Projects of the South of Russia’s Government on the development of urban self-government in the White Crimea, October - November 1920

Abstract

The article studies the development of an economic and political-legal basis for the development of urban self-government under General Wrangels Government of the South of Russia, in the Crimea, in the autumn of 1920. From among the Wrangel governments reforms in the Crimea in 1920, transformations in the sphere of urban life and urban self-government are less well-known than transformations in agrarian policy and the zemstvo reform. But changes in the operation of city dumas and city administrations are no less relevant for Russian historiography. The article considers the specifics of the evolution of municipal law in a situation where it was hoped that the offensive of the Red Army at Perekop could be beaten back. The article notes the importance of changing the legislative framework regarding the expansion of the powers of city self-government not only in the social, political, but also in the economic sphere. First of all, this was manifested in the field of granting the right to impose taxes and fees by city structures. The article discusses the prospects that an increased role of city self-government was supposed to have on economic and political decisions by the Wrangel government. The analysis includes the supposed forms of cooperation between the White power and the public in the 1920s. Special attention is paid to the problems that were considered at a specially convened congress of city self-government in Simferopol, on the eve of the Perekop-Chongar operation. The decisions taken during this congress were supposed to strengthen the financial situation of the Crimea. The article also examines the interaction between the authorities of the Wrangel government and the local population during the military-political crisis of the White Movement in the autumn of 1920.