Zemstvo, city and judicial reforms. Personality and historical role of Alexander II Main provisions of the reform
After the abolition of serfdom in 1861, there was an urgent need to adapt the political system tsarist Russia to new, capitalist relations. In order to stay in power, the noble landlords were forced to some extent to meet the requirements of further transformations. The bourgeois reforms carried out in the period 1864-1874 were reduced to the solution of these problems.
Zemstvo reform of 1864 was that the issues of local economy, primary education, medical and veterinary services and others were entrusted to new elected institutions - county and provincial zemstvo councils. The elections of representatives from the population to the zemstvo (zemstvo vowels) were two-stage and ensured the numerical predominance of the ruling classes, primarily the landowning nobles. Vowels from the peasants at the episodically convened zemstvo meetings always constituted a minority, and among the members of the permanent councils, the peasants were few.
All affairs in the zemstvo, concerning primarily the vital needs of the peasantry, were handled by the landowners. They limited the initiative and often selfless activity of democratically minded zemstvo figures - teachers, doctors, statisticians. In addition, local zemstvo institutions were subordinate to the tsarist administration and, first of all, to the governors.
The city reform of 1870 replaced the previously existing class city administrations with city dumas elected on the basis of a property qualification. The system of these elections, borrowed from Prussia, ensured among the city councilors the decisive influence of the big house-owners and merchants, manufacturers and breeders.
Representatives of big capital managed the communal services of cities, proceeding from their narrow class interests; they cared mainly about the improvement of the central bourgeois quarters of the city, paying almost no attention to the factory districts and outskirts.
The organs of city government under the law of 1870 were also subject to the supervision of government authorities. The decisions adopted by the Duma received force only after approval by the tsarist administration.
The new judicial statutes of 1864 introduced a unified system of judicial institutions, based on the formal equality before the law of all social groups population.
Court sessions were held with the participation of interested parties, were public, and reports on them were published in the press. Litigants, in order to defend their interests in court, could hire sworn attorneys - lawyers who had a legal education and were not in public service.
The new judiciary met the needs capitalist development country, but it was affected by the influence of the remnants of serfdom; The government in this case also made a number of important deviations from general principles bourgeois reforms. For the peasants, special volost courts were created, in which corporal punishment was preserved; in political trials, even with acquittals, administrative repressions were used; political cases were considered without the participation of jurors, etc. At the same time, malfeasance of officials was declared beyond the jurisdiction of general courts. The court in tsarist Russia continued to be dependent on autocratic power.
The reforms of the 1960s also affected education. A network of elementary public schools was created. Along with the classical gymnasiums, real gymnasiums (schools) were opened, in which the main attention was paid to the teaching of mathematics and the natural sciences. The charter of 1863 introduced partial autonomy for universities for higher educational institutions - the election of the rector and deans and the expansion of the rights of the professorial corporation. In 1869, the first higher education institutions in Russia were opened in Moscow. women's courses with a general education program.
The position of the press was somewhat facilitated. According to the charter of 1865, books with a volume of more than 10 author's sheets were exempted from preliminary censorship, and, at a special request, also some metropolitan periodicals. For the first violation of censorship rules, publishers received a "warning", for a second violation, the publication was suspended for six months, and for the third, it was prohibited.
All these reforms were in fact very limited. How educational establishments, and the press continued to be under constant supervision royal authorities and churches.
The abolition of serfdom - 1861
The main provisions of the reform
The peasants received elective self-government, the lowest (economic) unit of self-government was the rural society, the highest (administrative) unit was the volost.
The landowners retained ownership of all the lands that belonged to them, but they were obliged to provide the peasants with a plot and a field allotment for use; the lands of the field allotment were not provided personally to the peasants, but for the collective use of rural communities,
For the use of allotment land, the peasants had to serve a corvée or pay dues and did not have the right to refuse it for 9 years.
The size of the field allotment and duties had to be fixed in charter letters, which were drawn up by the landowners for each estate and checked by peace mediators;
Rural societies were given the right to buy out the estate and, by agreement with the landowner, the field plot, after which all obligations of the peasants to the landowner ceased;
The state, on preferential terms, provided the landlords with financial guarantees for receiving redemption payments (redemption operation), accepting their payment; peasants had to pay redemption payments to the state.
Zemstvo reform and judicial reform - 1864
The judiciary is a central element of the reform – the introduction of a jury trial and sworn attorneys (lawyers). The reform ensured publicity, competitiveness and classlessness of legal proceedings.
In accordance with the Judicial Charters on November 20, 1864, the following liberal principles of the judiciary and legal proceedings were established:
administration of justice only by the court;
separation of the judiciary from the accusatory;
irremovability, independence, competitiveness and independent judges
equality of all before the court;
publicity of legal proceedings;
Zemskaya - provincial and district zemstvo assemblies and zemstvo councils were created - both of them were elected. Voters were divided into 3 curia: county landowners, city voters and elected from rural societies. The right to participate in the elections for the 1st Curia was enjoyed by the owners of at least 200 dessiatins. land, owners of industrial, commercial enterprises or other real estate in the amount of at least 15 thousand rubles. or generating income of at least 6 thousand rubles. in year. The voters of the city curia were persons who had merchant certificates, owners of enterprises or trade establishments with an annual turnover of at least 6 thousand rubles, as well as owners of immovable property in the amount of 500 rubles or more. (in small towns) up to 3 thousand rubles. (in major cities). Thus, the workers, the petty bourgeoisie, and the intelligentsia were excluded from the elections. Elections for the peasant curia were multistage: rural societies elected representatives to volost meetings, those elected electors, and the latter elected representatives to the county zemstvo assembly. Provincial councilors were elected at county zemstvo assemblies.
Provincial and district zemstvo councils consisted of 6 people appointed by zemstvo assemblies. Meetings were convened once a year, but emergency situations could meet more often. Councils worked on a permanent basis. The meetings gave orders and controlled their implementation, and the councils were actually involved in the implementation of decisions. Zemstvo assemblies can be compared with local parliaments, and councils with governments
Leaders of the nobility were chairmen of provincial and district congresses.
Zemstvo assemblies and councils were deprived of the right as institutions to communicate with each other, they did not have coercive power, since the police did not obey them; their activities were controlled by the governor and the minister of internal affairs, who had the right to suspend the execution of any decision of the zemstvo assembly.
Zemstvo assemblies and councils were in charge of local economic affairs: the maintenance of communication lines; construction and maintenance of schools and hospitals; hiring doctors and paramedics; the organization of courses for the education of the population and the organization of the sanitary unit in cities and villages; "care" for the development of local trade and industry, the provision of national food (arrangement of grain warehouses, seed depots); concern for
Zemstvo reform contributed to the development of local initiative, economy and culture.
Judicial reform
The judicial reform of Alexander II was a turning point in Russian office work. The courts were now divided into two parts: the local court dealt with the affairs of the townspeople and peasants, and the district court dealt with more serious crimes. A jury was introduced, whose members could belong to any class. His powers included the consideration of serious crimes. Discrimination was abolished: absolutely everyone was equal before the judiciary. Decisions were not made secretly, it was impossible to change the judge if for some reason he did not suit the participants in the process. The rules were the same for everyone and could not change during the meeting. In addition, it also changed Administrative division countries: now the empire was divided into districts. Sakharovsky I.Yu. Judicial reform of 1864 // Young scientist. - 2015. - No. 7. - S. 588.
The judicial reform of Alexander II deprived the emperor himself of real power in the courts, the only thing he could do was to pardon a nobleman who was threatened with confiscation of property.
Zemstvo reform
The zemstvo reform of Alexander II (1864) is a complex of transformations in the management of district and provincial lands, designed to change the bureaucratic order of administration and give the far corners of Russia the right to make independent decisions.
As with all other transformations of Alexander 2, the idea to give the provinces some independence in decision-making originated long before the reign of the emperor, more precisely, during the time of his uncle Alexander I. Alexander I instructed Speransky to draw up a major reform project, which also included new system provincial self-government, which was supposed to meet the needs of the population and the state. The project was developed and involved the creation of county councils, which would be filled with delegates from local residents, chosen not by class, but by property. Unfortunately, the reform was not adopted. Great reforms in Russia. 1856-1874: Collection. - Moscow: Publishing house Mosk. University. - 1992. - 336 p.
During the time of Alexander II, Speransky's project was considered and taken as a basis, but it underwent quite a few changes. In particular, the emperor ordered not to create volost councils, and the zemstvo ended at the level of the province.
Nevertheless, the main idea of the reform was to give control to the local residents, who knew the realities of the region much better than the sent state officials. The programs drawn up in the regional center, which the officials followed, could not help in the development of the region, as they were detached from the real situation.
Along with the zemstvo, a city reform was carried out. Two new bills were to create a new system of local government.
The “Regulations on provincial and district zemstvo institutions” of 1864 created new administrative bodies: zemstvo assembly and zemstvo councils, which included the local population (the choice did not depend on the estate).
So-called curia appeared - special categories into which all voters were divided according to property, estate, nationality and other characteristics. There were three curia in total - the curia of county landowners, the curia of urban voters, and the curia of rural communities. Representatives of the three curias participated in the elections to the local self-government body.
The curia were created so that representatives of all classes could get into local dumas, but in practice everything was more complicated. Formally, zemstvo institutions had no rules about the origin of candidates, but the right to vote was conditioned by a property qualification, which significantly limited the circle of people who could be elected. Great reforms in Russia. 1856-1874: Collection. - Moscow: Publishing house Mosk. University. - 1992. - 336 p.
As a result, the following picture most often emerged: as a rule, representatives of the upper nobility were chairmen of provincial and district congresses. In addition to self-government bodies, executive bodies were created - councils.
Zemstvos on the ground did not have any serious political functions, they only had executive power and dealt with economic and domestic issues: the construction of communication lines, the construction of hospitals, schools, infrastructure in the nearest villages and towns, caring for livestock, Zemstvos were also involved in collecting taxes on local needs. This limited their power. Moreover, even when performing local tasks, zemstvos were completely subordinate to governors and ministers, who could suspend any decision of the zemstvo council.
The reform was carried out gradually. Zemstvos began to appear in all corners of the country and this process ended only at the beginning of the twentieth century.
In the 1860s-1870s. the government of Alexander II adopted a number of resolutions on the implementation of zemstvo, judicial, urban, military, school and censorship reforms.
The zemstvo reform, announced on January 1, 1864, provided for the creation of elective institutions in the counties and provinces to manage the local economy, public education, medical care for the population, and to resolve other non-political issues. However, in Belarus in connection with the events of 1863-1864. The government did not dare to introduce elective institutions.
Judicial reform adopted in Russian Empire November 20, 1864, in Belarus began only in 1872 with the introduction of magistrates' courts. Since there were no zemstvos in Belarus, justices of the peace, unlike the central provinces of Russia, were not elected here, but were appointed by the Minister of Justice on the recommendation of the local administration. District courts, judicial chambers, jurors and barristers appeared in the western provinces only in 1882. The list of jurors was also approved by the authorities.
In 1875, a city reform was carried out in Belarus, adopted in Russia in 1870. It proclaimed the principle of all-classes in the elections of city self-government bodies - the city duma and city council headed by the mayor. In the election of members of the Duma (vowels), citizens from the age of 25 received the right to vote. However, not all residents of the city could use this right, but only those who paid city taxes. Workers, employees, intellectuals, who made up the bulk of the population of cities, did not have the opportunity to participate in city self-government, because they did not pay taxes to the city treasury.
The reform of the army in Russia began in 1862, when 15 military districts were created (including Vilna, which included all Belarusian provinces) and a reduced service life was introduced (in ground forces- up to 7, in the Navy - up to 8 years). In 1867, a new military-judicial charter was adopted, based on the principles of the judicial reform of 1864. The law of 1874 introduced all-class military service instead of recruitment sets. All men from the age of 21 had to serve in the army (except for the indigenous population Central Asia, Kazakhstan, Siberia and the North). In the ground forces, the service life was reduced to 6 years of mandatory and 9 years in reserve, in the navy - to 7 and 3 years, respectively. Benefits were also introduced for people who had an education. Those who graduated from higher educational institutions served 6 months, gymnasiums - 1.5 years, city schools - 3, elementary schools - 4 years.
Reformation school system 1864 also had a bourgeois character. The school was proclaimed all-class, the number of primary schools, the continuity of various levels of education was introduced. Unlike the central provinces of Russia, there were no zemstvo schools in Belarus and the public was not allowed to manage public education. For Belarus and Lithuania, special "Temporary rules for public schools" were developed. In accordance with them, directorates of public schools were created in each province, supervising the work of schools, hiring and firing teachers, and giving permission to open new schools.
The new censorship charter, adopted in 1865, significantly expanded the possibilities of the press. However, changes in censorship policy concerned primarily central publications and publishing houses. In Belarus until the mid-1880s. all periodicals depended on government agencies and the Orthodox Church.
Thus, the reforms of the 1860s and 1870s, starting with the abolition of serfdom, led to significant changes in political life Russian Empire. A step forward has been taken on the path of transformation feudal monarchy into the bourgeois. At the same time, the reforms carried remnants of feudalism, were inconsistent and limited. Large differences and delays in the implementation of reforms in Belarus made them even more limited and inconsistent in comparison with other regions of Russia, made the socio-economic situation in the Belarusian provinces complex and contradictory.
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