Zemstvos

zemstvo

 plural zemstvos

Rural elected assembly in the Russian Empire. Established by Tsar Alexander II in 1864 to provide social and economic services, the zemstvos became a liberal influence in imperial Russia. The assemblies, formed at the district and province levels, were composed of delegates representing the landed proprietors and the peasant village communes. They expanded education, improved roads, and provided health care. From the 1890s they agitated for constitutional reform, and they stimulated activity in the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917 (see Russian Revolution of 1905; Russian Revolution of 1917). They were abolished after the Bolsheviks came to power. The term zemstvo also refers to a 16th-century institution for tax collection.

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Zemstvos 

(district and provincial assemblies), district and provincial administrative organs of zemstvo (district and provincial self-government) institutions in Russia from 1864 to 1917.

The zemstvos elected zemstvo boards every three years and controlled their work, approved a budget, and apportioned zemstvo duties. The chairman of the zemstvo was called the marshal of the nobility. The members of the provincial zemstvos were elected by the district zemstvos, from among the district members, who were elected on the basis of property qualifications and an apportionment system that guaranteed the significant predominance of the nobility. The peasants were deprived of zemstvo representation by the statutes of 1890. The peasants elected candidates from volost (small rural district) assemblies, but the peasant members were appointed from their number by the governor on the recommendation of the land captain of the uchastok (subdistrict).