FORMATION AND ACTIVITY OF THE CITY DUMA OF UYEZD TOWN OF MUROM IN 1871–1875
Authors: Popova Vera V. 
Published: December 2024

The relevance of studying the sphere of urban public administration in the post-reform period of the 1870s on the example of an uyezd town is due to the opportunity to use positive experience in the activities carried out by local governments of Russian provincial cities.

The purpose of the research is to study the formation and activities of Murom City Duma in 1871–1875, which became the first City Duma acting on the basis of 1870 Municipal Statutes.

The novelty of the work lies in the fact that, based on archival data, formation of Murom City Duma, its activities and participation of the urban population in this process were comprehensively analyzed. This study gives the opportunity to identify consistent patterns common to other regions, as well as specific features peculiar to a particular city.

Materials and methods. The most significant group of materials on which the article is based is the documents of management and record keeping. These include administrative documents, voter lists, minutes of meetings of Murom City Duma, reports and memoranda of officials, as well as statements, reports and other documents that make up business correspondence. The listed documents are kept in the funds of the State Archive of Vladimir region. First of all, these are Fund 14 «Office of Vladimir Governor», Fund 205 «Vladimir Governorate Presence for Zemstvo and City Affairs» and Fund 480 «Murom Non-Classical Secondary School».

Among the materials, it is necessary to note the normative legal acts, which are represented by the City Regulation dated 1870, published in the «Complete Collection of Laws of the Russian Empire».

Research on regional history was also used as materials, among which the works of S.N. Minin and N.Yu. Novichkova, I.A. Novoselova, A.P. Tikhonov, V.Ya. Chernyshev are of the greatest interest. Among modern research works, the works of I.R. Mustafin, M.A. Chashnikov, V.I. Chervonyuk should be noted.

The method of historical analysis, the systematic approach and the method of statistical analysis were used in the work.

Based on historical analysis, the processes of formation and activity of Murom City Duma were studied in development in the context of historical situation in the 1870s.

The systematic approach provided an opportunity to consider the urban public administration of an uyezd town of Murom as an element of a more general system of urban self-government in Russia in the second half of the XIX century.

The statistical analysis method was used to generalize quantitative indicators.

Research results. The article examines the process of formation and activity of the City Duma of a provincial city of the Russian Empire in the second half of the XIX century on the basis of archival materials. The study was conducted on the example of Murom, which was an uyezd town of Vladimir province during the period under review. As a result of the work done, the issue of the city population’s participation in forming public administration bodies was studied, the class composition and the results of the activities carried out by the first city Duma of Murom were analyzed, the problems that arose in putting into effect the 1870 municipal statutes were identified and positive trends on the example of a city were noted.

One of the problems is related to forming city electoral assemblies. As a result of the restrictions established by the law, a significant part of the citizens were deprived of the right to vote. Another problem was distribution of voters by category, depending on the amount of taxes paid.

Even among citizens having the right to vote, the turnout was very low. Representatives of the merchant class were the most active, they also made up the absolute majority of councillors of the first City Duma.

The powers of the City Duma included issues of local importance. At this, the city self-government bodies solved the problems of finding finances on their own. The Duma of 1871–1875 paid great attention to the improvement of the city, maintaining cleanliness in public places and fire safety. These issues were repeatedly discussed at meetings and reflected in the resolutions adopted by the Duma. As a result, the face of the city changed significantly for the better. During the period under review, the field of education was developed, in particular, it was decided to create a non-classical secondary school in the city. Transport communication developed.

Conclusions. Implementation of articles of the Municipal Regulations in organizing elections to the city Duma of uyezd city of Murom in 1871 caused difficulties related to the formation of voters’ list, their uneven distribution by category and low activity of the population in the election process. The absolute majority of seats in the Duma were occupied by representatives of the merchant class, which doesn’t make it impossible to fully talk about equality of estates in the municipal government. However, despite legislative gaps and organizational difficulties, changes for the better took place in the first years of the Duma’s activity. Murom Duma showed the ability to independently solve budget replenishment issues, was engaged in improving the sanitary and fire safety situation in the city, developing education, supporting trade and transport links.