Volost Gathering in the System of Local Peasant Self-government of Tomsk Province at the Beginning of the 20th Century

The article is devoted to the definition of the role of volost gathering in the system of local peasant self-government of Tomsk province in the beginning of the 20th century. A brief historiographical review on this issue is presented. It is noted that some researchers consider the agencies of rural municipality as the lowest level of governance which is completely obeyed to state institutions. Another part believes that the agencies of peasant self-government remained defenders of the interests of the peasants. In this article, the author reveals the degree of independence of the gathering in decision-making. The basis of the study was the materials of the volost directorial board of the Tulinskaya volost of Barnaul Uyezd. The value of the source base of the article is defined by a continuity of maintaining office work documentation. These collected data have remained a few, in this connection they are of exclusive interest. The article describes the mechanism of functioning of a volost gathering, outlines the range of issues to be solved at the gathering, analyzes and classifies them. The author marks out two categories of questions to be resolved at the gathering. The first category has includes elections of officials, the maintenance of personnel and accommodation, the announcement of orders of the authorities. At the same time it is noted that requests of members of volost board for salary increase to them were granted in the shortest possible time, unlike other inquiries. All these issues were considered annually. The second category included issues related to the current life of the community. It is noted that for the solution of the extraordinary questions connected with big monetary expenditure, the volost gathering attracted the trade capital. Many issues which are on the agenda were transferred to the next meetings. This was done in order to more thoroughly study all possible options for its solution. The author pays much attention to the analysis of functions of peasants who served in the rural municipality. This is important for definition of competences which were possessed by a volost gathering in the system of public administration. The analysis of business correspondence allows to reconstruct what authority had a volost gathering among entire population of the volost. The author came to the conclusion that the volost gathering was a real mechanism in regulating the life of a peasant society. In addition to enforcing the instructions of state authorities, it helped to solve the vital problems of the local population.

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