This study addresses the main aspects of the Mordvin peasant relocation to Western Siberia from the mid-1800s to Stolypin’s agrarian reform, with a focus on resettlement and relationships with old residents, successful and failed unauthorized and reverse migration, and the displacement level. The sources are archival data, specifi cally E.I. Krivyakov’s and V.B. Rusyaikin’s manuscripts owned by the archives of the Government of Mordovia Institute for the Humanities. Causes of migration were mostly economical, and the process was triggered by the abolishment of serfdom in 1861 and then by the Stolypin’s reform, meant to defuse the imminent agrarian crisis in central Russia. On the basis of archival and published evidence, it is demonstrated that the main problems faced by the authorities were their unpreparedness for arranging the relocation of large numbers of peasants, insuffi cient funding, small size of land plots allotted to new settlers, diffi culties with obtaining documents, the fact that governmental help was insuffi cient and provided not to all those in need (land plots were not allotted to unauthorized settlers), administration’s laissez faire in the resettlement process, failure to limit admission fees paid to old settlers, and other factors caused by poor organizational training.