Lists of City Council Members as an Information Source on City Civil Servants (A Case Study of Tomsk Province of the Beginning of the 20th Century)

In the article, the historical sources confirming the social composition of the top officials of the cities are analysed, namely, the lists of members of city councils of Tomsk Province of the early 20th century. The aim of the research is to establish social and biographic data of mayors, city heads, their deputies and assistants, i.e. surnames, names, middle names, origin and estate, age, education, duration of residence in the city, annual allowance, assessment of real property, data on service, dates of election and confirmation to posts. The lists were for internal use and were not published anywhere. The information basis for this research is lists of members of city councils of nine cities of Tomsk Province (Tomsk, Barnaul, Biysk, Novonikolayevsk, Kolyvan, Kainsk, Kuznetsk, Mariinsk and Narym) for 1907--1910 stored in the State Archive of Tomsk Oblast. Separate publications of researchers in this sphere were used. The quantitative analysis of the sources has allowed to establish that in the nine cities 27 people, three on average, held positions of top officials. It is obvious that the load on them was impressive. The analysis of the content of the lists has shown that more than a half of the members of city councils belonged to the petty-bourgeois estate, merchants and retired officials also worked in city administrations. However, in practice the officials' estate was not of great importance. The petty bourgeois and officials along with merchants could be engaged in trade. The lists indicate that fishery managers, manufacturers, flour millers, butter manufacturers, tea dealers, grocers, shopkeepers, wine and textiles dealers, owners of printing houses, photographer studios and shops were members of city councils. According to the lists, the table of the members of city councils is made. In the city administration, people of Orthodox faith aged over 48.5 with education lower than secondary prevailed. Generally, it was people with family education, only three men had a higher education. It is remarkable that at the beginning of the 20th century local natives began to appear in the city administration; earlier, it was people who came to Siberia from the provinces of the European part of the country. According to the lists, people with average income who received allowance from the city budget became members of city councils. The amount of allowance varied depending on the size of the city and the status of the position. A number of wealthy officials refused from allowance in favor of the city. According to the lists, the "rotation" of the officials in the local governments can be traced. The studied lists contain diverse personal information which can be used for studying the history of the formation of institutions of city self-government in Russia, features of the development of public life in the region. The complex analysis of the lists allows making a social portrait of the local elite.

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