Date: 1901
Source: ru:PSS/v5

3. S. Eighteen Years of Conflict Between the Bureaucracy and the Zemstvos. “Volnoe Slovo,” No. 53 – (January 20, 1883)

[It was also published as a separate pamphlet]

…As is well known… The 1864 Regulations on Zemstvo Institutions fell far short of what public opinion had demanded…

…The government—through its official organs, such as the “Northern Post” and even the governors themselves—sought to allay the emerging concerns[169] by pointing out that the new institutions were nothing more than an experiment, a kind of school for representative governance, while hinting at their eventual expansion… (“Volnoe Slovo,” No. 53, p. 6).

…In the eight central gubernias, private landowners—numbering 93,900 individuals who held a total of 119,880 square versts of land—were represented by 1,817 elected deputies, whereas the peasant population, comprising 5,800,000 souls and possessing 181,440 square versts of land, was granted but 1,597 representatives… (No. 55, p. 6).

In No. 57 (Section VI of the article), 3. S. elaborates at length on the zemstvos’ utter inability to collect arrears from landowners, and he points out the glaring inequality in the taxation of privately owned versus peasant-owned land:

In the Rostov district of Yaroslavl Governorate, lands belonging to peasants were assessed at 12 rubles (with a payment rate of 13 kopeks), while allotment lands were valued at 16 rubles (20 kopeks), and landlord-owned lands at 10 rubles (11 kopeks)! And so on. In Kaluga Governorate, the zemstvos even introduced a poll tax on the peasantry.

“However, this decree was challenged by the governor, which provided the bureaucracy with an opportunity to step forward as the defender of the popular masses against the perceived injustices of zemstvo representation—though the latter had, thanks to laws and legislative maneuvers devised by the very same bureaucracy, taken on a narrowly class-based character” (p. 6, No. 57).

Section VII (No. 59) addresses the issue of public education:

The 1864 Regulations on Public Schools—“a truly peculiar compromise between bureaucratic principles, clerical overreach, and the interests of the zemstvo school system”—yet, compared with subsequent legislation, and especially the 1874 Regulations, the zemstvos now look back on it with regret (p. 8).

“In 1869, inspectors of public schools were appointed—one for each gubernia. By 1871, the Ministry of Public Education began to undermine the 1864 Regulations through instructions issued to these newly appointed inspectors of public schools” (No. 59, p. 8)—among other things, granting them the authority to remove teachers… “The new institution of school officers did not take long to reveal itself in practice—and already in 1873, at the recommendation of one of them, Mr. Druzhinin, the zemstvo technical school in the town of Rzhev was closed down—for failing to comply with the zemstvo administration’s demand that students deemed ‘enclosed’ be expelled” [sic?[170]. I do not know what that means].

“Mr. Druzhinin’s ‘students.’”

[‘Enclosed,’ in the words of Mr. 3. S. (as will become clear later), meant ‘discredited’: ‘enclosed as politically unreliable persons.’]

No. 60 (conclusion).

The rescript of December 25, 1873, had almost no real effect—owing to the “absolute passivity of our noble leaders”—save for a slight increase in the encouragement of denunciations against school officials (p. 11).

!!! “Notably, there were voices within society that welcomed this first rescript, hoping that the nobility’s leaders—after all, a zemstvo element—might succeed in neutralizing the influence of the inspectors of public schools, an element that was undoubtedly of a police-like nature.”

The 1874 Regulations on Public Schools “shattered even these expectations”—bestowing full authority over school administration into the hands of directors and inspectors.

Examples of police-like abuses committed by the inspectors (at best, mere bureaucratic formalities).

Conclusion 3. S.—the necessity of state self-governance…

Written in June 1901.

Published here for the first time, based on the manuscript.