TRANSFORMATION OF MERCHANT AND VOLOST SELF-GOVERNMENT AT THE BEGINNING OF THE XX CENTURY IN NOVGOROD PROVINCE

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of the processes of transformation of local government institutions in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century. The author gives a description of the final stage in the history of local self-government of the Russian Empire on the example of the Novgorod province. The main trends in the evolution of legal regulation, which have determined the effectiveness of local self-government practice, are analyzed. Particular attention is paid to the problem of organizing self-government at the county level. The ineffectiveness of the implementation of the idea of creating a system of local self-government in the conditions of the Russian Empire is argued. The problems of bureaucratization of self-government are considered on the example of the transformation of merchant and volost self-government. The formation of self-government bodies in the commercial sphere on a professional basis allowed the state to bureaucratize and thereby place this type of economic activity and the most profitable sector of the economy under full control. In the study, for the first time, archival documents were introduced into scientific circulation, allowing to objectively assess the intentions of the central government regarding the transformation of estate self-government into a professional one, the gradual replacement of already established forms of self-government by public organizations. The declarative and populist nature of the local government reforms is proved. The fact of the lack of interest on the part of the population of the provincial provinces to the transformations of urban and rural society initiated from above is substantiated. The author touches upon the problem of transforming the self-government system into a controlled link in the management of the population, which can significantly ease the burden of the administrative apparatus for the implementation of general social, fiscal and law enforcement functions of the state. Analysis of the documentary base allowed the author to come to the conclusion that one of the catalysts of revolutionary sentiments and discontent of the population in the field at the beginning of the twentieth century became an ineffective implementation of the idea of creating a system of self-government in the Russian Empire.

Keywords

zemstvo; peasant self-government; merchants; Novgorod province; local government bodies; reform

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About the Author

Yuliya P. Stepanova – Graduate Student, Department of Theory of State and Law, Yaroslav-the-Wise Novgorod State University, Veliky Novgorod, Russia. E-mail: yulia4444@inbox.ru

For citation:
Stepanova Yu.P. Transformation of Merchant and Volost Self-Government at the Beginning of the XX Century in Novgorod Province // BENEFICIUM. 2020. No. 4 (37). pp. 88-96. (In Russ.). DOI: http://doi.org/10.34680/BENEFICIUM.2020.4(37).88-96