Local Self-Government among the Cossacks of Western Siberia and Northern Kazakhstan in the 19th and Early 20th Centuries

Abstract

This article is the first comprehensive study of the development of Cossack estate selfgovernment in Western Siberia and Northern Kazakhstan in the 19th and early 20th centuries, as well as of its role in the local system of administration. The author demonstrates that Cossack self-government in Western Siberia and Northern Kazakhstan developed in five stages. Discussed are the bodies of Cossack village administration, the effectiveness of its activities, and the scope of its authority. The Cossack village administration was included in the system of military and state local government, had an estate character and an undemocratic system of representation. It could not make independent decisions on a wide range of administrative and economic issues without involvement of the military and local government bodies. The author concludes that due to the lack of zemstvos in Siberia and Northern Kazakhstan, Cossack village administration and peasant self-government played an important role in the structure of local government. As a low-level institution, it facilitated the establishment of relations between the Cossack population and state power; this system was based on the principles of paternalism and statism. As an integral part of the Siberian Cossack army, a stanitsa administration with powers determined by the imperial authority lasted until the fall of the Russian Empire after the February Revolution 1917.