Administrative division of lands in Russia. What is volost? The meaning of the word What are volosts and camps

Back in ancient times Kievan Rus There was a division of the state into administrative units. Usually, small governorships were attached to cities leading a trading life. Previously, until the 13th century, principalities were considered volosts, they were constantly divided and united with each other. Then the authorities decided to gather all efforts into a fist in order to unite the Russian lands under one command. After all, the principalities also had a petty prince. Thus, volosts began to appear as the smallest territorial units.

Concept from ancient times

In the Church Slavonic language there was such a thing as power, which meant the word volost. And such a definition had an exclusively political background, namely the right to own. The sound and spelling of the word "volost" is somewhat similar to "region", but there are much more coincidences. The region - this was the very territory to which power extended, that is, the volost rule. From this it follows that power is the spatial possession of the land, and the region is the right.

All lands Ancient Russia divided into counties and camps, which in turn were subdivided into roads, volosts, and so on. What is volosts is more or less clear, but the inheritance is an even more interesting unit of territory. The lot was a part of the land, transferred from the father to his children, each lot belonged to one child. Such destinies were subdivided into counties, which designated the territory of the administrative-judicial district, so the counties were not only in volosts, but also in cities and villages. And years later, the county turned into a small urban or rural district.

The meaning of the word "parish"

This historical word is familiar to us primarily from fiction. We know that it defines a territory, but which one?

The meaning of the word "volost" comes from the 11th century, when in Russia an administrative-territorial unit was called this way. In the times of Ancient Russia, all lands or principalities were called volosts, after which it turned into a semi-independent piece of territory or into rural land, which was subordinated to city rule.

What is a volost? In the XIII-XVI centuries, these were lands belonging to the state, boyars and monasteries. The prince transferred the volost to the provision of the volost - the chief caretaker of the land. For the volost, tribute was collected from the living population in the form of duties and requisitions. This system was called feeding. But from the 16th century, the tsarist government began to reduce the share of this system and, starting from the 17th century, after the approval of the city governors, the volost lost its independence as a separate administrative land unit.

The life of people in the volosts. Veche

During the isolated life of volosts, there were so-called vechas. Veche came from tribal unions and communities where people gathered to solve their internal and external problems, as well as economic affairs. With the help of the veche, the inhabitants called on the prince, chose the elders (elders) who managed worldly affairs. Veche dealt with the court and legal issues. It declared wars and could make peace with enemy neighboring territories.

The veche could conclude agreements with the princes or call on princes convenient and pleasing to him. These were quite convenient powers, because they could drive out the unwanted and not let them enter the threshold of their settlements at all. Over time, the veche began to influence the outcome of hostilities in civil strife, to demand to stop or continue the attack.

What did the veche consist of

What are volosts in terms of governing power? Each veche had an elder, who was elected by popular vote. The most popular person in the volost was the head of the city militia - the thousand. And the militia was called a thousand. The tysyatsky was served by sotskys and tenths, who controlled detachments of a smaller number than those of the thousandth. If the princes had sufficient confidence and great power in the volosts, then the thousandths were appointed themselves, but the rest of the time the veche was engaged in such work.

vecha major cities according to seniority, they could send their posadniks to smaller ones, and, for example, in Novgorod they themselves elected him, despite the prince and his bureaucratic office. Thus, the veche rule in the volosts was strengthened even more.

Orders of veche meetings

Unfortunately, chronicles tell us little about the order of veche meetings, and more accurate documentary details have not been preserved. They gathered people at the veche with the help of a church bell: everyone who was free from labor gathered in the central square. In addition to the local indigenous population, visitors also had the right to attend such gatherings. From this we can conclude that the parish is special kind separate life from the main power of the state.

True, even the prince could convene the veche, but with the permission of the elder. Moreover, there was a whole council of elders, which was an elected body. How were their opinions expressed at the meeting? Just screaming. People, shouting out their proposals, tried to solve pressing problems. Either respond to a princely proposal or decree. To make a final decision, it was necessary that the entire population gathered respond in the same way, this was seen by eye, since individual answers were not accepted. The collectivization of thought was carried out.

It happened that at the Veche it came to quarrels, fights and civil strife. Such moments happened when a minority of those who disagreed continued to loudly insist on their point of view. Usually it was suppressed, but with the use of force. There was no specially marked time for the veche, the bell was set in motion when there was a need.

Historical background on the XIX century

By the end of the 18th century, volost governments appeared. This was a kind of revival of the old meaning of the word "volost". In 1837, a land tenure reform was carried out among the peasants who belonged to the state. According to the new rules, a special volost gathering was created, as well as volost boards, which were supposed to be subordinate to the Chamber of State Property.

After the emancipating reform of 1861, when the slave labor of the peasants was abolished, the population of the volost, the peasant estate, became its chief administrator. In 1874, the volost was placed under the control of a county officer who oversaw peasant affairs. But already in 1889 it passed into the hands of the zemstvo district chief.

Life of volosts in the time of the Bolsheviks

After the victory of the Bolsheviks in the revolution of 1917, the volost becomes common, that is, all estates can manage it. After the first years of Soviet rule, the volosts were fragmented, but given over to the peasants, and the volost lands included both landowners' possessions and state territories. 1923 begins with an increase in the area of ​​volosts by combining them with counties, and already in the 1930s, such territorial units were replaced by a system of districts. They were based on the economic dependence of such united forms on regional centers.

List of volosts that existed in Tsarist Russia

The volosts of the past were divided into two subgroups. One of them, the largest, belonged to the provinces of the European part of Russia. It included such territorial units as Voronezh, Vologda, Arkhangelsk, Kiev, Vyatka, Kurlyandskaya, Astrakhan, Kostroma, Bessarabskaya, Vladimirovskaya, Kaluga, Volynskaya, Grodno, Kazanskaya, Ekaterinoslavskaya, Orlovskaya, Mogilevskaya, Kurskaya, Minskskaya, Orenburgskaya, Poltavskaya, Ryazan, Novgorod, Moscow, Minsk, St. Petersburg, Tambov, Kherson and many others.

A group of volosts of the Privislinsky region or the Kingdom of Poland was considered separately. It included Kielce, Warsaw, Plock, Radom, Lublin and other lands.

Creation and abolition of the volost on the example of the Pskov district

During the time of the already existing Pskov district, a volost of the same name was created on its basis. It was a constituent administrative-territorial unit of the said county. The official formation of the parish took place in 1924. The regions of the Pskov volost that became part of it were: Zelitskaya, Ostenenskaya, Sidorovskaya, Logozovskaya, Pskovogradskaya and Toroshinsky. Moreover, in order to increase the lands of the Pskov region, village councils were added to them: Velikopolsky, Savinsky, Klishevsky, Vetoshinsky, Zalitsky and others.

Since 1925, separate volosts and village councils were gradually separated from the volost. Thus, the liquidation of the ancient Russian system of territorial division begins. In 1927, the Pskov volost within the framework of the RSFSR was transformed into a district and began to belong to the eponymous district of the Leningrad Region. To date, the Pskov region is the only rural administrative-territorial unit of its kind, which is part of the district. In other places, volosts are village councils, general store, village administration, district and nasleg.

The title of this article reflects the main stages of past reforms local government affecting our region. These restructurings can be traced through documents starting from the reign of Ivan Kalita, that is, from the second quarter of the 14th century. His wills reflected the division of the Moscow Principality into volosts and camps, that is, relatively small territories that were initially under the control of peasant communities, then under the joint control of the elected representatives of these communities and princely governors, and no later than the 16th century. only persons appointed by the Grand Duke.

Volosts and camps

On the territory of the modern Sergiev Posad district, the entire Moscow volost of Radonezhskaya, partially Moscow volosts of Beli and Vorya, the volosts of Inobazh of the Dmitrovsky district, the camp of Mishutin and Verkhdubensky, as well as the volosts of Buskutovo, Rozhdestveno, Atebal and Kinela of the Pereslavsky district, partially of the volosts of Serebozh, Zakubezhskaya and Shuromskaya were located the same county.

In the second half of the XVI century. Tsar Ivan the Terrible gave the Troitsk peasants the right to choose in their villages and villages stewards, elders, kissers, sotsky, fifties, tenths, to make labial kissers and deacons, to make prisons and to choose watchmen, tatyas and robbers to look for them themselves in their settlements.

During the economic crisis of the second half of the XVI century. and the Time of Troubles at the beginning of the 17th century, the European part of the Muscovite state turned out to be deserted, the vast majority of rural settlements perished. With the advent of peace after the conclusion of the Deulino truce in 1618, only a tenth of the settlements of the 16th century were revived. Under the new conditions of the country's economic development, the administrative-territorial division of the state was restructured.

On the territory of the modern Sergiev Posad region, there were now only 10 camps.

Provinces for the people's benefit

In December 1708, Peter I established 8 provinces “for the benefit of the people”. The structure of the Moscow province on the basis of the new administrative division of the state included the territory of the modern Moscow region, parts of the modern Yaroslavl, Kostroma, Ivanovo, Vladimir, Ryazan, Tula and Kaluga regions. In 1719, the Moscow province was divided into 9 provinces, but the old division into counties and camps remained unchanged.

In 1774, the Geographical Map of the Moscow Province was published. According to this map, the Moscow province was divided into 15 districts. The southern third of the territory of the modern Sergiev Posad region was part of the Moscow and Dmitrovsky counties. The border between these counties ran along the lines separating the medieval Moscow volosts of Radonezh and Beli from the Dmitrov volost of Inobazh. The Trinity-Sergius Lavra with its former settlements - the predecessors of Sergievsky Posad - was located on the territory of the Moscow district.

In November 1775, Catherine II signed a decree of 491 articles entitled "Institutions for the management of provinces." The uprising of E. I. Pugachev (September 1773 - September 1774) showed that in large provinces in their territories there is no efficient system management. The empress considered that provinces should be organized based on the size of the population. The decree said, “so that the province (for the capitals) or vicegerency (former provinces) could be decently controlled, it is supposed to have from 300 to 400 thousand souls. New territorial formations were subdivided into counties with a population of 20-30 thousand taxable souls. The division of the territory of the state into camps and volosts was abolished.

On October 5, 1781, a decree was issued on the establishment of the Moscow province. A few months after its publication, the then Commander-in-Chief of Moscow, Prince V. M. Dolgoruky-Krymsky, unexpectedly died, and the official “opening” of the province was postponed to the autumn of the following year. The province was to be divided into 14 counties with their cities. For this, 6 new cities were formed. Already in the course of solving various organizational issues at the end of March 1782, the former settlements of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra were transformed into a settlement called Sergievsky. In the 18th century, the word "posad" meant a city without a county, or, in other words, a city without a rural district subordinate to it. In May of the same year, the 15th district was established, the administrative center of which was the city of Vereya.

On the map of the Moscow province of 1787, the southern third of the territory of the modern Sergiev Posad region is shown as located in Dmitrovsky and Bogorodsky (modern Noginsk region) counties. The border between these counties repeated the boundaries between Dmitrovsky and Moscow counties in the middle of the 18th century.

In December 1796, according to one of the decrees of Emperor Paul I, part of the cities and districts of the Moscow province were abolished, in particular, the city of Bogorodsk with the district. In December 1802, by decree of Emperor Alexander I, almost all the liquidated cities and counties of the province were restored, but at the same time, the new border between Dmitrovsky and Bogorodsky counties, established at the beginning of 1797, was preserved. It was carried out along the southern third of the medieval volosts of Beli, Korzenev and Vorya (the territory of modern Pushkin and Shchelkovsky municipal districts). Thus, the entire southern third of the territory of the modern Sergiev Posad region became part of the Dmitrovsky district.

In March 1778, the Vladimir province was established. According to the geographical maps of the Vladimir province of the late XVIII - early XX centuries. the central and northern thirds of the territory of the modern Sergiev Posad region were part of the Aleksandrovsky and Pereslavl districts. The western parts of these counties completely included the former medieval Pereslavl camps of Serebozh, Shuromsky, Rozhdestvensky, Verkhdubensky, Mishutin and Kinelsky.

A similar administrative division of the territory of the modern Sergiev Posad region lasted almost until the end of 1919. Some innovation in this matter was introduced by the liberation of peasants from serfdom in 1861. The peasants were divided into rural communities. A separate settlement and the ownership of the peasants were taken as the basis for its creation. Societies were controlled by the assembly (to a certain extent by the legislative power) and the village headman - the executive power. Rural societies carried out the apportionment of allotments and corresponding taxes between peasant households. The gathering imposed local fees and taxes on the members of the community.

Several rural communities were to be united into an administrative-police unit - a volost. Its peculiarity was the unification without any territorial boundaries of a certain number of rural settlements (without cities) on issues related to the problems of self-government. For this reason, the volost could include not only groups of nearby villages and villages, but also separate settlements located far away from the volost center. Within the boundaries of the Sergiev Posad region, 9 volosts were organized: Fedortsovskaya, Khrebtovskaya, Ereminskaya, Konstantinovskaya, Rogachevskaya, Ozeretskaya, Morozovskaya, Mitinskaya, and partly Botovskaya.

Persons of other states and lands belonging to these persons, as well as state lands and lands of various institutions, for example, monasteries and parish churches, were not part of the volosts and did not carry volost duties.

The composition of the volost included from 300 to 2000 male souls. The volost administration consisted of the volost gathering, the volost foreman with the volost board and the volost peasant court. The power of the volost government extended only to the peasant population and to the persons assigned to the volosts of urban taxable states.

Zemstva is the head of everything

In January 1864, the "Regulations on provincial and district zemstvo institutions" were put into effect. According to it, zemstvos were approved as all-estate bodies of local self-government in counties and provinces. All landowners, industrialists and merchants who possessed real estate of a certain value, as well as rural societies, received the right to elect representatives from their midst for a period of 3 years (they were called then "vowels") to the county zemstvo assemblies. The latter were chaired by the district marshal of the nobility. Meetings were convened annually for a short period to resolve local economic affairs. The county assembly elected from among its midst the county zemstvo council, which consisted of a chairman and several members. The council was a permanent administrative institution. A similar order of administration was established for the provinces.

Zemstvos were supposed to play the role of a kind of intermediary between the highest levels of state power and the population. Zemstvo reform pursued the goal of decentralization of management and development of the beginnings of local self-government in Russia. The reform was based on two ideas. The first is the electivity of power: all local self-government bodies were elected and controlled by voters. In addition, these bodies were under the control of representative power. The second idea: local self-government had a real financial basis for its activities. In the 19th century up to 60% of all payments collected from the territories remained at the disposal of the zemstvo, i.e. cities and counties, 20% each went to the state treasury and the province.

The competence of zemstvo institutions included the solution of all local economic affairs within the provinces and districts. Part of the affairs, such as the maintenance of prisons, the arrangement and repair of postal routes and roads, the allocation of carts for traveling state officials and the police, were mandatory for zemstvo institutions. The other part, in the form of fire insurance, repair of local bridges and roads, food and medical assistance to the population, organization public education etc., was decided or not decided at the discretion of the county and provincial zemstvos. Zemstvo institutions were maintained by imposing a special tax on the local population. The reform of local self-government made it possible, first of all, to establish medical care for the population of counties and provinces, to raise the level of agriculture, to familiarize ordinary residents of rural settlements and cities with the basics of culture and literacy.

Local government revolution

V Soviet time- from 1917 to 1924 - the composition and boundaries of pre-revolutionary volosts and districts were redrawn. In the course of this territorial-administrative restructuring, all the old borders of provinces and districts were destroyed.

On August 13, 1919, at the VII Dmitrovsky Uyezd Council, a decision was made to allocate Sergievsky Posad into an independent county with volosts adjacent to it. On October 13 of the same year, by a decree of the Presidium of the Moscow Provincial Executive Committee, the Sergievsky District Executive Committee of the Council of Workers' and Peasants' Deputies was formed as a county with five volosts: Sergievskaya, Sofrinskaya, Putilovskaya, Bulakovskaya and Khotkovskaya. The territory of the latter was divided into village councils. On October 18, 1919, by the decision of the Moscow Provincial Executive Committee, Sergievsky Posad was renamed the city of Sergiev.

During 1921-1921. Ozeretskaya volost of the Dmitrovsky district, Ereminskaya, Konstantinovskaya and Rogachev volosts and partly Botovskaya volost of the Aleksandrovsky district of the Vladimir province were included in the Sergievsky district.

In June 1922, the district was renamed the county. Khrebtovskaya and Fedortsovskaya volosts of Pereslavl-Zalessky district were attached to it. Sharapovskaya volost was formed from part of the Botovskaya and Bulakovskaya and Rogachevskaya volosts. Thus, the newly formed Sergievsky district included 11 volosts: Ereminskaya, Konstantinovskaya, Ozeretskaya, Putilovskaya, Rogachevskaya, Sergievskaya, Sofrinskaya, Fedortsovskaya, Khotkovskaya, Khrebtovskaya and Sharapovskaya.

Administrative management bodies were the county executive committee, 11 volost executive committees for 472 villages, villages, churchyards, farms, factories, railway stations and platforms.

At the beginning of 1929, with the aim of more efficient development of industry, the Central Industrial Region was formed as part of Moscow, Tver, Tula and Ryazan provinces. In the summer of the same year, it was renamed the Moscow Region. It consisted of 10 districts, which were divided into 144 districts. Later

For 7 years it was divided into Moscow, Ryazan and Tula regions, and earlier 27 of its districts were transferred to the newly formed Kalinin region.

By a decree of the Presidium of the Moscow Oblast Executive Committee dated November 5, 1929, the city of Sergiev was renamed Zagorsk in memory of the secretary of the Moscow Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks V. M. Zagorsky, who was killed by left-wing Socialist-Revolutionaries in 1919. The city with a new name began to be mentioned in documents from 1930.

Then, in 1929, the northern third of the Sergievsky district became part of the newly formed Konstantinovsky district. Its borders were drawn regardless of the previous divisions of this part of the county in the 17th - early 20th centuries.

In the mid 1950s. in the Zagorsky district there were a regional center and 15 village councils: Abramtsevsky and Semkhoz dacha settlements, Akhtyrsky, Bereznyakovsky, Buzhaninovsky, Vasilyevsky, Vozdvizhensky, Vorontsovsky, Vypukovsky, Kamensky, Maryinsky, Mitinsky, Mishutinsky, Naugolnovsky, Turakovsky.

In the Konstantinovsky district there was a regional center - the village of Konstantinovo and 10 village councils: Bogorodsky, Veriginsky, Zabolotevsky, Zakubezhsky, Konstantinovsky, Kuzminsky, Novo-Shurmovsky, Selkovsky, Khrebtovsky, Chentsovsky.

In 1957, the Konstantinovsky district was abolished, its territory was ceded to the Zagorsk (former Sergievsky) district. The northern border of the region began to pass along the borders of the second half of the 1920s.

Zagorsk - the center of the urban district

In 1962-1963 local Soviets of Working People's Deputies were divided according to production into industrial and rural. Moscow region cities of regional subordination, including Zagorsk, were transferred to the subordination of the Moscow Regional (Industrial) Council of Workers' Deputies. The city authorities, in turn, were subordinate to Khotkovo, Krasnozavodsk and workers' settlements. The Zagorsk region as a separate territorial unit was liquidated, becoming part of the Mytishchi region.

At the beginning of 1965, this system of administration was abandoned and almost all the former districts were restored, including the Zagorsk district. In the explanation of the next administrative-territorial restructuring, it was indicated that it was being done on the basis of economic zoning for the benefit of the working people and with the aim of maximally strengthening the state apparatus and bringing it closer to the people.

There was no district council in the Zagorsk region. The settlement and village councils that were part of the district were subordinate to the city Council of Deputies.

There were 20 village councils in the region: Abramtsevsky and Semkhoz dacha settlements, Bereznyakovsky, Bogorodsky, Buzhaninovsky, Vasilyevsky, Veriginsky, Vozdvizhensky, Vorontsovsky, Vypukovsky, Zakubezhsky, Kamensky, Konstantinovsky, Kuzminsky, Maryinsky, Mitinsky, Naugolnovsky, Torgashinsky, Turakovsky, Chentsovsky.

In autumn 1991, Zagorsk was renamed Sergiev Posad.

In October 1993, a number of decrees and regulations were adopted, on the basis of which the Soviets were replaced by meetings of representatives, dumas, and municipal committees. In December 1993, the Moscow Regional Council was dissolved and the Soviet power in the localities was liquidated.

Russia returned in general to the situation at the turn of the 19th century. - beginning of XX century.

In post-perestroika times, the stage of a new approach of power to the population began. In 1996, the Charter of the municipal formation "Sergiev Posadsky District" was adopted. The purpose of its development and adoption was the desire to "ensure the development of the Sergiev Posad region as an integral municipality" on the principles of organizing local self-government.

In 2004, 12 municipal urban and rural settlements were approved on the territory of the district: urban settlements of Sergiev Posad, Krasnozavodsk, Peresvet, Khotkovo, Bogorodskoye, Skoropuskovskoye, rural settlements of Remmash, Bereznyaki, Vasilyevskoye, Loza, Selkovo, Shemetovo.

Further socio-economic development of the country and, in particular, the Moscow region, will undoubtedly be reflected in the emergence of new territorial-administrative entities. On what basis and for what purpose they will be organized, the future will show.

Vladimir Tkachenko, Head of the Historical Department of the Sergiev Posad Museum-Reserve

In administrative terms, the lands were divided into counties, volosts, camps, pyatins, awards, lips and graveyards. .

The county was the name of the whole country, attributed by court and tribute to one city. In the county, in addition to the main city, there were suburbs, which also had an urban structure, and settlements. Both those and others were assigned to manage their county town; so, according to the Ryazan payment books of 7105 in the Ryazan district appear: Pereyaslavl Ryazansky, Proksk, Ryazhsk and the Nikolo-Zaraisky monastery. The word county, in the sense of a region or a country that has its own special structure, is found in the very first monuments of the Moscow administration.

So, in the first spiritual letter of John Danilovich Kalita it is said: “And there my sons will share the goy and other volosts of the city; the same county is washed, which in which, county ... In the same charter there are hints that in the Muscovite state, under the first princes from the house of Nevsky, the county was of equal importance with the inheritance; therefore the expression: “which in which county” means: which in which inheritance. And such a significance of the county leads to the conclusion that in the Muscovite state and, probably, in other Russian principalities, it originally represented a separate, more or less independent whole, had its own prince, its own rights and charters. (We also find these statutes after the annexation of various appanages to Moscow in the charters that were given by the Moscow princes to various counties and volosts.) Thus, the county was more of a household unit; the administration only took advantage of his ready-made device "and did not change anything in it.

The center and representative of the county was always the main city, the name of which was carried by the whole county. All the authorities that controlled the county were concentrated in the main county town. Criminal cases were sent here for decision and approval; likewise, there was a court in all other cases. In the county town, notebooks were kept for all the lands and lands that were in the county, as well as lists of all county residents with a designation of who is in the service and who is not, on what land they live: on patrimonial, local or black, who has what family and how much land by whom. According to these lists and books, a general layout of taxes and duties was made, and according to them, service orders were also considered. Gathered in the city for the most part all tax dues, and from here they were already sent to the sovereign's treasury. In the city, all service people gathered before setting off on a campaign; here the voevodas reviewed them and wrote them down in their viewing books with a designation of who, like people, horses and weapons, was sent to serve.

County or non-urban lands divided into volosts and camps. These units were also household to some extent. Villages were originally very small; therefore, they needed to join some center - such a center was graveyards in Novgorod land, and volosts and camps in other areas. This division was used by the administration. When and by whom the volosts and camps in different principalities were organized, we do not know.

Volosts represent an older division of uyezds, while flocks appeared only from the time of Ivan Vasilievich Sh. At the same time, it seems that only the names have changed, but the structure of the volosts itself has remained the same, even their nicknames have remained the same; so instead of the former volosts: Surozh, Inabozhskaya, Korzenevskaya, etc., we meet camps: Surozhsky, Ikabozhsky, Korzenevsky, etc. However, the name of the volost itself was not completely replaced by a new one; so, in the Moscow, Rostov and Belozersky principalities, both of these names are used simultaneously and, moreover - as can be seen from the letters of that time - so that sometimes the camp was part of the volost and, therefore, the volost was divided into stans, and sometimes, on the contrary, the volost was part camp "1. The volost, or later the stan, constituted a separate part of the county and consisted of several settlements, villages, villages, villages and repairs, which were managed by one volost or camper. in all cases of persons belonging to the volost, each volost was so separated from the other that in the event of a trial between two persons of different volosts, the volosts had to judge with common consent with each other and share the fees from the court in half. Even in the case of a girl getting married in another volost, a special duty was assigned, known as the “brood marten”. If the murderer was not found, wild vira or golovshchina was paid by the entire volost, on whose land the murdered was found.

Spots, judge, lips and churchyards

This division of land was Novgorod proper; in other Russian possessions we do not find a similar division, and although some of these names are found in other possessions of northeastern Russia (for example, churchyard), they here have a completely different meaning than in Novgorod - rather historical, as a remnant of antiquity, than administrative. Pyatina was the fifth part of the Novgorod possessions; in each pyatina there were several districts, called in Novgorod, the courts, in each court there were several graveyards and volosts. The Novgorod pyatins had the following names: Derevskaya, which lay on the borders of Novgorod with Tver; Oboneekskaya - around Lake Onega; Shelonskaya - along the banks of Shel oni and Lovat; Votskaya - along the banks of the Luga, and Bezhetskaya - bordering with Moscow and partly with Tver possessions. Each pyatina was divided into two halves; the number of churchyards in five patches was not the same.

It is impossible to say in the affirmative when the division of land into pyatins appeared in Novgorod. In Novgorod administrative acts, pyatins appear no earlier than the 15th century. There are hints that there was such a grouping of lands in Novgorod much earlier; yes, in the charter Prince of Novgorod Svyatoslav Olgovich speaks of the Obonezhsky row, in which a significant number of cities and graveyards are supposed. Although the number, and partly the names of these cities and graveyards are not the same as those belonging to the Obonezh Pyatina, it should not be forgotten that the charter of Svyatoslav Olgovich was written back in the first half of the 12th century.

Lips and graveyards in Novgorod and Pskov possessions had the same meaning as in the ancient Russian possessions of volosts and camps. Graveyards are mainly found in acts of Novgorod, and lips - in Pskov. However, not all Pskov possessions had lips, but only those that were bordering Novgorod; in other possessions of Pskov there were also graveyards. Who and when the division of land into graveyards and bays was introduced is unknown; we only know that the churchyard was a very ancient institution in Novgorod. So, in the charter of Svyatoslav Olgovich, given in 1137, for a tithe in favor of the Novgorod bishopric, the tithe is already divided into churchyards; churchyards are already mentioned on the Onega, in Zavolochye and along the shores of the White Sea. In Novgorod, there is still a division into volosts, but this division was not administrative, but economic. In Novgorod, volosts meant the same as in ancient Russia, estates; they constituted large estates of private owners; so, there were volosts of princes, monasteries, private owners. In the Novgorod administrative acts there are more rows or rows; this was the name of settlements that had an urban character, but did not have the significance of cities and attributed by court and tribute to the cities on whose land they stood. These were only nascent cities; they were, for the most part, on navigable rivers and in general in lively places, and therefore trade and industry were developed in them. The inhabitants of the row were recognized as townspeople and were called Ryadovichi, townspeople. The rows sometimes included arable land and various lands that they rented out on the farm. The land, which was actually under the row, was divided into yards, as in cities, and not into quarters, as in villages, and the layout of taxes and duties of the rank and file was also done in yards.

The administrative division of the territory of the Moscow State into provinces, counties and volosts existed long ago. provincial (regional) reform of Peter the Great, carried out in 1708, when the lands of the future Russian Empire were divided into 8 vast provinces - Ingermanland (since 1710 St. Petersburg), Moscow, Arkhangelsk, Kiev, Smolensk, Kazan, Azov, Siberian.

However, the oldest Russian administrative unit should be considered churchyards, established to simplify the collection of tribute from the conquered Slavic tribes back in the 11th century. Such a division of the northwestern lands of Russia (in particular, the territories of the present Pskov and Novgorod regions), along with lips (counties), established in the middle of the 16th century, persisted until the beginning of the 18th century. By the way, there was no single, universal grid of administrative-territorial division in pre-Petrine Russia: counties were divided into camps, the number of which varied from county to county - in one county there could be two or three, and in another - more than two dozen. At the same time, in a number of localities, the territory of the counties was divided not into camps, but into volosts, which, in turn, were already divided into camps (for example, the Komaritskaya volost of the Bryansk province at the beginning of the 17th century).

Meanwhile, it happened that the camps were divided into even smaller “fractions” - four (quarters) (Vazhsky district of the Arkhangelsk province) and thirds (Ustyug district of the 16th century with thirds of the Yuzhskaya, Sukhona and Dvinskaya in the future Arkhangelsk province).

In the middle of the 18th century, a camp was an administrative and police unit within a county, which usually included 2-3 camps, each of which included several volosts.

In 1727-1775. the intermediate link between the province and the county in the administrative division of Russia was the province. At that time, the counties were under the administrative subordination of the provinces, and the camps and volosts were subordinate to the counties. Earlier, in 1719-1727, the counties were dissolved, and the provinces were cities with adjacent lands under the jurisdiction of these cities. The number of provinces in the provinces also varied.

During the reign of Catherine II, in the 1770s - 1780s, the former administrative-territorial structure of the Russian Empire underwent a radical revision: the provinces and provinces were abolished, and instead of them, governorships were established with different borders from the previous ones, some of which were divided into regions , which were subordinate to the districts (districts). Such a division was typical, in particular, for the eastern governorships of Russia during the time of Catherine the Great. So, the Ufa governorship established at that time was divided into two regions - Ufa and Orenburg, Tobolsk - into Tobolsk and Tomsk, etc. In central Russia, the counties were at that time directly subordinate to the governorships.

At the same time (1775), the so-called institute was established. governor generals. Governor-generals ruled several provinces at once. Some general governments lasted until 1912-1915. (Vilna, Galician, etc.) and were abolished in connection with the First World War.

Under Paul the First, during the territorial transformations of 1796-1797, there was a reverse renaming of governorships in the province, a number of which were enlarged at the expense of neighboring territories of the abolished governorships. At this time, in particular, the Olonets governorship, established in 1776 on the lands of the former Olonets region of the St. Petersburg province, was abolished, and its lands were distributed between two restored provinces - Novgorod and Arkhangelsk. At the same time, from the Lithuanian and Belarusian lands annexed to Russia as a result of the 3rd partition of the Commonwealth in 1795, provinces were formed, which in the 19th century made up the so-called. Northwestern region of Russia (provinces of Vilna, Kovno, Grodno, Minsk, Mogilev, Vitebsk). The division was finalized Russian provinces to counties, and counties to volosts. At the same time, the Little Russian province was established, divided into povets (the local analogue of the Russian counties) - an administrative-territorial division, also transferred to the aforementioned provinces of the North-Western Territory.

At the very beginning of the reign of Alexander the First, in 1801-1802, as a result of another administrative reform, the provinces formed during the previous reign were disaggregated. Due to the withdrawal of lands from the disaggregated provinces, new ones were established and old ones were recreated, in some places the administrative-territorial division was restored, more precisely, the provincial borders of the time of Catherine II.

In a number of cases, the size of uyezds in the eastern provinces cannot be compared with the size of uyezds in the central part of the country. So, for example, the Berezovsky district of the Tobolsk province covered 604,442.2 square versts, while the Maloyaroslavetsky district of the Kaluga province occupied at the same time 1,580.1 versts. The same can be said about the population density in these uyezds: according to the All-Russian census of 1897, there were 21,411 people in Berezovsky uyezd, and 86,888 people in Maloyaroslavets uyezd.

Significant changes in the administrative-territorial division of the Russian Empire took place in 1853, when the Samara province was established from several districts of the Orenburg, Simbirsk and Saratov provinces, and during the entire subsequent pre-revolutionary period of the history of Russia there were no changes in the composition of its territories. . The exception is the territory of the Kwantung region, formed in 1899 from lands leased by China to the Russian Empire for a period of 25 years. True, as a result of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905. the lease of this area went to Japan (together with the Russian-built part of the South Manchurian railway from Kuanchengzi to Port Arthur and Dalny with all facilities, military shipyards, arsenals and fortifications) and was resumed Soviet Union in the 1950s

The traditional administrative-territorial division of the Russian Empire into provinces, districts and volosts was already abolished in Soviet times, in 1928-1929, in connection with the introduction of a new division of the country's territory into districts (Central Black Earth District, etc.).

The division of lands in Russia began in antiquity, but the first mention dates back to the reign. The division of land into certain units facilitated the administration of the territory.

The term "land" in ancient Russia meant some part of the territory of the state. This definition can often be found in chronicles. "Earth" was formed due to the rallying of the population around a certain place - the city, which acted as an ancient tribal center.

These cities were:

• Smolensk
• Novgorod
• Iskorosten
• stop
• Staraya Ladoga
• Vyshgorod

As a result of internecine wars, many centers lost their importance and recognized the supremacy of stronger cities.

Counties

A county was a district that performed administrative and judicial functions. Counties were both near cities and villages, if they had their own judicial and administrative elite.

The origin of this definition is explained by the fact that the tribute collector of Ancient Russia himself traveled around the administered district 2 times a year, collecting taxes. Subsequently, the term "county" was applied to the administrative part of the city.

parish

The term "volost" comes from the word "power". In the times of Ancient Russia, this was the name of a part of the territory where the population had to submit to princely administration. Until the 13th century, principalities were called volosts. But, starting from the XIII century, the definition began to be assigned to smaller units of the territory.

However, the transformation of terms was uneven. For example, in Central and Southern Russia in the middle of the 13th century the word "volost" referred to the small outskirts of the territory, while in North-Eastern Russia the tax districts of villages were designated in this way.

Stans

This definition was used to refer to some part of the county or volost. In different periods in Russia, the term "stan" defined various administrative-territorial units of the earth.

Initially, this word marked a stop on the way, a temporary stay and arrangement on the spot along with wagons, tents and cattle. You can compare this definition with the words "camp" and "camping". Going to collect tribute or administer court, the prince made several stops along the way.

Over time, such stops became the centers of the principality or county. The camp was a temporary stop for the prince or his successor.

It is known that the camps were named after rivers, villages or famous governors of the prince. For example, the camp of Vorya and Korzenov was named after the river Vorya and the village of Korzenovo.

Spots

Literally, this term means a fifth of the earth. It has been used since ancient times, most of all it was common in Novgorod Russia.

The structure of the pyatins was fully formed by the 15th century. It included several counties, churchyards and volosts.

awards

The term "award" was common on the territory of the Novgorod region and meant the same as the counties. According to the designated part of the territory, the award to some extent corresponded to the counties in other principalities of Ancient Russia. However, this definition was also applicable to the wider region, which was ruled by the governor of Novgorod.

Lips

This territorial unit was distributed mainly in the Pskov region. Lips denoted a different area - from the settlement to the parish. This definition corresponded to volosts and camps in other parts of Russia. It is not known when this definition was introduced, but it is believed that the term is very ancient.

Graveyards

This definition comes from the words "stay", "stay". It was first introduced by Princess Olga, who divided the Novgorod Republic into graveyards, assigning each of them a certain amount of tribute. So the churchyard became associated with the place of residence of the prince and his squad during the collection of tribute - a guest house.

Over time, the churchyard began to designate a territorial unit, which consists of several points, villages and towns, as well as an area that is the center of such territories.

After the spread of Christianity, a churchyard began to be called a village with a church and a cemetery attached to it, or the center of the settlement, where there is a church and a trading place. The division into churchyards was more common in the northern part of Russia.