Problems of local government formation in the cities of Western Siberia (the 1870s)

Implementation of the 1870 City Regulations determining the formation of local government bodies in the cities of Western Siberia is researched. The key factors that caused the specifics of local elections are considered: number of people, social and class structure of local society, level of economic and cultural development of settlements, their administrative status (provincial, district or unimportant city). It is established that under the law all voters were entered in the general list in the decreasing size of charges they paid for the benefit of the city or treasury, and then they were divided into three parts, i.e. "categories". As a result the "three-category" electoral system gave clear advantages to large owners and dealers, depriving small taxpayers of a possibility of being elected to the city council. The analysis of archive documents has shown that during the preparation and elections there were various violations of law, difficulties with determination of their participants, negligence of citizens-voters to elections, and also conflict situations with the governor, other organizations and the population. Organization of the first elections in the provincial cities (Tomsk and Tobolsk), in the course of which there were different contradictions, disagreements and rule violations, is considered. Despite violations in elections, the Ministry of Internal Affairs did not cancel their results. The opening of the Tomsk City Council took place on August 30, 1871. The election date in Tobolsk changed repeatedly, and was delayed until 1872. It is shown that along with the imperfect mechanism of voting, low electoral activity affected its results. It is counted that the average appearance on the first elections in the cities of Western Siberia made up 18 % of the total number of voters. Moreover, small cities, "due to the insufficient city funds", could not afford a big staff of local councils and, therefore, asked the governor not to form councils, and to assign council duties to the mayor and his assistants. Such a measure was used in Narym, Kuznetsk, Beryozovo. According to sources, the new city authorities had problems entering the system of relations with government and public institutions, police and the locals. Quite often conflicts took place at meetings of the councils. Thus, the research of implementation of the1870 City Regulations in the cities of Western Siberia specifies that to observe all its requirements in practice was impossible. Local conditions of settlements ("soil") did not correspond to the introduced rules. Many cities had no experience of forming of similar bodies, made mistakes, violations from regulations, which caused the necessity to revise the law and conduct a new reform in 1892.

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