The famous city reform of Alexander II was carried out in 1870. It became part of the fundamental transformations in Russian society that came after the defeat in the Crimean War. Up to this point, cities have suffered from excessive administrative tutelage of officials. The reform gave them freedom to manage the economy, the economy, security, etc.
Background
The preparation of the project for the reform of city government began in 1862. According to the circular of the Minister of Internal Affairs Petr Valuev, the establishment of local commissions began, in which the issue of the need for reforms was discussed.
These provisional bodies worked for three years. The urban reform continued when, in 1864, a general project was prepared by the commissions, which was to be extended to all the cities of the empire. At the next stage, it was planned to consider this document by the State Council. However, on April 4, 1866, Karakozov attempted on the life of Alexander II. The failed terrorist attack brought confusion to the minds of officials. The project stalled.
Project acceptance
After a long pause, the State Council finally returned to reviewing the draft reform. The next commission came to the conclusion that it was too dangerous to introduce an all-class suffrage. Long disputes ended with the adoption of a system copied from Prussia. In this German kingdom, there were three curia, which were made up of taxpayers, divided into classes according to their contributions to the budget.
The same system was adopted in Russia. The city reform of 1870 ultimately boiled down to the following. The local duma was elected by the inhabitants, divided into curia. In the first of them there were only a few dozen of the richest citizens who paid the most taxes. Thus, a dozen we althy residents received a representation equal to that of the middle class and a huge mass of people with low incomes (they could number in the hundreds and thousands). In this sense, the city reform of Alexander II remained quite conservative. It introduced the principles of democracy into self-regulation, but the Duma was still drawn up based on the social inequality of the inhabitants.
City governments
According to the adopted provision, the city reform of Alexander 2 introduced city public administrations (a duma, an electoral assembly and a city council). They were in charge of economic life, organized landscaping, monitored fire safety, provided the population with food, arranged credit institutions,exchanges and marinas.
The city reform of 1870 established electoral assemblies, the main function of which was to elect councillors. Their term of office was 4 years. According to the new norms, every citizen who had voting rights could become a member of the Duma. There were exceptions to this rule. For example, the number of non-Christians in the duma should not exceed one third of the vowels (ie, deputies). Also, Jews could not occupy the chair of the mayor. Thus, the electoral restrictions were mostly of a confessional nature.
Powers of the Duma
The cardinal urban reform, the essence of which was to grant self-government to cities, was reduced to the redistribution of powers of government institutions. Prior to that, all orders were made from a centralized body and one bureaucracy. Such management was extremely inefficient and stagnant.
City reform led to the fact that the Duma received the authority to appoint various officials. It also now regulated the establishment, reduction and increase of taxes. At the same time, the expenses for the maintenance of this representative body were under the jurisdiction of the governor. Meetings were appointed at the request of at least a fifth of the vowels. In addition, the Duma could be convened by the mayor or the governor. These self-government bodies have appeared in 509 cities.
Other features of the reform
Among other things, the Duma determined the composition of the city government. This body, in turn, was in charge of the preparation of estimates, the collection of information for vowels, the collection and expenditure of fees from the population. The council reported to the Duma, but at the same time had the right to recognize the decisions of the representative body as illegal. In the event of a conflict between these two institutions of power, the governor intervened.
The voters of the Duma could not be tried or under investigation. An age limit was introduced (25 years). Downgrading awaited government officials removed from service. Citizens who had arrears in tax collection also lost their vote. Preliminary lists of voters, according to the division into curia, were drawn up by the Duma. The mayor was appointed from among the vowels. This choice was made by the governor.
Meaning
The most important urban reform led to the beginning of an unprecedented industrial and commercial development of cities. This was due to the fact that the mechanisms of a market economy were in full swing in the province. Now the city could decide for itself what and how to spend its money. Such self-government was many times more effective than the previous skeletal administrative model.
Finally, the city reform of Alexander Nikolayevich allowed the inhabitants of the country to learn what civic activity is. Prior to this, the townspeople had no leverage to manage their home. Thanks to the coming transformations, the situation has changed radically. The growth of civic consciousness became the basis for the emergence of a new national political culture.
