In the Russian Empire, a colony (Russian: колония) was a type of settlement, typically agricultural, created under government encouragement in sparsely populated territories. Most commonly they were created by foreigners invited to resettle to Russia[1][2] but there were also efforts to create Jewish colonies for resettling Jews from other areas within the Pale of settlement. The settlers were called colonists (Russian: колонисты).
For example, this was done in newly acquired lands, such as Novorossiya and Bessarabia.[2]