The answer to the question of how people settled on the new lands is the reverse resettlement. The largest increase in the relative number of return migrants was observed in 1897, 1900, 1901 and 1902.

The main reasons for the return of immigrants to their homeland were: administrative (lack of proper permission, lack of free land), economic (lack of funds for development) and natural (poor soil quality, unsuitable climate, lack of timber). The main part of the return migrants in 1897 were immigrants from 1896, whose hopes for extraordinary benefits and allowances in Siberia were not justified. In addition, many were forced to return by crop failures (1901, 1902, 1909, 1911). The famine of 1911 turned out to be especially difficult for the settlers. One of the reasons for returning to their homeland was the hostility of the old-timers. While there was a lot of free land, old-timers willingly accepted immigrants, but when its number decreased, conflicts began.

According to statistics, by 1917 3.1 million peasants had moved to Siberia, 344 thousand of them returned.

One of the interesting topics is the mutual cultural influence of old-timers and immigrants. History does not tolerate the subjunctive mood. But if it were not for the abolition of serfdom, we would now have two Russians, European and Asian, and two groups of Russians — actually Russians and Siberians. Thousands of peasants who arrived in Siberia after the abolition of serfdom carried their traditions of cultivating the land, new garden crops for Siberians, tools and so on.

Relations between old-timers and immigrants have not always been good. Among the old-timers, the settlers, immigrants received the nicknames "lapotnikov", "Varnakov", "Chaldonov" and "new settlers".

In the second half of the 19th century, old-timers willingly accepted immigrants on their lands, seeing cheap labor in new settlers. In the Ishim district, immigrants who took up residence with old-timers paid 6−10 rubles per family for the winter. For the preparation of 1 tithe of land for sowing, new settlers who did not have their own horses paid 5−6 rubles, the harvest cost 2.5 rubles.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, with a decrease in the amount of free land, old-timers began to charge 100 rubles or more from the family for the right to settle next to them. There have been cases of conflicts between old-timers and immigrants. In July 1907, immigrants settled in Tarsky uyezd and mowed hay, in the same month, residents of the village Urals of Tarsky Uyezd took away the mowing that previously belonged to them, 73 families illegally settled on state-owned lands, the police broke up the houses, the peasants resisted.

In the Turin and Tarsky counties of the Tobolsk province, settlers were assigned plots in remote wooded areas where preliminary clearing of the field from trees and shrubs was required. The cost of uprooting one tithe sometimes reached up to 150 rubles. This is also taking into account the fact that a migrant family needed at least 300 rubles for the device, but it was necessary to feed themselves, acquire labor items and cattle (in the autumn of 1906 in the Tobolsk province a horse cost 20−80 rubles, a working bull — 20−60, a cow — 10−40). In Ishim and Tyukalinsky counties, plots were allocated among the old-timers, on chernozem lands, where the forest was mainly wood-burning.

At that time, the settlers were united in settlements at the places of exit. Peasants who arrived from the northern and central Russian provinces were called "Russian", from Little Russia and southern provinces "Ukrainians". Most often, the settlers were called by their native provinces: "Kurshchyna", "Tambov region", "Ryazan region", etc. Living next to the old-timers, they became Siberians.

Political and other criminals who were objectionable to the authorities were sent to the eastern outskirts. The first Siberian exiles were residents of Uglich, exiled to the Pelymsky prison in the case of the murder of Tsarevich Dimitri in 1593. In 1599, the stolniks Vasily Nikitich and Ivan Nikitich Romanov were also exiled there. According to P.N. Butsynsky’s calculations, 1,500 people were exiled to Siberia from 1593 to 1645.

According to the Code of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, for dangerous criminals, the death penalty was replaced by exile to Siberia. "Who was not exiled to Siberia," wrote Nikolai Mikhailovich Yadrintsev, "the money business of thieves, suspected robbers, tobacco workers who had their noses torn out, pretended beggars, persons who participated in sorcery and cabbies who rode on the reins — this was an innovation, pretended to old Russia, since earlier the coachmen had to ride or run beside the horse; buffoons, strollers and suspicious people were also exiled."

In 1660, the exile was applied to those "who lie to whom in what offensive matters to beat the forehead with an untruth", in 1663, the exile threatened those who, after the abolition, would keep copper money, in 1670, the exile was assigned to those guilty of unintentionally causing fires. In 1681, those who had thieves' scales were exiled to Siberia, and in 1683−1695, walking people were exiled. They were sent to the Urals for shooting guns in the city, for fist fights, for "begging with feigned cunning" and so on.

In the eighteenth century, victims of palace coups, participants in riots and popular demonstrations came to Siberia. In 1760, landlords received the right to exile peasants to Siberia.

In the first half of the 19th century, the Tobolsk Order on Exiles was in charge of the distribution of exiles to cities and counties of Siberia. In the Order, an article list of the exiled was compiled, then the place of residence was determined, and further resettlement could only happen thanks to the order of the Governor-General. Thus, only the highest court could change the decision of the Order on the exiles. From 1822 to 1870. The order of the exiles was located in Tobolsk, then from 1870 to 1904 in Tyumen. In 1904, the Order on Exiles was abolished.

In the legal practice of the second half of the 19th century, there were five types of exile: hard labor, exile to settlement, settlement, exile to life and administrative exile. Moreover, in the annual report until 1882, one category of exiles was not separated from another. In addition, there were so-called "voluntary exiles": the wives and children of the prisoners who followed them to Siberia, they made up a third of the party of exiles.

Most of the exiles were administratively deported to Siberia (unreliable, marginal). Administrative exiles were sent to various provinces and regions of Western and Eastern Siberia. Every peasant community had the right to expel peasants from its ranks for bad behavior or inability to work. The community had the right to refuse those who, after serving their sentence for a crime, returned and asked to be accepted into the world again.

According to the Order on Exiles, of the 155,155 people who went to Siberia from 1866 to 1876, 78,885 (50.65%) were administratively exiled, 46 965 (30.26%) convicts and exiled settlers, 25 934 people (19.09%) were exiled to settlement and habitation.

The role of convicts in the settlement was insignificant, as there was a high mortality rate among them. The greatest role in the settlement of the eastern regions belonged to the exiles of the settlement and the administrative exiles. According to the Order on Exiles, about 26% of the exiles were distributed in the Tobolsk province. Urban residents settled in cities, peasants settled in volosts on free lands. Jewish villagers were housed in Yalutorovsky, Ishim and Tarsky districts. Lutheran villagers were sent to the colonies established for them in the Panovskaya and Yelanskaya volosts of the Tyukalinsky district.

According to A.D. Margolis' calculations, 444 614 people were exiled to Siberia from 1862 to 1898. A third of the exiles and their family members remained in the Tobolsk province. Thus, according to the provincial statistical committee, in the period from 1861 to 1888, 165 009 people were left in the province, 99 449 of them exiles and 65 560 members of their families. In 1897, 72 029 exiles were registered in Tobolsk province, which was 5% of the population.

The Law of June 12, 1900 "On the abolition of exile to life and restriction of exile by court and by public sentences" abolished exile to Siberia for "common crimes".

The abolition of exile to Siberia "for common crimes" in 1900 and the abolition of the Tyumen Order on Exiles in 1904 led to a significant decrease in the number of this category. In 1913, 42 811 people (2.03% of the population) were considered exiles in Tobolsk province, that is, in 16 years the number of exiles decreased by almost 2.5 times.

At the end of the 19th century, "hodachestvo" appeared. About a fifth of those who migrated from European Russia to Siberia sent their representatives first. They had previously inspected the settlement sites. Before that, peasants learned about Siberia from their relatives and friends who had been there.

By the laws of April 15 and December 7, 1896, hodachestvo was widely developed. According to the circular of 1897, Hodaks (or Walkers) had to receive "certificates" signed by their zemstvo officials. Hodaks were given the opportunity to travel both ways by rail at reduced fares. After examining the sites in Siberia, the Hodaks chose a convenient place, settled there for permanent residence, started a farm or were hired as workers to old-time peasants.

In 1910, the government temporarily suspended the free sending of Hodaks and established limited walking due to the fact that some areas were overcrowded with migrants.

Free movement was restored in 1911. This year, 4,867 families or 14,291 people were settled in the resettlement areas of the Tobolsk province alone. Such a significant size of the settlement is explained, among other things, by the restoration of free movement of Hodaks.