The territorial reform of the Russian Empire, 1775-1796. I. Central Russia, 1775-1784 - article ; n°2 ; vol.23, pg 147-185

John P.Le Donne

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Cahiers du monde russe et soviétique - Année 1982 - Volume 23 - Numéro 2 - Pages 147-185
John P. Le Donne, La réforme territoriale de l'Empire russe, 1775- 1796. I: La Russie centrale, 1775-1784.
Cet article retrace les changements introduits par les réformes des années 1780 dans la carte administrative de la Russie centrale. Les mesures, adoptées au tout début du règne de Catherine pour créer un système uniforme d'administration locale, firent ressortir combien dépassée était la division territoriale mise en place en 1727. Une grande partie du travail préparatoire avait été effectuée dans les années 1760 et la réforme commença peu après la première guerre contre la Turquie. Elle élimina la province en tant qu'échelon intermédiaire entre la gubernija et l'uezd, éleva la plupart des capitales de province au rang de capitales de gubernija et accrut considérablement le nombre d'uezdy. La réforme territoriale obéit à des considérations d'efficacité administrative, encouragées par le courant rationaliste dominant le monde intellectuel de ce règne ; elle poursuivit, en outre, des objectifs politiques qui se traduisirent par une nouvelle répartition des fonctions entre le gouvernement central et les provinces, et elle mit en place une solide infrastructure, placée sous la coupe des propriétaires terriens de province pour défendre les fondements de l'ordre social.
John P. Le Donne, The territorial reform of the Russian empire, 1775-1796. I: Central Russia, 1775-1784.
This article traces the changes brought about by the reforms of the 1780's in the administrative map of central Russia. Steps taken at the very beginning of the reign of Catherine to create a uniform system of local administration exposed the obsoleteness of the territorial division created in 1727. Much preparatory work was done in the 1760's and the reform began soon after the first Turkish war. It eliminated the province as the intermediate level between the guberniia and the uezd, raised most of the provincial capitals to the status of guberniia capitals and considerably increased the number of uezdy. In addition to considerations of administrative efficiency stimulated by the rationalist current dominating the intellectual world of the reign, the territorial reform pursued political ends in the form of a redistribution of functions between the central government and the provinces, and it established a solid infrastructure dominated by provincial landowners to defend the foundations of the social order.
39 pages
Source : Persée ; Ministère de la jeunesse, de l’éducation nationale et de la recherche, Direction de l’enseignement supérieur, Sous-direction des bibliothèques et de la documentation.

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• Publié par: CAHIERS_DU_MONDE_RUSSE_ET_SOVIETIQUE
• Publié le: 01 janvier 1982
• Nombre de lectures: 32
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

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John P. LeDonne
The territorial reform of the Russian Empire, 1775-1796. I.
Central Russia, 1775-1784
In: Cahiers du monde russe et soviétique. Vol. 23 N°2. Avril-Juin 1982. pp. 147-185.
Citer ce document / Cite this document :
LeDonne John P. The territorial reform of the Russian Empire, 1775-1796. I. Central Russia, 1775-1784. In: Cahiers du monde
russe et soviétique. Vol. 23 N°2. Avril-Juin 1982. pp. 147-185.
doi : 10.3406/cmr.1982.1942
http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/cmr_0008-0160_1982_num_23_2_1942Résumé
John P. Le Donne, La réforme territoriale de l'Empire russe, 1775- 1796. I: La Russie centrale, 1775-
1784.
Cet article retrace les changements introduits par les réformes des années 1780 dans la carte
administrative de la Russie centrale. Les mesures, adoptées au tout début du règne de Catherine pour
créer un système uniforme d'administration locale, firent ressortir combien dépassée était la division
territoriale mise en place en 1727. Une grande partie du travail préparatoire avait été effectuée dans les
années 1760 et la réforme commença peu après la première guerre contre la Turquie. Elle élimina la
province en tant qu'échelon intermédiaire entre la gubernija et l'uezd, éleva la plupart des capitales de au rang de capitales de gubernija et accrut considérablement le nombre d'uezdy. La réforme
territoriale obéit à des considérations d'efficacité administrative, encouragées par le courant rationaliste
dominant le monde intellectuel de ce règne ; elle poursuivit, en outre, des objectifs politiques qui se
traduisirent par une nouvelle répartition des fonctions entre le gouvernement central et les provinces, et
elle mit en place une solide infrastructure, placée sous la coupe des propriétaires terriens de province
pour défendre les fondements de l'ordre social.
Abstract
John P. Le Donne, The territorial reform of the Russian empire, 1775-1796. I: Central Russia, 1775-
1784.
This article traces the changes brought about by the reforms of the 1780's in the administrative map of
central Russia. Steps taken at the very beginning of the reign of Catherine to create a uniform system of
local administration exposed the obsoleteness of the territorial division created in 1727. Much
preparatory work was done in the 1760's and the reform began soon after the first Turkish war. It
eliminated the province as the intermediate level between the guberniia and the uezd, raised most of
the provincial capitals to the status of guberniia capitals and considerably increased the number of
uezdy. In addition to considerations of administrative efficiency stimulated by the rationalist current
dominating the intellectual world of the reign, the territorial reform pursued political ends in the form of a
redistribution of functions between the central government and the provinces, and it established a solid
infrastructure dominated by provincial landowners to defend the foundations of the social order.ARTICLES
JOHN P. LE DONNE
THE TERRITORIAL REFORM
OF THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE
1775-1796
I : Central Russia, 1775-1784
The comprehensive effort made during the reign of Cath
erine the Great to replace on the administrative map of the
Empire the old patchwork of gubernii, provinces and uezdy
with a uniform network of smaller gubernii and more compact
uezdy is one of the most interesting problems in the history
of the period, yet one largely neglected in Western scholarship.
It is interesting because it reveals some of the intellectual
assumptions with which the political leadership approached
the task of governing the Empire, introduces the student to
the subtleties of Russian geography, and in so doing under
scores the importance of the spatial dimension so essential
to a proper understanding of the dynamism of Russian admini
strative history. Much work has been done by Soviet scholars,
notably Got'e, Klokman and Kabuzan, to locate the essential
documents and to bring out the dominant features of the
territorial division before and after the reform, but the tran
sition from one to the other has not been the subject of a
separate study, and it is the purpose of this article to fill
the gap.(l) A second article will discuss the territorial reform
in the borderlands, as it is imperative to maintain a thematic
distinction between Great Russia, understood as the twenty-six
post-reform gubernii, (2) and the other ethnic territories
constituting the Empire. The dividing line was not always
clear and became even less so in the nineteenth century. In
the 1760 's, however, before the partitions of Poland, the
peace treaties with the Turks of 1775 and 1791 and the sys
tematic integration of the old and new borderlands, the area
of Great Russian settlement (excluding Siberia) still formed
a compact bloc sharply distinguished from its German, Ukrai
nian and nomadic neighbors administered by separate agencies
under the overall supervision of the Senate. A prerequisite
of the great reforms of 1775-1785, governed as they were by
a powerful impulse to rationalize and integrate into a global
framework, and of their extension to the borderlands was the
creation of a territorial division capable of supporting the
operation of the new agencies. Before this could be undertaken,
however, much preparatory work had to be done and that is
what we must first consider. (3) 148 JOHN P. LE DONNE
I
At the beginning of Catherine's reign, in 1762, the ad
ministrative map of Great Russia was that of 1727. Gubernii
were divided into provinces and provinces into uezdy, but
the increase in population between the censuses of 1719 and
1762 had aggravated the lopsidedness of the earlier division.
Low population densities, inadequate economic progress re
sulting in urban underdevelopment, and the necessity to relate
distant areas to the only available strategic center, especially
in the south, had created a situation in which the hierarchy
of administrative areas no longer corresponded to the respec
tive size of their population. Some uezdy were larger than
provinces and some provinces larger than gubernii. Most of
central Russia was joined in the enormous guberniia of
Moscow, administered less by its governor than directly by
the executive colleges, and some provincial voevody likewise
were subordinated both to their and to the center,
while others reported directly to Moscow and Petersburg.
As long as governmental attitudes remained shaped by the
imperative of fiscal retrenchment and by the old Muscovite
practice of looking upon all local agents as equally subor
dinated to the central agencies, the situation remained to
lerable. By the late 1740* s, however, pressures for reform
began to make themselves felt. The rank and file nobility,
gradually winning its freedom from its universal obligation
to serve in the army, sought to acquire a greater role in
provincial administration still dominated by appointed officers,
either demobilized or retired. The progress of the scientific
spirit and the growth of French influence among the educated
members of the ruling class generated a skeptical attitude
toward the assumptions underlying the status quo and annoy
ance at the disorder resulting from the tensions of the Seven
Years' War. By 1762 the situation was ripe for a comprehensive
review of the legacy of the 1720* s, but how was one to begin
such a monumental task?
The first step was dictated, as is often the case, by
financial considerations. Progress had been made in recent
years toward the preparation of a general table of organization
for the entire civil service and it was finally promulgated
on December 15, 1763. (Л) This major document was, even at
this early stage, the resultant of the two dominant forces
which propelled the entire administrative-territorial reform
to its successful completion twenty years later. It reflected
the new demand for order and system raised to the level of
a governing principle of domestic administration seen at last
in its totality, and it constituted a blueprint for the distri
bution of the spoils which began in 176Д when a large number
of new appointments was made. As the Seven Years' War drew
to a close what to do with demobilized officers without an
estate became a major concern of the leadership, and no
decision could be made until the number of posts of
vacancies was known on a comprehensive and day to day basis.
Furthermore, the manifesto of the same date (5) proclaimed THE TERRITORIAL REFORM IN CENTRAL RUSSIA 149
that the voevody and their clerks were to receive a salary
to be collected locally from the proceeds of several new taxes,
chiefly on the consumption of vodka and beer, the lease of
state properties and legal transactions. Since treasury opera
tions in the eighteenth century were characterized by the
absence of a general fund from which expenditures could be
defrayed without consideration of their origin and purpose,
individual revenues were assigned to cover specific items of