Terms:
| English |
Russian
|
| County |
powiat; повіт or uezda;
уѣзда
|
| Township, Parish |
volost; волость
|
| Village |
selo; село
|
| Rural community |
sel'ckoe obshchestvo; cельское общество
|
| Peasant householder |
krest'yan-domokhozyaev; крестьян-домохозяев
|
| Social estate, class |
soslovie; сословие
|
| Village assembly |
silskyi skhod; cельский сход
|
| Village
mayor |
silskyi starosta; сельский cтароста
|
| Township assembly |
volostnoi skhod; волостной сход
|
| Township headman |
volostnoi starshina; волостной старшина
|
| Township Board |
volost pravleniya; волостного правления
|
| Township Court |
volostnoi sud; волостной суд
|
| Township Court judges |
sud'i volostnogo suda; судьи волостного суда
|
| Tax collector |
sborshchikov podatey; сборщиков податей
|
| County congress |
uezdnyi sezd; уездный съезд
|
| District Marshal of the Nobility |
uezdnyi predvoditel'
dvoryanstva; уездный предводитель
дворянства
|
| Provincial Marshal of the Nobility |
gubernskyi predvoditel'
dvoryanstva; губернский предводитель дворянства
|
| Magistrate’s Court |
mirovoi sud; мировой суд
|
| Police Captain |
ispravnik; исправник
|
| Police Bailiff |
stanovoi pristav; становой пристав
|
| Police Constable |
politseyskyi uriadnik; полицейский урядник
|
| Police Precinct |
stana; стана
|
In 1906, Ostrog
County was made up of 14 townships
with an average of 27 villages each. The
administrative system set up by the Tsar’s government allowed for a certain
measure of self government within these townships and villages. The provincial governmental (Volyn Gubernia) capital
was located in Zhytomyr and was headed by a Governor or a Governor-General who
was appointed by the Tsar himself.
Each of the 12 counties of Volyn Gubernia was divided into a number of townships. And of course each of these townships contained
many villages or rural communities. The
local administration began at this village level.
Each village had a mayor and an administrative body. The administrative body was made up of
delegates of the village, 2 for every 10 peasant households. The assembly elected a mayor who would serve
a term of 3 years. In Right-Bank Ukraine
(Ukraine territories west of
the Dnieper River), the mayor and the assembly together
formed the Hromada (Ukr: Громада,
community) which was the administrative body for the village.
Each township was similarly administered. A township body was comprised of delegates
from the villages of the township; 1
for every 10 peasant households. This assembly
elected the township headman who likewise was elected for a 3 year term. Together with each village mayor and with any
township tax collector(s), the volost headman formed the township board which
was the executive body of the assembly.
Also members of the township assembly were any existent township court judges. This township assembly elected one delegate
to represent the township at the State Dumas (imperial assembly) in St. Petersburg. In Right-Bank Ukraine, the township headman
was required to be ethnically Russian or Ukrainian.
These administrative bodies had various duties for the
well-being of the townships and villages.
The township assembly provided guidance regarding the economic and
political course of the township, as well as giving direction for school
systems and charitable foundations and hearing complaints that affected the
entire township. The township assembly
also maintained any township employees.
For instance, many Volhynian townships employed a forester to maintain
the cleanliness of the forests; leaves, pine needles and other natural refuse
needed to be systematically removed to reduce the possibility of forest
fires.
The village assembly and hromada
acted upon matters such as the use and allocation of village communal land,
residence status of members of the community, as well as the management of any communal
property or stockpiles, and the equitable distribution of the collective tax
burden. The hromada also maintained any village employees. For instance, my great grandfather, Andreas
Ratzlaff, was employed by the Village
of Leeleva as the
schoolteacher and also perhaps as the summer herdsman. According to Abe J Unruh, villages also
employed runners; teenage boys who could quickly run to the next village to
communicate any important news or warn of any emergencies. The hromada,
due to its limited authority, largely oversaw community solidarity and managed
village communal interests through control of social behavior.
The village mayor oversaw items such as chairing assembly
meetings, supervision over peasant householders’ payment of taxes and fees,
monitoring proper maintanence of roads and bridges within the village,
detention of runaways or vagrants, managing emergencies and providing for
public safety, management of crime scenes until police arrived, and generally
taking necessary measures to provide for the proper decorum and order of the village. Abe J Unruh relates that the village mayor in
the Karolswalde Villages had the
right to detain any stranger who appeared in a village such as a boy who might
arrive without the proper escort of his parents. Strangers such as these could even be chained
to logs until their business in the village was sorted out.
The township headman had
similar duties but his focus encompassed the entire township. Headmen also ensured peasants were upholding
their soslovie duties, oversaw
decisions of the township court and village, issued residence permits for the township,
managed each village mayor, as well as managing any township assets. The headman had the authority to fine
peasants up to 1 ruble, arrest them
for periods not exceeding 2 days, and to order them to perform work on behalf
of the township.
Township headmen, village mayors, as well as members of any township
or village assembly, were probably fairly well-to-do rural peasants. Up to this level of administration, no
members of the nobility were included.
This system was practiced only in rural areas as a method of
self-administration for the peasants; administration in urban areas was set up
differently. Of course, this system as
it’s been described was all in theory.
What was realistically practiced on a day to day basis throughout the
countryside could have varied significantly.
The German villages (Ger: Dörfer) in Ostrog County
probably had their own mayors, who they would have called their Schultze or Schultheiß (German for mayor).
And they similarly would have enjoyed levels of self-government
according to their specific soslovie. They may have enjoyed some special exemptions
from the township assembly, however, insofar as issues such as schooling of
children and military service/taxation were concerned.
Above the township assembly was the district or county congress
which was made up of the members of the county circuit court, municipal judges
and justices of the peace, as well as the police captain. This body was chaired by the District Marshal
of the Nobility who was essentially the headman of the county. The District Marshal was a nobleman, 21 years
of age or older, elected to his post by the members of the county
congress. The District Marshal was the
first appearance of a nobleman within the administration of the rural
peasants. Above the District Marshall,
but not directly in charge of him, was the Provincial Marshal of the Nobility who
worked with the Governor or Governor General in overseeing the administration
of the entire province.
The judicial system for the county began at the lowest level
with Parish Court. The Parish
Court consisted of several judges who had been
elected to 3 year terms by members of village assembly. Usually these judges had no judicial training
and often meted out justice based upon local customs instead of imperial
law. Frequently, these courts introduced
additional problems because they were untrained, biased and inconsistent. This court’s jurisdiction was limited to
rural areas and the Parish Court
had no equivalent in urban areas. The
cases heard by this judicial body’s were limited to minor offenses between
peasants or propery disputes at the lowest village levels.
The township board also held some judicial authority in
minor matters between peasants. Other local
courts included the Magistrate’s Court, the Municipal Court, the County Court,
and the Provincial Court.
Regarding legal enforcement at the local level, there
existed a police force separate and apart from any local administration. Counties were divided into 2 or 3 precincts. Each precinct was under the authority of a bailiff
and separate portions of each precinct were manned by police constables. All the precincts in one county were under
the authority of the aforementioned police captain who was also a member of the
district congress. The police captain
was appointed by the provincial government and was under the direct authority
of the Provincial Ministry of the Interior and the Provincial Court.
Bailiffs and constables had the authority to conduct investigations
in the support of charges in criminal cases as well as protecting the general public
order. Police had relatively high physical
and intellectual standards and needed to be able to draw up reports and have a
basic knowledge of the law of the Empire.
Above and beyond simple law enforcement, police were charged with monitoring
any incidence or action that was contrary to the Tsar. Murmuring against the government, administrative
authorities or public order was indeed looked upon as a crime in 19th
Century Imperial Russia.
The captain was theoretically elected by the local nobility
for a period of 3 years. In reality, he
may have been appointed by the governor himself. After the District Marshal of the Nobility,
the police captain was the highest ranking official in any county. The captain was also a member of the county
congress.
In 1906 there were 3 police precints in
Ostrog County. The first served the northwest townships of Annopolskaya,
Bugrinskaya, Dolzhanskaya, Goschskaya, and Siyanetskaya. The second served the central and
northwestern townships of Krivinskaya, Khorovskaya, Kunevskoy (where my
ancestors lived), and Zdolbitskaya. The
office for this second precinct may have been housed in the
village of Kunev. The third precinct served the southern
townships of Lyakhovetsky, Pereroslovsk, Pluzhanskoy, Semenovskaya, and Unievskaya. Here's the stamp/signature of the police Bailiff of precinct #2, Ostrog County, from 1895:
This is the stamp/signature of the police Bailiff of precinct #2, Ostrog County, from 1906:
In most provinces throughout the empire, the mid 19
th
Century saw the introduction of the
Zemstvo
system in which local nobility, along with peasants, burghers and clergy took
charge in matters of local governance in an effort to streamline and “russify”
the populace. In areas where the
Zemstvo system was actice, the
Zemstvo boss held considerable
authority. In Right-Bank Ukraine,
however, the
Zemstvo system was not
fully implemented until the second decade of the 20
th Century as this
system placed heavy responsibility upon the local nobility. In Right-Bank Ukraine, the majority of the
nobility was of Polish origin. Obviously
the Tsar’s government did not want to place in the hands of Polish nobility the
Zemstvo goal of “russification” thus
more time was taken in these areas before the
Zemstvo implementation.
History of Ukraine:
The Land and its Peoples, by Paul Robert Magocsi
Features and Figures out of the Past, by Vladimir Iosifovic
Gurko; 1939
The Helpless Poles, by Abe J Unruh; 1973
The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). 2010 The Gale Group, Inc.
