«Authority» as a factor in evaluating the activity of Odesa city mayors within the period from the second half of the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century by contemporaries

Abstract

The article examines the importance of one of the factors in evaluating the activity of city mayors as authority (position, status, etc.). In the second half of the 19th – at the beginning of the 20th century. the self-government of Odesa was headed by Semen Vorontsov, Mykola Novoselskyi, Grigory Marazli (Grigorios Maraslis), Valerian Ligin, Petro Kryzhanovskyi and Pavlo Zelenyi. On the basis of the collected sources (notes from the press and memories of contemporaries) and due to the activity and position of the city mayor the establishment of the authority of the above-mentioned personalities was analyzed. The authority is based on professionalism, knowledge, moral principles, social status, experience or myths. Due to authority, human can exercise control over people's actions. There are also different authorities of a person's quality (scientific, business, moral, religious, etc.) and his status (respect for the position). The effectiveness of government largely depends on its authority. The main sources for determining the assessment of the authority factor of the Odesa city mayors of 1863-1905 are the press (the newspapers «Odesa Herald», «Odesa News», «Odesa Leaf», etc.), diaries and memories of contemporaries (E. Andreevskii, K. Skalkovskyi, M. Lents, etc.). As a result of studying a number of personalities, it became clear that the group of Odesa mayors was diverse. Taking the position of mayor during the elected term, S. Vorontsov, M. Novoselskyi, G. Marazli, V. Ligin, P. Kryzhanovskyi and P. Zelenyі acquired status authority (respect for the position of the head of the city self-government). However, not all of the above-mentioned persons could use it qualitatively.