Small Zemstvo Unit in the Political and Legal Thought of Russia (1880-1903)

In the presented master's thesis discusses one of the topical problems of the historical and legal development of local self-government — political and legal views of leading legal scientists and public figures of Russia in 1880-1903 on the possibility of establishing a small zemstvo unit. The author consistently proves that in a small unit of self-government contemporaries saw a solid Foundation that should have had zemstvo institutions. In their works, the zemstvo unit was described as the basis of the Russian zemstvo. The author notes that the problem of small zemstvo units in modern scientific literature is clearly insufficiently developed. Thus, in some monographs, the small zemstvo unit is considered in fragments and only important milestones in the rise of political and legal discussions are noted. Therefore, the scientific novelty of the work consists in the absence of comprehensive research in modern scientific literature and dissertations on the political and legal views of leading legal scientists and public figures of Russia in 1880-1903 on the possibility of establishing a small zemstvo unit. The purpose of the study is to identify the key political and legal approaches to the small zemstvo unit in 1880-1903. the research Methods were chosen based on the tasks set and taking into account the characteristics of the object under study. This is a historical and philosophical method, within the framework of a comparative approach, it is a comparative-historical method, a conceptual-philosophical and formal-legal methods. The small zemstvo unit in the political and legal thought of Russia is analyzed by the author on the basis of attracting a wide range of sources. The main source of research is articles from periodicals and collections, as many opinions about the small zemstvo unit have become a cause for widespread controversy on the pages of printed publications. As well as materials of public congresses, meetings, zemstvo meetings and local committees on the needs of the agricultural industry in Russia in 1902-1903, which are also the main sources for research. The most important provisions of the dissertation work are the study, generalization, structuring of projects and proposals for the device of a small zemstvo unit. The author considers the zemstvo projects of the 80-90-ies of the XIX century, the views and projects of slavophils, zemstvo public figures, liberals, conservatives, which are reflected in the press. The author studied and summarized the initial outlines of the government Kahanov Commission (1881-1885) on the reform of local self-government and the introduction of a small unit of self-government. The author considers in detail and structures the proposals of public congresses, meetings, zemstvo meetings and local committees on the needs of the agricultural industry regarding the establishment and arrangement of small zemstvo units. Based on their context, the materials studied, and the proposed projects, the author comes to the conclusion that the term «all-family parish» is equivalent to a small zemstvo unit, since in essence, basically and most importantly, it was about the same thing: a small territorial unit of local self-government, in which the entire local population would be called to participate, regardless of its class divisions. In conclusion, the author considers one of the main reforms of the Provisional government of 1917 on the establishment of the volost zemstvo and points out that simultaneously with the introduction of a small unit of the zemstvo structure, a logically verified system of local self - government of our country was formed-from the volost to the all-Russian zemstvo union. Thus, the author concludes that the idea of introducing a small zemstvo unit was justified, and its theoretical and legal foundations were developed over the decades so that they found their practical implementation, and indeed allowed to solve most of the problems of local self-government.