Local Government in Siberia in the 18th-Early 20th Century

Abstract

The relevance of the chosen topic is determined by its insufficient study in the national historical science. Based on pre-revolutionary legislation, archival materials, and pre-revolutionary periodicals, the article examines the peculiarities of local government in Siberia during the imperial period. The research is grounded on the principles of historicism and objectivity and reveals the peculiarities of local government in Siberia in the 18th – early 20th centuries. The author comes to the conclusion that administration in Siberia was characterized by an almost complete absence of self-governing principles. Therefore, the powers of administrative and police bodies on the Siberian outskirts of the country had their own specifics and were broader than in the European provinces of Russia, along the almost absolute subordination of local self-government bodies to the police institutions of the regions, which was also specific for Siberia during the imperial period. Unable to resist additional challenges, the system of regional administration, which ensured public order in the Siberian region in the 18th – 19th centuries, was rapidly destroyed during the revolutionary events of February 1917