On the basis of legislation and archive documents, the article examines the change of the government’s attitude to the loan assistance to the peasant resettles in the late 1860s — first half of the 1870s. After the peasant reform of 1861 and discussions in the highest government circles, key laws were published in 1866 and became the basis for the new government resettlement policy. The law, which replaced “Statute of the Improvement in State Settlements”, restricted government assistance to the resettlers, but required time for departments and local authorities to adapt to the changes. To study the degree of consistency of applying new resettlement legislation in practice by the central and local authorities, the author referred to the case of transferring of Vologda peasants to the Tobolsk Province in 1867– 1875. This case includes official documents of various kinds: regulations, vedomosti, peasant petitions, etc. The case of Vologda peasants provides an example of one of the last resettlements legally allowed by the state and contains unique material about financial assistance to the settlers in the situation of changing of government policy.