Panovskoye Volost Administration of Arzamas Uyezd, Nizhny Novgorod Province — a body of peasant estate self-government that operated from 1861 to 1917 in Panovskaya Volost of Arzamassky Uyezd. The institution's records are held at the State Archive of the Nizhny Novgorod Region (Arzamas) as part of Fond No. 4, Inventory No. 1, covering the period from 1862 to 1918.[1]
Structure and Functions
Volost administrations were established Russia following the abolition of serfdom and existed from 1861 to 1917. Their work combined elements of administrative governance and estate self-government. From 1864 onward, uniform lower-level governing bodies were created for the peasant population of Nizhny Novgorod Governorate: the village assembly of each selo elected candidates to the volost court and to the volost assembly, while the volost assembly in turn elected the volost administration. Until 1874, the administration was subordinate to the uyezd office for peasant affairs; from 1874, to the same office on a revised basis; and from 1889, to the zemsky nachalnik (land captain).[1]
The volost administration consisted of the volost starshina (elder), all the village elders of the volost, the volost clerk, and tax collectors. The administration oversaw the apportionment and collection of taxes, the fulfillment of various obligations, land use, and the execution of orders from administrative and judicial bodies.[1]
An attempt to reform the volost tier of administration, undertaken during the Duma period, was rejected by the State Council in May 1914. Volost administrations were abolished by a decree of the Council of People's Commissars (Sovnarkom) of 30 December 1917, "On Local Self-Government Bodies."[1]
Archival Fond
The fond's documents were transferred to the archive in 1925 and inventoried in 1938; the source of their transfer has not been established. The fond comprises 444 storage units. In the course of refining the inventory, 10 particularly valuable files were identified (marked "PV"). A scholarly reference apparatus has been compiled for the inventory: a title page, a preface, a list of abbreviations, and a chronological index.[1]
In terms of content, the fond's documents include: registers of receipts from food and insurance levies; records of cases reviewed by the zemsky nachalnik concerning rural communities and appeals against volost court decisions; materials on settlers to Siberia; information on those killed and missing in action during the First World War, and on refugees billeted within the district's territory; data on the material circumstances of peasants and lists of persons in need of allowances and loans.[1]
Sources
- opentextnn.ru — Fond No. 4 "Panovskoye Volost Administration of Arzamassky Uyezd, Nizhny Novgorod Governorate." Inventory No. 1 for 1862, 1874, 1875, 1886, 1890–1918. — OTKRYTY…