Problems of Organizing the Life of Zemstvo Self-Government Institutions in the System of Functioning of the Liberal Opposition Fronde of the Chernihiv province in 1880s

Abstract

The article highlights the activities of the liberal opposition fronde of the Chernihiv province in the field of organizing and ensuring the functioning and life of the institutions of zemstvo self-government in the 1880s.

The author came to the conclusion that the problems under study occupied a significant place in the coordinate system of the functioning of the zemstvo liberal party of Northern Ukraine. The oppositionists persistently searched for infrastructure units that could be purchased as property and which served as places of permanent deployment for local self-government institutions – zemstvo, peasant, judicial and others. In addition, restoration and repair work on the specified premises was financed from the zemstvo budgets.

The zemstvo liberals constantly worked on improving the organizational structure of the zemstvo self-government system, regularly increasing the funding of relevant bodies, strengthening control and supervisory functions in order to minimize manifestations of corruption and abuses in the industry.

Progressives petitioned the supreme authority about the fundamental necessity of introducing the election of the heads of the district and provincial zemstvo assemblies, the impossibility of combining activities in local self-government institutions with civil service, financial support for official business trips, and the formation of a pension fund for zemstvo employees.

Members of the opposition aristocratic fronde of the region were concerned about ensuring the principle of publicity in the activities of zemstvo institutions by publishing a set of printed products.

Liberal zemstvos of the Northern Left Bank paid special attention to the problems of protecting the electoral and political rights of candidates for deputies of zemstvo assemblies, giving priority in this area to public jurisprudence, thereby ensuring the legality and legitimacy of the ideological struggle with the central and regional bureaucracy. Representatives of the zemstvo liberal party of the Chernihiv province did everything in their power to ensure that the system of zemstvo self-government in the period under study was stable and sustainable at the organizational level.