Decentralization and Self-Government in Russia, 1830-1870 (Princeton Legacy Library) - Softcover

Starr, Frederick S.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 069110008X ISBN 13: 9780691100081

Publisher: Princeton University Press, 1972

Synopsis

The turbulent period of renewal and innovation that followed Russia's crushing defeat in the Crimea has been interpreted, historically, in terms of the emancipation of the serfs and the evolution of the gentry class. But, contends Frederick Starr, such an approach underestimates the breadth and intensity of the impulse for local reforms per se. After tracing the ideological sources of the reform, Mr. Starr examines in detail the legislative process by which administrative decentralization and public self-government were instituted.

Originally published in 1972.

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About this title

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Decentralization and Self-Government in Russia, 1830-1870

By S. Frederick Starr

PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS

Copyright © 1972 Princeton University Press
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-0-691-10008-1

Contents

PREFACE, ix, 
I THE UNDERGOVERNED PROVINCES, 1830-1855, 3, 
The Growth of Bureaucracy, 9, 
The Ideal of Centralization, 26, 
Funds for Local Affairs, 37, 
The Paradox of Underinstitutionalization, 44, 
II THE IDEOLOGY OF REFORM, 51, 
Western Models for Local Administration, 58, 
The Russians' Tocqueville, 71, 
The Search for a Provincialist Past, 90, 
Ideology and Action, 106, 
III THE POLITICS OF DECENTRALIZATION, 110, 
The Committee on Reducing Correspondence, 111, 
Provincial Governors Turn to Reform, 122, 
Decentralization and Emancipation, 138, 
The Kiev Experiment, 163, 
Completing the Legislative Process, 175, 
Reform without Coordination, 182, 
IV THE POLITICS OF SELF-GOVERNMENT, 185, 
The Petersburg Experiment, 192, 
Self-Government and Emancipation, 201, 
Community Control of Public Finances, 219, 
Tax Reform and Self-Administration, 221, 
Banking Reform and Self-Administration, 233, 
Planning the Zemstvos, 1861-1862, 241, 
Self-Government Under Attack, 1862-1863, 254, 
Constitutionalism and Federalism, 262, 
Valuev and Constitutionalism, 271, 
The Final Debate, 1863, 279, 
Reform without Coordination, 289, 
V NEW REFORMS, CHANGED CONDITIONS, OLD HABITS, 1864-1870, 292, 
Undergovernment and the Zemstvos, 293, 
Continuity in the Reformed Administration, 315, 
The Bridling of Local Initiative, 325, 
The Provincialist Ideology in Decline, 336, 
VI CONCLUSION, 348, 
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY, 355, 
INDEX, 379, 

CHAPTER 1

The Undergoverned Provinces, 1830-1855

There is nothing more strange than the entirety of the internal administration of any province of Russia.

Sergei Uvarov, 1827

In the last century the province of Kherson on the Black Sea coast was a prosperous region noted for its mild climate and its horses. Its capital, the town of Kherson, was a sleepy community dominated by the cathedral, the tomb of Catherine II's favorite, Potemkin, and the province's administration buildings. The latter, ample stone structures, housed the headquarters of all the region's public agencies, the treasury, and the board of taxes. For two generations before 1861 these same buildings had been the scene of a systematic embezzlement of public funds by civil servants. During 1860, for example, 760 rubles vanished from the accounts of the poor relief agency. In the same year another agency succeeded in spending 150,000 rubles for a bridge in the Odessa district without so much as the foundations to show for it.

No public institution in the province was immune from corruption. Like all provinces, Kherson had a small hospital under the control of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in St. Petersburg, 625 miles to the north. The hospital was a modest institution and rarely housed more than four or five patients at a time. As was the custom, the doctor treated horses and cows during the frequent periods of idleness his official duties allowed him. In 1860 officials in the Kherson office of the Ministry of Internal Affairs quietly paid local merchants 825 rubles, or the annual salary of three clerks, for soap with which to wash the hospital's linen; secure in the knowledge that the expenditure had gone unnoticed, they allocated 104 more rubles for the same purpose in January 1861, and ten to twenty rubles more in each of the

Edition details

• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Publication date: 1972
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 069110008X
• ISBN 13: 9780691100081
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 402