Expert board:

• Scientific Council of RAS on economic history;
• Research and Educational Center «The economic history of Central Russia and the Middle Volga region» of Ogarev Mordovia State University;
• Center of Economic History of  Lomonosov Moscow State University

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ISSN 2409-630X (Print), ISSN 2618-916X (Online)

DOI: 10.15507/2409-630X.051.016.202004.399-406

УДК: 336.225.2:352(47)”18”

Pavel N. Aleshin

Bashkir State University (Sterlitamak, Russia),

e-mail: p.n.aleshin@gmail.com

 

Features of the Zemstvo Taxation in the Great Russian and Foreign Provinces of Russia in the Second Half of the 19th сentury

 

Introduction. The introduction of the bodies of zemstvo self-government in the Russian Empire led to the need to form the system of zemstvo budgets with their own income items, often falling on the same objects of taxation as state taxes. Most of the income came from taxation of land (state, private and peasant). In addition, the items of income were receipts from the taxation of real estate, trade and industrial enterprises, trade documents, etc. The zemstvo extended not only to Great Russian provinces but also to foreign ones, in so doing the functions of zemstvo had their own characteristics, since it was necessary to take into account ethnic and religious characteristics in provinces with a predominance of the non-Russian population. The purpose of the article is to clarify the comparison of the main sources of income of the zemstvo budget in ethnically different regions of the Russian Empire. Materials and Methods. The solution of research problems was provided by a complex of complementary theoretical (analysis of scientific literature, comparative analysis, comparison, generalization, systematization) and empirical (study and generalization of published and archival sources, hermeneutic) methods. Results. A comparative analysis of the principles and objects of taxation between the provinces of these groups (Kursk and Ufa) showed the similarity of approaches and priority of land taxation as the simplest and covering most of the payers. Discussion and Conclusions. The principles of forming zemstvo budgets throughout the Empire were unchanged, focused on the property approach of taxation, which was rather archaic due to the introduction of income taxation in the advanced countries, as the fairer one, while in Russia the main burden of taxation still fell on the shoulders of the peasantry, and led to the deficit of the zemstvo treasury. This brings the problem of forming zemstvo budgets to a further level of research into social, political and economic history.

Keywords: history of Russia, zemstvo self-government, budget, income items, estimate, property.

For citation : Aleshin P. N. Features of the zemstvo taxation in the Great Russian and foreign provinces of Russia in the second half of the 19th century. Ekonomicheskaya istoriya = Russian Journal of Economic History. 2020; 16(4): 399–406. (In Russ.). DOI: 10.15507/2409-630X.051.016.202004.399-406.

 

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