The Zemstvos, a peculiar Russian form of local self-government,
were introduced as part of the reforms following the emancipation
of the serfs. They were supposed to concern themselves primarily
with local economic needs:
In the exercise of these functions the zemstvos were autonomous,
at least in theory, but they had no executive powers and depended
for the carrying out of their decisions on the cooperation of
police and other crown officials over whom they had no control.
Their work was further handicapped by lack of funds. The revenue
of the zemstvos was derived from local rates on agricultural land,
urban real estate, commerce and industry, that is sources already
heavily drawn upon by the central government.
Count Valuev, the chairman of the committee that drew up the draft
of local self-government, the zemstvo stature of 1864, favored
the predominance of the nobility. He wanted to keep the zemstvo
institutions under close administrative supervision in order to
prevent the forming of a "state within a state." The
denial of adequate funds was one manifestation of the hostility
of the ruling bureaucracy toward local self-government. The zemstvo
were only an appendix not an integral part of local self-government.
Lenin called them a "fifth wheel." Count Witte, the
somewhat liberal prime minister at the turn of the century, said
they were a compromise between two hostile views: they failed
to meet the requirements of local self-government and they could
not be integrated in the bureaucracy either.
The Zemstvos were tolerated by the imperial bureaucracy only as
long as its power was not at stake. From the 1880s on the zemstvos
struggled to defend their rights. During the 1877-1878 War the
liberal leaders of the zemstvos took part in the struggle for
constitutional reforms. These liberals were largely dvoriane of
modest means who hired an army of employees from the ranks of
the radical intelligentsia: doctors, nurses, teachers and professors.
The actual influence of these middle-class or "third estate"
representatives was strong in the councils that determined zemstvo
policy.
The zemstvos had representatives on the boards of local schools,
they soon developed their own free zemstvo schools. These zemstvo
schools were the most promising part of the institutions of the
zemstvo in terms of significant reforms. While the zemstvos financed
these schools, the Ministry of Education controlled them however.
The zemstvo graduates emerged as the chief agents for the advancement
of elementary eduction in Russia. The expenditure for the zemstvo
schools increased rapidly. Their own fully organized school, however,
did not emerge until the end of the century.
Zemstvo officials kept urging liberal reforms on the imperial
government, although at first they kept aloof from political issues.
Even Valuev dissolved the St. Petersburg Zemstvo because he disapproved
of the tenor of their debates and their refusal to comply with
restrictive tax law of 1866 which limited the power to tax industrial
and commercial enterprises. In 1867 the presiding officer of the
zemstvo was given he right to limit the scope of debates and to
prohibit the publication of proceedings without authorization
of administrative officials. Because of these restrictions the
zemstvos declined in the 1870s.
But they revived again during the war of 1877-1878. An informal
zemstvo union was formed soon thereafter. The Zemstvo of Chernigov
even appealed for liberal reforms in 1878, such as the freedom
of the press, to stem the tide of social unrest. Many leaders
of the zemstvos were arrested by the police. The text of this
appeal for freedom of the press was circulated illegally. But
overall the zemstvo liberal appeal and protest was limited.
Under Alexander III, the arch-reactionary, it was thought that
the Zemstvo Act of 1864 had gone too far toward social equality.
By impairing the leading position of the nobility, it was endangering
the class structure of Russia. Now the spirit of the counter-reforms
set in, as it did in all other aspects of Russian society at the
end of the 19th century. A new Zemstvo Act of 1890 had the imprint
of the aggressively reactionary Count Tolstoy, Alexander's chief
minister, and his successor, Durnovo (1889-1895). The most important
thing the Act of 1890 did was to create "land captains."
They were nobles appointed by the crown with extensive administrative
and juridical functions.
Tolstoy deplored the lack of integration of the zemstvo and the
crown institutions. The zemstvo was considered something apart
from the state in the Act of 1864. Hence they elected their own
executive organs and had autonomy in the local economy and the
welfare program. So there was hostility between the zemstvos and
the state. The solution of Tolstoy was to regard the zemstvo functions
as part of the state functions. But instead of freeing the zemstvo
from state interference, Tolstoy wanted to limit them even more
by more representation for the nobility and more state control.
The Zemstvo Act of 1890 revised the 1864 law by having the elections
of country zemstvo assemblies segregated on a class basis:
Ownership of land or some real estate was required in order to
vote for class 1 and 2. The peasants voted indirectly: each township
had one candidate from which group the provincial governor appointed
the number of peasants prescribed by law. Women and Jews were
specifically disenfranchised.
The result of this arrangements was that 57.1 percent of the seats
went to the nobility, 29.6 percent to the peasants, and 13.3 percent
to other classes. The nobility was clearly the dominant factor
now in the zemstvo leadership. Marshals of the nobility became
ex officio chairmen of the individual zemstvos and the bureaucracy
had wide powers over the affairs of the zemstvos. Professional
people appointed by the zemstvos had to be approved by the provincial
governors. The Minister of the Interior could remove and control
the members of zemstvo executive boards. Even the decisions of
the zemstvo assemblies had to be approved by the Minister of the
Interior. Such decisions were not effective for two weeks, during
which time these decisions could be suspended if they were considered
to be "dangerous to public policy" or "local interests"
by crown officials. The provincial governors also meddled with
zemstvo finance.
Yet, despite all of these efforts by the government to limit the
influence and effectiveness oft he zemstvo institutions, they
became centers of liberal and radical opposition to the old regime.
The longing for real autonomy in local self-government persisted
and could not be suppressed.
The zemstvos unfortunately never carried their liberalism far
enough to advocate free trade. There were other limits to their
liberalism. In 1892 they were forced to finance church schools
by the procurator of the Orthodox Church. Jews once more were
excluded from having anything to do with the zemstvos - probably
at the behest of the church and anti-semitic bureaucrats.
Yet, in 1890 the liberals in the zemstvos revealed increasing
activity. They wanted more popular representation and a central
zemstvo organization to enhance their influence. Zemstvo officials
addressed Nicholas II when he came to power, calling for concessions
and for the rule of law and representative assemblies. But Nicholas
said these were senseless dreams. When a zemstvo conference was
held in 1896, any further meetings of this nature were forbidden.
The zemstvos then became bolder and passed resolutions calling
for compulsory school attendance and the abolition of corporal
punishment. They also pushed fort he unionization of their employees,
the so-called "third element."
The government soon cracked down on this unionization movement.
Elected officials of the zemstvos were refused confirmation and
the conventions of professional men were closely supervised. Petitions
of the zemstvo assemblies were ignored. Count Witte, in 1899,
argued that local self-government was incompatible with the whole
idea of autocracy Communication between municipalities and the
zemstvo was prohibited in 1900. Then a severe blow was delivered
to zemstvo finances in 1901 when tax rates were limited to 3 percent
of assessed valuation of real estate. The basic rights of the
zemstvos were being whittled away bit by bit.
Despite all this, an illegal zemstvo conference was held in Moscow
in 1901. Thereafter such conferences met at irregular intervals
and became the chief organ of liberal opinion in the country.
Many zemstvo leaders campaigned for a constitution. Many joined
the underground movement. It was the zemstvos which took a lead
in organizing the Union of Liberation, an important element in
the revolutionary movement that led to the 1905 Revolution and
beyond.
Blowing hot and cold - reform and reaction - can also be illustrated
by taking a look at religious and ethnic policy toward the end
of the 19th century. The application of orthodoxy and nationality
to domestic affairs manifested itself int he intensification of
administrative centralization and in the persecution of ethnic
and religious minorities.
Alexander, the "Liberator" (II) was influenced by the
ultra-conservative Pobedonostsev and Katkov. Pobedonostsev was
the chief procurator of the church between 1880 and 1905, and
the tutor of Alexander III and Nicholas II. He hated the constitution
and advocated the "moral union" of autocracy and the
people. Religious bigotry and nationalistic intolerance were the
basic motifs of Pobedonostsev's life and policy. Katkov, a journalist,
published the "Moscow News", which influenced official
policy and promoted a virulent chauvinism and ultra-conservatism.
In 1881, after the assassination of Alexander II, a state of emergency
statute was issued. It gave government administrators extra-judicial
and wide executive powers. They could issue fines without recourse
to the courts, make arrests on their own, and sequester property
if they felt like it. Must legal jurisdiction was transferred
to military tribunals. Schools were frequently closed. Publications
which the government did not like were suspended. Officials who
revealed liberal tendencies were removed. This reactionary statute
was renewed repeatedly until the revolution of 1917. This trend
continued and became more dominant when Tolstoy succeeded Ignatiev
in the Ministry of the Interior. Tolstoy had been the reactionary
minister of education under Alexander II.
The integration of local self-government with the crown administration
became more or less complete. The introduction of "land captains"
in 1889 and the Zemstvo Act of 1890 accomplished this purpose.
Then the municipal government act of 1892 finished the process.
The property franchise practically excluded most of the common
people from participation in government. The bulk of the urban
population was disfranchised as well. Jews were totally disfranchised.
Even in the so-called "Jewish Pale," a huge Jewish ghetto
in Western Russia, only one tenth of the officials were Jewish.
The land captains took over from the justices of the peace. The
Russian judiciary declined rapidly.
In 1881 redemption, the scheme by which the "liberated"
serfs paid for the land of their former owners, was made compulsory,
although joint responsibility remained until 1903. The peasants
still needed consent of their former owners to get a passport
to leave their villages. The redemption payments were even extended
to the state peasants in 1886. The tutelage or control of the
village commune remained in tact. Two thirds of the village assembly
had to approve the breakup of any household. Administrative officials
had to approve the sale of communal lands. Peasants could not
withdraw from the commune, as the law of 1861 had stipulated,
even if an individual had paid his redemption fees. The old scheme
of periodic repartition of village lands, always a matter for
the village assembly to decide, was now regulated by the land
captains. So, for all practical purposes, the peasant of Russia
was still in bondage.
As fare as the urban workers were concerned, things were no better.
The government intervened in disputes between the workers and
their employees when it came to wages and labor contracts. There
were stiff penalties for strikes and the instigation of strikes.
Factory boards and inspectors supervised everything. In 1890 the
government inspectors were even given the right to permit the
use of child labor and night-time work for women. The government,
meanwhile, instituted a high tariff policy and constantly intervened
in the free flow of the economy.
It was only natural that the government should follow all this
up by introducing the censorship of newspapers and other publications.
The autonomy of the universities were once more eliminated. Jewish
students were denied all educational opportunities.
There was systematic persecution of ethnic minorities. In Poland
and the Baltic provinces, a policy of brutal Russification was
inaugurated. Pobedonostsev sent letters to the tsar full of invective
against Roman Catholics, Protestants, Jews, and Russian dissenters.
The Catholic clergy of Poland was constantly persecuted. Lutheran
ministers in the Baltic regions were brought under indictment
for various offenses against the Orthodox Church and government
authorities. An orthodox cathedral was built in Reval even though
there were hardly any orthodox believers in the city.
The Russian dissenters could not build new places of worship or
propagate their faith. Conversion to the dissenters brought imprisonment
and even exile to Siberia, while coercive missionary work by orthodox
priests was promoted. Dissenters known as "Stundists"
and "Dukhobors," in particular, were severely persecuted.
There were frequent punitive expeditions against them, which eventually
caused most of the "Dukhobors" to leave Russia in 1899.
All of this was rather more significant than it sounds, since
there were some 17.5 million dissenters in Russia at the time.
The legal restrictions imposed on the dissenters were not removed
until the Revolution of 1905.
Anti-Semitism always thrives on nationalism and religious intolerance.
And so it was in Russia. The main instigators of anti-semitism
were Alexander III, Pobedonostsev, D. Tolstoy, and Plehve. There
was also anti-semitism in the revolutionary movement. The "People's
Will" became anti-semitic since a Jew, Jessie Helfman, had
been involved in the murder of Alexander II. In 1881 a wave of
pogroms broke out in nearly 100 different localities. In many
instances these outbreaks were instigated by or connived at by
the police.
By this time there were some 650 anti-Jewish laws on the statute
books. New legal restrictions were constantly added to the books.
Jews could not settle in rural districts, for instance. The Pale
was constricted. Quotas for Jewish students were introduced in
the schools. Jews were excluded from the legal profession, the
zemstvos, and municipal governments. No Jewish craftsmen were
allowed outside the Pale, while some 20,000 Jewish craftsmen were
expelled from the city of Moscow in 1891.
Jews could not use Christian names to hide their religious identity.
The great Jewish exodus to the United States and to Palestine
began at this time. In fact, the kibbutz movement in Israel got
its start from these early emigrants from Russia.