Paper title:
 Migration on the Last Frontier: Migration Movements in Late 18th-Century Khotyn
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.4316/CC.2025.02.01
Published in:
Issue 2 (Vol. 31) / 2025
Publishing date:
2025-12-31
Pages:
321 – 344
Author(s):
Emre Mutlu
Abstract:
 Although the intense migration movements observed in Khotyn in the late 18th Century have been indirectly addressed in the regional history and migration studies literature, a systematic and comprehensive analysis focusing specifically on this phenomenon has yet to be conducted. During the period under examination, Khotyn experienced bidirectional migration. On the one hand, significant emigration occurred due to military and political instability caused by the Ottoman-Russian wars, leading to a notable decline – and, in some cases, complete disappearance – of the settled Muslim population. On the other hand, the pressures faced by Jewish, Ukrainian, and Polish communities in the regions that came under Russian and Habsburg control during the partitioning of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth prompted their migration toward Khotyn. These external migration movements introduced new demographic elements to the city, playing a key role in shaping Khotyn’s cosmopolitan character. This paper comprehensively examines migration movements and population changes in Khotyn during the late 18th Century, and their effects on the city’s socio-demographic structure
Keywords:
 Khotyn, migration, Podolia, Ottoman Empire, Russia, wars, Jews.




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