The Riazan Zemstvo in the February Revolution

Abstract

Until recently, the history of the zemstvo in 1917 was not an object of independent study. Little is known about what was happening in the zemstvo assemblies and councils at that time.1 The zemstvos and the processes taking place in them represented only a sideline in research on events in the Russian provinces. Most attention was paid to the standoff between the Provisional Government and the various kinds of Soviets: the "diarchy" problem. However, source study prompted several scholars to depart from the traditional point of view and to acknowledge the presence of three camps struggling for national power. It became natural to wonder about the sociopolitical institutions on which each of these camps relied. Soviet historians developed a view in which the Soviets were the organs of the revolutionary-democratic camp, while the zemstvos and the urban dumas represented the landowners and the bourgeoisie. The third camp—petty-bourgeois democrats—drew support from various public committees that were created during the February Revolution. All three camps struggled for power and defended the interests of their own social strata and groups. As we can see, the zemstvos played a considerable role in the struggle for power, and yet until recently no studies have explored these bodies' forms and methods of struggle. Scholars who have mentioned the zemstvos have used the "tried and true" illustrative method of exposition, meaning that an isolated fact has frequently been used to draw a conclusion that is then projected over the entire country. Only very recently, moreover, have studies been devoted to the zemstvos' role in the February Revolution.