Local governance in the cities of Siberia according to “Institution” 1822

The paper considered the city governance in pre-reform Siberia on the basis of the “Institution for the governance of the Siberian provinces” of 1822, as well as documents of archival records. Special attention was given to the structure and legal issues of the activities of local government in Siberia in the 19th century. A brief historiographical review on this issue is presented. The article attempts to show the role and place of the general police in the local government of pre-revolutionary Siberia and at the same time to analyze sources affecting various aspects of the subject under study. There was the process of searching the optimum forms of governance that provides an invaluable historical experience. The increasing interest in the history of municipal government is due to small coverage of studies, as well as purely practical needs. Returning to the forgotten traditions of municipal government, it is necessary to take full account of historical experience in order to overcome old misconceptions and stereotypes and prevent the birth of new ones. Theoretical basis of the research were the principles of historicism, objectivity and alternativeness which are assuming an unbiased approach to the analysis of the researched problems, as well as a critical attitude to the sources. The methodology includes the use of local, systemic, problem-chronological and comparative historical methods, as well as the development of a “new imperial history”. The paper systematizes sources on the problem of formation and development of the local governance in Siberia during the imperial period. The author pays special attention to the structure, legal and organizational issues of the city governance. The author concludes that the city self-government authorities in Siberia based on the “Institution for the governance of the Siberian provinces” had an extremely undemocratic system of representation and were included in the local government system. Their powers were limited; they could not make decisions on many administrative and economic issues without sanctions from local government bodies. The difference between the city self-government and the government authorities was only in the form of their organization and structure, the nature and conditions of the activity, which was under the jurisdiction of the local police. This fact proves the validity of the assumption that the reorganization of the system of local city selfgovernment was possible only if the whole political system was reformed.

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