Oriental Studies (May 2018)
Nobility Assemblies in the Middle Volga Region in the Second Half of the 19th - Early 20th Centuries: Competences, Composition, Participation Procedures
Abstract
With evidence from corresponding legislative acts, the article considers the competences, composition and participation procedures of Middle-Volga nobility assemblies in the latter half of the 19th - early 20th cc. and provides some figures about the actual participation of the nobility in such assemblies. For instance, in Penza Governorate between 1860 and 1896, regular governorate-level assemblies of the nobility were attended by only 24,5 % of the authorized landlords. There was a progressive decline in the participation activities of Penza’s nobility after the Emancipation Reform of 1861 and up to the early 1870s which was evidently due to the unfavorable financial situation experienced by the gentry during the mentioned period. In subsequent years, interest towards the assemblies would occasionally increase as in 1875 or decrease as in 1878, 1884 and 1887; so, by the late 19th century the percentage level was almost equal to that of 1860. The fact assemblies of the nobility were granted additional competences in the late 19th - early 20th cc. testifies that the Government viewed such nobility associations as their ‘ideological transmitters’ at the local level. In that context, their functions - but not their personal rights - were being gradually extended. The late 19th - early 20th cc. reduction of the nobility’s personal rights did not virtually affect the legal status of noble societies that had been established and functioned in each of the Middle-Volga provinces. Thus, the nobility assemblies were the main representative bodies of nobility associations. Rarely did landlords take part in assemblies of the nobility since the former were evidently far more interested in local economic arrangements rather than in matters of state. Land mobilizations resulting in the nobility’s loss of any rights to participate in such assemblies according to the established qualifying requirement was another reason. The third reason was supposedly that the gentry had lost touch with their estates, so they were disconnected from the region and its problems.
