Zemstvo

Zemstvo having a dinner by Grigoriy Myasoyedov. 1872.

A zemstvo (Russian: земство, IPA: [ˈzʲɛmstvə], pl. земства, zemstva) was an institution of local government set up during the emancipation reform of 1861 carried out in Imperial Russia by Emperor Alexander II of Russia. Nikolay Milyutin elaborated the idea of the zemstvo, and the first zemstvo laws went into effect in 1864. After the October Revolution the zemstvo system was shut down by the Bolsheviks and replaced with a multilevel system of workers' and peasants' councils ("soviets").

The Zemstvo Assembly

The system of elected bodies of local self-government in the Russian Empire was represented at the lowest level by the mir and the volost and was continued, so far as the 34 Guberniyas (governorates) of old Russia were concerned, in the elective district and provincial assemblies (zemstvo). The goal of the zemstvo reform was the creation of local organs of self-government on an elected basis, possessing sufficient authority and independence to resolve local economic problems. Assemblies could appoint deputies to carry out orders and objectives in response to issues the zemstvo considered.

Alexander II instituted these bodies, one for each district and another for each province or government, in 1864. The law creating the zemstvo outlined 14 objectives for each zemstvo to accomplish.

1. Self management of zemstvo property and revenue
2. Self maintenance of zemstvo property
3. Public food security
4. Management of philanthropy, public welfare, and church building maintenance
5. Mutual property insurance
6. Oversee development of trade and industry
7. Economic participation of public education, public health, and prison systems
8. Cooperation on the prevention of bovine disease and crop plagues
9. Fulfillment of civil, military, and postal demands
10. Distribution of state tax funds assigned to the zemstvo
11. Setting, collecting, and allocating local taxes
12. Notify the public of local welfare opportunities and civil rights
13. Hold elections
14. Special charters

Elections

Early 1900s this sketch of the Poltava Zemstvo Building shows the architecture, seating, and wall art commissioned by the zemstvo

They consisted of a representative council (zemskoye sobranye) and of an executive board (zemskaya uprava) nominated by the former. The board consisted of five classes of members:

• large landed proprietors (nobles owning 590 acres (2.4 km²) and over), who sat in person
• proxies of the small landowners, including the clergy in their capacity of landed proprietors
• proxies of the wealthier townsmen
• proxies of the less wealthy urban classes
• proxies of the peasants, elected by the volosts

The nobles received more weight in voting for a zemstvo even though nobles were a tiny minority of the population. District zemstvos were required to have 40% of their assembly elected by the peasants, but provincial assemblies were elected from the district without such a quota. This resulted in much lower peasant representation at the provincial level.

Persons under 25 years of age, under criminal investigation, convicted criminals, and foreigners were not permitted to be in the zemstvos. Women who owned sufficient property to gain a seat on a zemstvo could appoint a male proxy to vote for them. By 1913, 20-40% of the eligible voters in Tula Oblast were women depending on the election. Women were de facto denied the right to serve as deputies with this confirmed de jure in 1903.

Prior to each election, lists of eligible voters for a given zemstvo were published for public comment. Voters could be stricken by the zemstvo or added to the roster based on public comment. Voters had to be present to vote in person on candidates who were self nominated. The electoral bodies were not allowed to give instructions for how candidates should perform once elected. The governor could object to the proceedings and suspend electoral decisions. Election reform in 1890 resulted in separate electoral bodies for the noble and ignoble voters. At this time, the clergy, jews, and non-landowning peasants were deprived of the right to vote in zemstvo elections. Part of the motivation for the election reform was a decline in land ownership of the nobles which resulted in too few nobles to fill the deputy and assembly roles. These election reforms decreased the size of assemblies and number of deputies 20-30%.

Procedure

Zemstvo assemblies met at least once a year for not more than twenty days. Extraordinary meetings of a zemstvo required permission from the Minister of the Interior and could only consider the specific issues on which the Minister permitted them. Provincial meetings were opened and closed by the local governor while the district meetings were opened and closed by the Marshal of the Nobility. These zemstvo typcially created a small number of delegations for handling decisions the assembly came to. One such typical delegation was an executive board which worked year around. It was not uncommon for one individual to serve as the Marshal of the Nobility and chairman of the executive for a number of years.

Enactments from the zemstvos generally needed approval from the governor or Minister of the Interior. These approvals could be withheld on the grounds that an enactment was either illegal or against state interests. In the case that enactments were not approved, governors were expected to notify the assembly and deliberate on adjustments to the enactment that would allow it to pass. If compromise could not be found, the Senate would hear the case. The governor was expected to act as a plaintiff and prove that the zemstvo's enactment was unjust. The governor could also revoke their approval and begin this process after a enactment had taken effect. After 1890 with expanded oversight powers, the Ministry of Interior began to consistently obstruct the work of provincial zemstvos.

Taxation

The 10th objective, distribution of state funds assigned to zemstvos was one of the main objectives. About 20% of Russia's annual state revenue was assigned to the zemstvos in the early years. Zemstvos were able to draw taxes from a variety of other sources and for a variety of purposes. It is difficult to summarize what a typical zemstvo's taxation looks like. For example, land tax accounted for between 3 and 90 percent of a zemstvo's revenue depending on the zemstvo and year. In many districts, police were supposed to collect harvest taxes on behalf of the zemstvo. However, there was significant difficultly in actually collecting because the zemstvo had no control over the police, and the assemblies were forbidden from awarding police including even thanking them.

In the beginning of the zemstvo system, natural obligations such as road work and like kind taxes such as wheat, were of greater concern to the peasants than monetary taxation. These taxes were unpopular and formed large part of the zemstvo's resources. Overtime, these were mostly converted into monetary taxes. This policy was also not popular as the zemstvos were often seen by contemporary peasants as worthless institutions that raised a lot of taxes.

The Third Element

The zemstvo executive boards were highly involved in the administration of the staff working for the zemstvo. These staff were professional experts from the Intelligentsia known as 'the third element'. Aside from the medical and educational staff the agronomists and statisticians were common third element professions. These professionals profited from the employment, but they also donated their time as civic service. The third element was a source of significant distrust of the zemstvos by the central government. Unlike the zemstvo administrators (first element) and deputies (second element), the third element often came from the peasant class. For this they were suspected of being liberal radicals (and some were) which resulted in persecution of the police.

The term 'third element' was coined by Vice Governor Vladimir Kondoidi in 1900, to refer to radical zemstvo employees in Samara. He charged that the third element had largely taken control of the actual operations of the zemstvo.

"The zemstvo board has no choice but to rely exclusively on the third element, since there is no participation in the assembly at all. In this regard, the upcoming session terrifies me." - Dmitrii Shipov, private letter 1902

The governor of Samara subsequently lead an investigation which discovered that over half of the current zemstvo employees had never been submitted to the governor for approval as required by law.

Education

The building of the former zemstvo primary school in Krasno

Literacy rose from 10% to 68% during the existence of the zemstvo system. The zemstvo education system was built on top of the existing peasant and clerical education systems. From 1907 to 1917 the Ministry of Education developed control over the education system.

Beginning in 1886 and continuing throughout the existence of zemstvos, the central bureaucracy sought and found additional control over primary education. This started with special school inspections which could result in the closing of unsatisfactory schools. The Marshall of Nobility was given special privileges such as school inspections, sole authority to open new schools, and chair positions on school boards in the 1874 primary school legislation, but these privileges did not have a large effect on schools because most zemstvos never ceded financial control over the schools to the school boards and many of the supposed inspections simply never occurred. Peasants mostly supported zemstvo schools over existing schools created by the crown or clergy. The number of Synod administrated schools fell from 24,000 in 1886 to 4,000 by 1880.

The zemstvo school system was built from the existing peasant education system. Prior to 1870 peasant communities were required to provide the facilities and the zemstvos did not reliably pay teachers. In the 1870s, zemstvos shifted to reliable salaries and began providing additional materials such as blackboards. The shift from these schools being funded by peasant communities to zemstvo budgets took several decades. The zemstvo did not even reach budget parity with the local peasant communities until 1889. Afterwards zemstvos budgets rapidly expanded and education became the largest share of the budget. In 1893 the total zemstvo expenditure on education was 9 million rubles, by 1913 it was nearly 90 million rubles.

Students of zemstvo schools could be subjected to year-end examinations at the zemstvos discretion. Pass rates for these exams were used to evaluate teacher performance and male students that passed were required to do less military service.

Zemstvo teachers mostly came from the middle class. There was a mix of male and female teachers which leaned towards the females. Teachers were united by low pay, isolation in communities unfamiliar to them, and being unmarried. Only 17% of female teachers were married and 47% of male teachers were married in 1911.

Choir was a popular way to boost scholastic engagement. Nearly every other form of education received criticism, but teaching students to read the lyrics and memorize the tones of church songs was encouraging to all.

In 1907 the Duma created a fund to establish a school for every village in Russia. These funds were dispensed through the zemstvos to existing school or were given to school curators which often resulted in the construction of new schools. Herein arose a new class of "state schools" which were not affiliated with the zemstvos. In 1910 the Ministry of Education created a national pension fund which all teachers could participate in. Additional administrative action in 1913, caused the existing zemstvo schools to become more under the influence of the Ministry of Education than the zemstvos themselves. In 1914, zemstvos lost the power to direct school teachers and the ministry gained the power to fire any school teachers they deemed as unfit.

Medicine

Zemstvo Hospital Brusyliv, Zhytomyr Oblast

Prior to the zemstvo medical system, Russian peasants mostly relied on faith healers specializing in magical chants and remedies for their medical care. The zemstvos viewed raising support for medical systems as their first most important task. Therefore, the zemstvo medical system became as much a popular movement for supporting an ideal as an actual service. To accomplish this, the zemstvos promoted policies that limited the direct costs of medical care and aimed to compensate providers through tax funds. The medical experts supported by the zemstvos put significant focus on hygiene education and preventative medicine. The zemstvo officials and practitioners appreciated the difficulty of not only making illiterate, god fearing peasants trust a largely secular medical system based on rational analysis, but making them understand this distinction at all.

Growth of the medical system was slow and depended on growth of the third element. The first zemstvo bureaucracies for managing the various salaried positions connected with the zemstvo did not emerge until the 1870s. Growing numbers of salaried workers inevitably lead to growing budgets. At several points in the early zemstvo period budget concerned lead to push back and laying off practitioners. By 1910, nearly all districts had a physician-patient ratio worse than 1 to 10,000.

Practitioners suffered from a lack of trust on the zemstvos' part. Recommendations such as funding for hospital improvements would be weighed against ideas from the assembly. Practitioners made several attempts to form a national organization for the advancement of medicine, but this was delayed until 1885. One of the goals this national system would achieve is uniform medical records to support analyzing cases from other provinces. Practitioners also demanded changing from the circuit system in which they spent most of the their time traveling to each remote village to see patients to a stationary system in which they held regular hours at a medical center. Zemstvos opposed the stationary system throughout the 1870s on the grounds that remote villagers which paid taxes towards the medical service would not receive equal access. In the 1880s the stationary system became more popular as the number of practitioners grew.

As the circuit system faded away, the zemstvos engaged in heated debate over what to do with the feldshers. These positions represented the gap between the ideal medical care the zemstvo system sought and the practical limitations of what could be provided. Restrictions were placed on feldshers such that much of their day to day job became technically illegal, but there was no one else to provide medical care. This was widely known and tolerated by all, but the increasing criminality of the feldsher work symbolized what the zemstvo medical system still needed to achieve. One reason for the zemstvos' opposition to feldshers was they blurred the lines between the traditional spiritual medicine and modern medicine. Rather than fading away, the feldsher practice was opened to women in 1871 to meet growing needs. Alongside growing numbers of feldshers was an increasing professionalism through more formal training as physicians assistants.

Sanitary councils began meeting in the 1870s, but were not effective until after 1879 when zemstvos gained the power to issue sanitary legislation binding on all citizens. Moscow was a particular leader in the development of sanitary councils and then full time bureau of sanitation professionals.

Midwifery was a contemporaneously known issue during the zemstvo period because nearly one in two peasant children did not reach adulthood. This is a notable area in which the zemstvos failed. At the peak of midwifery during the zemstvo system, only 2% of births were attended. The primary cause of this failure was peasant women did not want strangers involved in their labor.

History

Zemstvos were created as part of the larger Great Reforms. In 1864, the first law on Zemstvos was enacted by the Emperor which outlined the powers of the zemstvos. These powers were administrative and focused on local issues which were mostly not addressed by existing institutions. In 1865 zemstvos were opened in nineteen provinces, and between 1866 and 1876 another sixteen were established. Twelve provinces had no zemstvos, the three Baltic provinces and the nine western governments annexed from Poland by Catherine II. Created in 1875 after much consultation with Cossack officials, the zemstvos of the Don Host Oblast collapsed and were abolished after six years of operation.

Zemstvos were originally restricted from making binding rules on every citizen within their jurisdiction. In 1873, zemstvos were permitted to make binding regulation on every citizen strictly for the purpose of preventing fires. These powers were expanded in 1879 to allow regulation to prevent the spread of epidemics and zoological diseases.

From 1864 to 1889, zemstvos elected the justices of the peace. Following this period the zemskii nachalnik position was created. The zemskii nachalnik was appointed by the local nobility but the zemstvo was required to pay his salary. This was unpopular with the zemstvo. The assembly tried to lower the salary which became the subject of several lawsuits in the Senate.

From 1866 to 1905 zemstvo officials were largely prevented from contracting each other on the ground that these were local organizations. Occasional exemptions were made for fire reinsurance contracts or large agricultural machinery sales. In 1902, zemstvo leaders petitioned Nicholas II for the voice of the zemstvo to reach the throne. The Emperor considered this a senseless dream. The Minister of Interior expressly forbade zemstvo officials from Tver from contacting other provinces on any issue of national politics.

In 1866 the Senate ruled that zemstvos were not allowed to tax industrial output.

As time went on additional gubernatorial oversight was placed on zemstvos. In 1867, the zemstvos were prevented from publishing minutes or debates unless given specific permission by the governor. In 1879, the governors were given the power to dismiss any zemstvo employee at their discretion. The largest single change in the zemstvos powers came from Alexander III (law of 25 June [O.S. 12 June] 1890). The 1890 law instituted the Bureau of Zemstvo Affairs as additional oversight of the zemstvos. Bureau officials were appointed by the emperor and from local governments officials such as Marshall of the Nobility, district prosecutor, and district courts. Procedures were still led by the governor. The bureau overturned 116 zemstvo enactments during the 1891 to 1892 year with 51 of these enactments from the Vladimir Provincial Assembly alone. This reform also gave zemstvos the power to issue binding regulation on the conduct of all citizens outside of townships in a wide variety of issues. In return, citizens gained the right to appeal the zemstvo's enactments to the Senate. In the 15 years that followed, the Senate heard 226 of these appeals, which primarily involved tax disputes. The reforms changed the legal status of men serving on the zemstvo from private citizen to government official. Zemstvo officials could enforce these regulation by bringing violators before criminal courts. Prior to 1890, zemstvo sessions were often cut short due to assemblies not meeting the quorum. This was in part because officials were not allowed to receive a salary or other compensation for their position.

The 1890 reforms also expanded the nobility's representation in the zemstvos from 55% in 1886 to 72% by 1903. Some historians represent the equality in terms of the amount of land one member of the zemstvo represented. In 1877, each peasant assembly member represented 1.76 times the land a noble member represented. By 1905, each peasant assembly member represented 6.47 times the land a noble member represented.

Zemstvo expenditure grew from 89.1 million rubles in 1900 to 290.5 million rubles in 1913. Of the latter sum, 90.1 million rubles were spent on education, 71.4 million on medical assistance, 22.2 million on improvements in agriculture, and 8 million on veterinary measures. The chief sources of zemstvo revenue were rates on lands, forests, country dwellings, factories, mines and other real-estate.

From 1897 to 1899 the issue of eliminating the district zemstvos and centralizing all functionality within the provincial zemstvo was seriously debated. This debate was especially significant in Moscow where Dmitry Shipov, chairman of the provincial zemstvo, resigned in protest to bring attention to the debate.

The first formal curriculum for zemstvo schooling was created by the Ministry of Education in 1897. This program prescribed a weekly study of six hours in the Word of God, three hours of Slavonic Church, eight hours of Russian Language, two hours of writing, and five hours of arithmetic.

From 1902-1905, there were widespread reports of a total loss of independence of the peasant members of the zemstvos. Authority was ceded to the land captains. During this time period sections of the government more closely connected to the central bureaucracy such as the governors' offices, the ministers of finance, the ministers of interior, and special police investigations became more and more involved in zemstvo affairs. This was unpopular with zemstvo officials many of which were contributing to a liberal constitutionalist political movement. Financial and practical burdens from the Russo-Japanese War contributed to increased tensions on all sides. Rising distrust between the central bureaucracy and the zemstvos was recognized by Tsar Nicholas II in his 1903 manifesto on provincial administration. This manifesto served as public support for the reforms led by Minister of Interior Vyacheslav von Plehve. The goal of Plehve's reforms was to bring tighter control of the zemtsvos through gubernatorial oversight. These reforms faced significant opposition from the zemstvos, the ministers of finance, and several governors. In Saint Petersburg, Plehve was able to force the governor to resign over his opposition to the reforms. Plehve worked closely with the Police Department of Russia, which he formerly lead, to oust many zemstvo members. Several prominent zemstvo figures, including Shipov, were formally reprimanded by the Tsar.

The participants of Russian Revolution of 1905 largely overlapped with zemstvo participants. In the 1905-6 year 66 districts boycotted taxes in protest of the taxes being too high. Discontent was most severe where the zemtsvo's tax on land allotted to the peasants was taxed much higher than privately owned land. Notable participants in the 1905 revolution affiliated with the zemstvos include Dmitry Shipov, Dmitry Shakhovskoy, Georgy Lvov, Pavel Dolgorukov, and Fedor Redichev. Several of these men overlap with the members of Beseda: a clandestine organization for liberals to discuss the issues of the zemstvo.

In response to the Russian Peasants' uprising of 1905–1906, the zemstvos turned sharply conservative. Georgy Lvov was voted off the zemstvo for being a 'dangerous liberal'. The zemstvo assemblies, still dominated by nobility, were frightened by the violence of 1905. Many members joined the United Nobility and the zemstvos became more focused on protecting the interests of the nobility than addressing the grievances of 1905.

The rules governing elections to the zemstvos were taken as a model for the electoral law of 1906 and are sufficiently indicated by the account of this given below. The zemstvos were originally given large powers in relation to the incidence of taxation and such questions as education, medical relief, public welfare, food supply, and road maintenance in their localities, but radicals, such as the Socialist Revolutionary Party and the nihilists, met them with hostility, believing that the reforms were too minor. Still, in his 1901 article "What is to be done", Lenin advocated for a short-term alliance with the zemstvos against Tsarist oppression.

In 1906, each zemstvo was able to elect one deputy to represent them in the State Council. Absenteeism increased dramatically during this period and many zemstvos were considered to be in good attendance if half their members showed up to the meetings.

As Prime Minister, Pyotr Stolypin gave zemstvos the budget and authority needed to carry out many of the projects in his agrarian reforms. His administration expanded the number of the zemstvos from 34 to 43. The new Duma electoral law resulted in 30% of the legislators of the third and fourth Duma coming from zemstvo backgrounds. In the period leading up the 1905 Revolution and throughout Stolypin's governance, the style of debate among zemstvo gentry changed; what began as consensus building and doing favors for friends and family turned into partisan parliamentary politics more typical of 20th century governance.

The All-Russian Zemstvo Union was set up in August 1914 to provide a common voice for all the zemstvos. It was a liberal organisation which after 1915 operated in conjunction with the Union of Cities.

In 1917 rural societies in Stavropol refused to pay taxes and boycotted schools, medical centers, and all other services after the zemstvo was first introduced there. Rising tensions resulted in three protesters being killed by the police and the zemstvo remaining in power. Their governor reported:

The dissatisfaction of the rural population with the introduction of the zemstvo was evident almost everywhere in the province shortly after the distribution of the tax lists. The peasants, being insufficiently informed about the taxes and the sphere of activity of zemtsvo institutions which were only in their first year of existence, noticed the exceptional increase in local taxes.

During the Russian Revolution the zemstvos lost all authority and the only real authority remaining in Russia was the soviets. The zemstvo elections were boycotted because the people considered the soviets as the authority. Much of the third element stopped showing up to their zemstvo appointed positions and worked for the soviets instead.

After the October Revolution, the uniform system of zemstvos broke apart. In some places such as Ukraine the institutions remained and took on more nationalist forms.

References

• Vucinich, Wayne; Emmons, Terence (1982). The Zemstvo in Russia: an experiment in local self-government. Cambridge ; New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521234166.
• Figes, Orlando. A People's Tragedy: The Russian Revolution 1891–1924. London: The Bodley Head. ISBN 9781847922915.

Further reading

• Darrow, David W. "The Politics of Numbers: Zemstvo Land Assessment and the Conceptualization of Russia's Rural Economy." The Russian Review 59.1 (2000): 52-75.
• Emmons, Terence, and Wayne S. Vucinich, eds. The Zemstvo in Russia: An Experiment in Local Self-Government (Cambridge University Press, 1982) essays by scholars.
• Fallows, Thomas S. "The Russian Fronde and the Zemstvo Movement: Economic Agitation and Gentry Politics in the Mid-1890s." The Russian Review 44.2 (1985): 119-138. online
• Porter, Thomas, and William Gleason. "The 'Zemstvo' and Public Initiative in Late Imperial Russia." Russian History 21.4 (1994): 419-437. online
• Porter, Thomas Earl. The Zemstvo and the emergence of civil society in late imperial Russia 1864-1917 (Edwin Mellen Press, 1991).