"ZEMSTVO STATE AFFAIR": UNIT OF ZEMSTVO IN STATE CONTROL SYSTEM

Local self-government in the Russian Empire (1864-1918) arose as a result of the bourgeois reforms and had a diversified character. This article reviews the role of zemstvo in the implementation of individual bourgeois reforms, local self-government relations with the justice of the peace, peasant authorities, the system of taxation and management of national education. The author concludes that district and executive councils complemented the administrative-bureaucratic system of local government through the district and provincial levels and human resources structure. At the same time, local authorities increased the scope of decentralization and democratization of local administration through election of magistrates, civil servants of peasant bodies as well as via representation in collegial bodies. The independent status of zemstvo promoted to emergence of a new level in the administrative and political management culture. The government used zemstvo to create a modernized system of taxation. Through district councils the Russian Empire established the valuation area of taxation and professional human resources. Thus, district councils helped to improve state administration and became the tool of implementation of the government reform programs in the late 19 th and early 20 th centuries.

territorial establishments, bourgeois reforms, justice of the peace, local self-government, bureaucracy, valuation reform, land registry