“Digne in southern France. Ragusa in Dalmatia, Sarepta on the Volga - famous, expensive places known to every entomologist, where they caught small evil spirits, to the surprise and fear of the aborigines, strange people who came from afar - these are places famous for their fauna. V.N. Nabokov. Pilgrim. In 1894, 1,700 people lived in the colony. Of these, 1102 were colonists, 222 Russians, 133 Kalmyks, 39 Tatars. By 1912, the number of residents increased to 3096.