Rural Administration of the Kuznetsk Region by the End of the XIX Century

Abstract

The research features the rural administration of the Kuznetsk region in the end of the XIX century. The author understands the territory of modern Kuzbass as "The Kuznetsk region" and "rural administration" – as the bodies of local country government created according to the principles of peasant reform of 1861. The paper introduces data on the main bodies of local country government in the imperial and state village of the Kuznetsk region. The author focuses on the Kuznetsk district described in N. A. Vaganov's audit to the Altai district in the early 1880s. The analysis of the statistical, standard, and narrative data contained in the works by N. A. Vaganov, V.Volchkov, and K. T.Krayevsky provided a detailed characteristic of bodies of local country government, their functions, and efficiency. The Kuznetsk region remained largely understudied in this aspect; hence, the present material can be used in educational and scientific purposes. The author believes that, despite all their drawbacks, the local authorities played an important role in the sphere of regional public government. As local links in the chain of administrative facilities, they promoted the system of interrelations between the government and the country population, which was based upon the classical principles of statecraft and paternalism.