Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1913.djvu/1307

 CONSTITUTION AND GOVERNMENT 1185

of all affairs, whether civil or military. In Siberia the governors-general are each assisted by a council, which has a deliberative voice. A civil governor assisted by a council of regency, to which all measures must be sub- mitted, is established in each government, and a military governor in twenty- one provinces. A vice-governor is api^ointed to fill the place of the civil governor when the latter is absent or unwell. There is also, in each govern- ment, a council of control under the presidency of a special officer," depend- ing directly on the Department of Control. Each government or province is divided into from 5 to 15 districts (815 in all Russian Empire), having each several administrative institutions. The townships {gradonachalstvo) of St. Petersburg, Moscow, Sebastopol, Odessa, Kerch, Nikolayev, Baku and Kostov-on-Don, are administered by special governors {gradonachalnik) ; Kronstadt is under a separate military governor.

In European Russia the government of the parish, in so far as the lands of the peasantry are concerned, and part of the local administration, is en- trusted to the people. For this purpose the whole country is divided into 17,075 cantons [volosLs among the Russian population, gminas in Poland, stanitsas in Cossack Lauds, ulus in territories peopled by natives, &c.), which are presided over by an elder {t^olostno'i starshina in the volosts), elected at the cantonal assemblies, which are composed of the delegates of the village communities in the proportion of one man to every ten houses. The village communities elect an elder (starosta) or executive ofiicer of a commune, and also a tax-collector. All these officers are elected at communal assemblies ( ' Mir ') by the peasants, and from among themselves. The communal assem- blies are constituted by all the householders in the village, who discuss and decide all communal affairs. These communal assemblies are held as business requires. The canton assemblies decide the same class of afiairs as do the com- munal assemblies, but concerning each its respective canton. The peasants have thus special institutions of their own, which are submitted also to special colleges 'for peasants' affairs,' instituted in each government. In Poland the ' Volost' is replaced by the 'Graina,' the assemblies of which are constituted of all landholders — nobility included, the clergy and the police excluded — who have each but one voice, whatever the area of land possessed. The 'Gmina'has, however, less autonomy than the 'Volost,' being subject directly to the ' Chief of the District- '

The administration of the economical affairs of the district and province are, to some extent, in the hands of zemstvos, or the district and provincial assemblies (law of January 1, 1864), composed of representatives elected by the peasantry, the householders in the towns, and the landed jjroprietors. Their executive power is entrusted to provincial and district ' Upravas. ' The president of the nobility of the district, or of the province, presides ex officio over the zemstvos of the district, or of the province, and, in his default, the president of the local tribunal presides. Important modifications, increasing the powers of noble landowners in the affairs of the zemstvos, suppressing the right of peasants to elect deputies to the zemstvo (they present candidates out of which the governor of province name a deputy), reducing the numbers of representatives, and limiting their powers, were introduced by the law of June 12, 1890.

The towns and cities have municipal institutions of their own, organized on nearly the same principles as the zemstvos (law of June 16, 1870). All house-owners are divided into three classes, each of which represents an equal amount of real property, and each class elects an equal number of representa- tives to the Dumas; the latter elect their executive the Uprava. The law of June 11, 1892, reduces the powers of the Municipal Government

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