanian army.
In 1778, Greeks resettled in Russia from the Crimean Khanate. In total, 18,000 Greeks were resettled (along with 12,000 Armenian and more than 1,000 representatives of other nationalities). They acquired land in the Mariupol region. Until 1859, the Greek district of Mariupol maintained a special structure and ethnic homogeneity.
Germans and Swedes
The German colonization of Russia initiated by Catherine II is detailed in many other publications. Its peculiarity is that this colonization has nothing to do with military service. The Germans were attracted to exploiting the lower reaches of the Volga River and the open lands of New Russia as carriers of advanced agricultural culture. In 1782, Swedes from the Baltic Sea also settled in Kherson Province.
