Estonians began emigrating to sparsely populated areas of Russia in the mid-1850s. This process intensified from the 1860s when the residence location change was legalised. The first resettlers of that period headed for the Samara Province. In the 1850s and 1860s the first emigration destinations besides the Samara Province were the Caucasus, Crimea and the areas on the other side of Lake Peipus. Here you can read bout the historical background and resettlement reasons.
In May of 1855 the first families from the Põlva and Kanepi parishes who had received emigration permits set out in a caravan of horse-drawn wagons from the Kirumpää tavern in the Väimela rural municipality. Two years later, the Sangaste parish people were on the move. In the following years the resettlement movement expanded to most of the parishes in Tartu and Võru Counties, then spreading in the northern direction.
Those who had departed from the Kirumpää tavern reached Saratov after several months on the road. There it was discovered that no vacant state land was available in that province. They embarked on boats and crossed the Volga River, arriving in the neighbouring Samara Province. The resettlers initially stayed in the village of Krasnoyar, inhabited by Germans, earning their living by performing farm labour. The first Estonian village in the region, Liflyandka, was founded in 1859.
The first resettler parties moved from one location to another for years in search of a new home, nevertheless remaining registered in their birthplace parishioners’ list. That is why they were not exempt from parish taxes and military conscription. This situation required a solution on the state level. It was henceforth required that those intending to resettle should begin by sending their delegates-scouts to the desired location to choose a certain place for the rest of the party.
The resettlers could establish residence on uninhabited state land, each male receiving a plot of land. One could also lease frontier land where the soil was scantily fertile. The first families found shelter in the nearby German and Russian villages, and some made dugouts or huts from clay-smeared twigs.
Those resettlers who emigrated later had it somewhat easier: they could travel on the railway and, once there, they could rely on the assistance of the Russian state and their compatriots.