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2 Local Politics during Ivan’s Youth POLITICS IN DMITROV In March of 1767 my father was elected from our city as a deputy to the Commission to compose a project for a new law code, and in June I went to Moscow, where I lived for a period of time. In January of 1768 the deputies were dismissed and told that they should appear two months later in Petersburg. . . . In the first days of March my parents rode to Petersburg, and I remained at home until March 31st when I rode to the Tvertsa River to the village of Mel’nikovo for the loading of barges.∞ Local politics and administration placed burdens on merchant families. Russia was a centrally governed state, and each province and district was subject to the power of government-appointed police and administrative o≈cials: governors-general and governors at the provincial level and voevody (singular voevoda) at the district level. Central fiscal a√airs were in the hands of local treasury agents, who collected taxes and other levies and sent them up the line to the capital cities. While these o≈cials could and did intervene in local a√airs on occasion, towns were in principle self-governing corporate bodies composed of o≈cially registered citizens, who were classified by their activities and tax obligations as either merchants, artisans, or others usually referred to in Western literature as ‘‘posad people’’ (a translation of the Russian posadskie liudi) or later as ‘‘lesser townspeople’’ (meshchane).≤ Citizens elected their own leaders, who served on the town magistracy and in several other capacities. The city assembly (skhod), with the confirmation of the magistracy, distributed obligations among the citizens in accordance with their tax-eligible status. The magistracy managed the licensing of business activity and sat in judgment over civil legal cases. Although the a√airs of other urban dwellers, such as peasants, clergy, and nobles, were beyond the competence of the town o≈ces and be- 25 local politics during ivan’s youth longed to the corporate bodies of those social groups (the peasant communal councils, the spiritual administration, and a variety of o≈ces for noble affairs ), when persons from these other groups had disputes with townspeople or needed to use assets or receive permissions concerning town property, they too would be subject to the jurisdiction of the magistracy court. Moreover, leading merchants maintained business and social connections with persons in the other groups and regarded such connections as important to the functioning of their town and their family enterprises. The structure of urban governance in Russia had acquired new forms and European language labels in the reforms of Peter the Great. Peter introduced an urban statute in 1721 calling for the creation of town magistracies composed of elected burgomasters (burgomistry) and councilors (ratmany).≥ In large cities the magistracy was headed by a president. The number of burgomasters and councilors in each town depended on the number of registered townspeople (as distinct from other groups such as nobles or peasants who might be living in a city). Though the magistracies were conceived initially as bodies independent of local agents of the central government and subordinate to only the Chief Magistracy in Petersburg, this arrangement did not long survive the death of Peter the Great. In 1727 the Supreme Privy Council, which then ruled the central state, abolished the Chief Magistracy, renamed the town magistracies ‘‘city halls’’ (ratushi), and subordinated them to the state administrators in their localities, the voevody. Peter the Great’s daughter, Elizabeth, seized the throne in 1741 and reintroduced many of the institutions of her father’s time, including the Chief Magistracy and the local town magistracies. They served as administrative and judicial instances for the local merchant and artisanal society . Even so, the authority of the local agents of central power remained decisive whenever they felt the need to intervene. The Dmitrov town magistracy at the time of Ivan Tolchënov’s youth, when his father played a leading role in city governance, was composed of a burgomaster and two councilors. In addition, the city elected a large number of other o≈cers of lesser rank to manage tasks associated with the collection of taxes and recruits, registration of urban dwellers, the billeting of troops and policing of the markets and warehouses. Citizens were also chosen to serve as judges on the ‘‘verbal court’’ (slovesnyi sud), which handled small civil disputes relating primarily to commercial a√airs. Election and service on...

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