ДВОРЯНСЬКІ ОПІКИ РОСІЙСЬКОЇ ІМПЕРІЇ: ІСТОРІОГРАФІЯ ТА АКТОВІ ДЖЕРЕЛА ВИВЧЕННЯ

Abstract

The article presents historiographical and partial source analysis of the study of the Russian Empire noble custodies. It is determined that the study of custodies as a separate and full-fledged object has not gained wide popularity among historical practices. Works on noble custodies, or related to their study, are divided into three conditional thematic groups. In the first one, custodies are seen as a manifestation of the development of empire law in the field of guardianship and custody. In the second group custodies are treated with other corporate institutions: the gentry assembly and the position of marshal of nobility as one of institution that provided the estates and material rights and privileges of the nobility. The last group of studies has a noble custody as sole object of study and treat it from the different views: through the prism of the autonomy of the nobility, as another executive body of the branched bureaucratic system of the Russian Empire, or as a institution that was founded to help representatives of nobility and, on the other hand, to control them. It is worth noting the fact that complex works that would consider the noble custodies as an independent object are not common. At the same time, the informational power of the study of the noble custodies makes it possible to expand historians' knowledge about the history of the legislation in the field of guardianship, and to expand the prosopographic portrait of the nobility as a whole. The source bases of this article are: "Establishment for the Provinces of the Russian Empire", "Charter to the Nobility" and "Complete Collection of Laws of the Russian Empire". Their study makes it possible to understand the basic principles of formation and functioning of these corporate institutions, the legal field of their activities and the changes that have been made in their functioning throughout the history of their existence.