Societies of inhabitants and voters in Siberia as a liberal project for organization of the local government

The author aims to identify the role and significance of the Societies of inhabitants and voters (Obshchestvo obyvatelei i izbiratelei) for social and political life in Siberia. To do that, the author has conducted a comprehensive study of the organizational basis, goals, aims and objectives, main directions, and results of the work of these Societies in 1909-1910. The research is based on such primary sources as unpublished documents of the local administration, and materials of the regional press, which contained the information on meetings of the Societies, number of their members, initiatives of their leaders, and on how people reacted to these initiatives. The analysis of the bylaws of the Societies shows that their main mission was to ensure meaningful cooperation between citizens and the local government regarding municipal improvement. The slates of the Societies' candidates at the elections to the city dumas demonstrates that the majority of these candidates were non-partisan. Their agenda as the members of the city dumas did not have any political overtone and focused only on solving the problems of the city. At the same time, the author came to a conclusion that, overall, their strategy of social and political development was liberally oriented. The facts presented in the article prove that the creation of the Societies of inhabitants and voters was initiated by the liberals, and it was the liberals who set a tone to the work of the Societies. During the electoral campaign to the city dumas, the Societies directed their main efforts towards increasing social activity and responsibility of voters. The leaders and the active members of the Societies believed that once their representatives were elected to the self-government bodies, they would be able to participate directly in solving the problems of the municipal improvement. But these intentions were strongly opposed by the authorities. In the second half of 1910, the Ministry of the Internal Affairs ordered to close the Societies of inhabitants and voters. When studying the experience of the Societies as a project model for the organization of the local governance, the author suggests a differentiated approach to identification of their role and significance in the "ideal" and the "technological" dimensions. The ideas of the initiators of the Societies of inhabitants and voters were consonant with liberal views on the "state of law" and the civil society. In practice, the attempts to build horizontal communication between the authorities and citizens in a format of self-government system failed. This fact proves the validity of the assumption that the reorganization of the system of local self-government was possible only if the whole political system was reformed.

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