Policy of acculturation in the conditions of destruction of the Empire: incident of a volost' zemstvo

The aim of this article is to analyze the process of preparation of the elections to a volost zemstvo in the Southeast of Russia in 1917 in the context of a policy of violent acculturation. The solution of the following tasks is provided: the identification and the analysis of obstacles in the preparation of these elections of technical and organizational character; research of a position of regional councils, vo-lost chiefs and "the native aristocracy". The methodology of the research is based, on the one hand, on achievements of the scientific direction of "a modern imperial history"; on the other hand, it is within the regional approach emphasizing a variety of local conditions. The problem field of a research is within a definition of characteristic features and features of realization of state policy on the development of peripheral territories. The research is directed to the solution of a large scientific problem of definition of nature of the evolution of policy of acculturation for peripheral territories of Russia at a stage of turning off the Empire. Mainly archival sources from the State Archives of the Russian Federation and regional archives of Orenburg, Astrakhan, Stavropol, and also the regional press of the studied period have formed a research sources base. During the conducted research the author came to the following conclusions: by preparation of the elections to a volost zemstvo the main border of opposition in the Southeast of Russia laid not on the politic party line, but on the "new Authorities (zemstvo) - the traditional Authorities (heads of country descents, the native aristocracy)" line. The local population perceived attempt of the Authorities on an introduction of a volost zemstvo as the act of violent acculturation. The traditionalist mentality of the populace rejected the proposed innovations (or, rather, innovations impressed upon and forced from above). Signs of the situation described above can be seen across all zemstvo's Russia, however in different territories it had different degree of sharpness, and the greatest - in such regions as the Southeast of Russia, in connection with an immediate vicinity of peasants of the region with special sociocultural groups (Cossacks, "foreigners").

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