The System of the State Village Government of the Kazan Governorate in the Early 18th – the First Third of the 19th Centuries

The importance of the research is determined by the essential character and necessity of studying the system of the local government of the state village of the Kazan Governorate for a more complete realizing of the political institutions of autocratic Russia. The article is aimed at the study of the state and functioning of the local government system of the Kazan Governorate state village at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries. The leading method of the research is a complex approach based on the study of different kinds of sources. The research included considering social, economic and legal status of the state peasants in the structure of the rural population paying duty in the Kazan Governorate. The course of formation and the ways of evolution of this class are shown; the problems of land availability and the size of the paid duty are regarded. The structure, functions and scope of authority of the local state institutions and peasant self-government are studied, the professional and ethnic composition of the local administration is investigated, the role of senatorial inspections as an institute of the state control is shown. The effectiveness of the local government and court is analyzed, the problem of peasants’ attitude to the authorities is considered; the protest of the state peasants against the feudal and administrative oppression was an essential part of this problem. The materials of the paper may be used in the preparation of the summarizing monographs on the agricultural history of the Middle Volga Region (Central Volga Region), in the teaching practice of universities in delivering lectures and practical classes, in creating special courses on the Tatarstan peasantry history and history of state institutions.