Russian local government during the war and the Union of Zemstvos

Bibliographic data

Monograph

Identifikator:: 1794855874

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-179223

Document type:: Monograph

Author:: Polner, Tichon I. http://d-nb.info/gnd/172311195

Title:: Russian local government during the war and the Union of Zemstvos

Place of publication:: New Haven

Publisher:: Yale Univ. Press

Year of publication:: 1930

Scope:: XXV, 317 S.

Digitisation:: 2022

Collection:: Economics Books

Usage license:: Get license information via the feedback formular.

Chapter

Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Chapter I. Origin and organization of zemstvo institutions

Collection:: Economics Books

ORIGIN AND ORGANIZATION 25 ernment authorities became more acute as the Years went by. In an atmosphere of profound reaction, in which all public initiative was suppressed and the press was muzzled by the censorship, it was quite natural that the zemstvo assemblies, where a voice of protest, however feeble, might still be heard, should develop into organs of opposition. The meetings of the provincial zemstvo assemblies used to draw large audiences eager to hear free speech, and they would enthusiastically applaud the more popular among the liberal orators. Thus the conflict of self-government and autocracy was made more and more apparent, and in the meanwhile the reac- tionary press, to whose influence Alexander IIT himself was sub ject, clamored for stern measures against the revolutionary peril lurking in the zemstvos. The Zemstvo Act of 1890. In spite of all this, the zemstvos had managed, during the twenty- five years that they had then been in existence, to organize such far- reaching undertakings, and to make themselves so indispensable a part of the general fabric of the nation, that it was absurd to even think of replacing them by the old bureaucratic machinery. The at- tempt was therefore made to subject the zemstvos, by partial re- forms, more directly to the control of the authorities and, at the same time, to alter the composition of the assemblies by the intro- duction of reactionary elements. With this ob ject in view, the zem- stvo law was revised at the close of the eighties, and on June 12, 1890, the Tsar ratified new enactments effecting vital changes in the structure of these organizations. To begin with, the electoral laws were radically altered. The no- bility were made into a separate curia, and the deputies elected by this curia obtained in nearly every zemstvo assembly a majority of seats; and this in spite of the fact that the land holdings of the gentry had already by that time dwindled considerably. On the other hand, the number of peasant representatives was greatly re- duced. The peasants lost, moreover, the right to choose directly their own representatives to the zemstvo assemblies; instead, they were merely empowered to elect candidates for that office, and from among these the local officials would make such appointments to the assemblies as they thought best. The following table affords an idea

Access restriction

Copyright

fullscreen: Russian local government during the war and the Union of Zemstvos

Monograph

Chapter

Table of contents

Download

Monograph

Chapter

This page

Image fragment

Citation links

Citation recommendation