Zemsky liberals of Northern Ukraine and the problem of reforming peasant self-government in the 80 s. of XIX century

The publication is devoted to clarifying the position of Zemsky liberals of the region regarding the transformations in the sphere of peasant self-government at the stage of 80 years. The immediate reason for the public articulation of the position of the opposition aristocratic front of the North Left Bank on the transformation of peasant self-government in the Russian Empire was a short period of “political thaw” 1880–1881 and the subsequent inertia of the beginning of the reign of the new Emperor Alexander III. In the public aura of 'democratic illusions', in particular in the context of the emergence of relevant bodies in the upper echelons of state power, the process of submitting packages of reform proposals and initiatives to the governmental circles of the country has begun. The Zemsky Liberal Party of northern Ukraine did not stay out of the way. Noting the major problems of local self-government: the glaring poverty of the basic population – the peasantry and the catastrophically low level of education of the population, the Zemsky Liberals of Zemsky offered a qualitative alternative to the existing system – a comprehensive modernization of primary government management. Measures initiated by progressives – the destruction of physical corporal punishment, the elimination of county and provincial peasant affairs presence, neutralization of the destructive influence of the police on the life of the province, the transfer of final court decisions to elected world institutions, anti-corruption financial steps, the formation of constitutional decisions were aimed at completely breaking the existing realities of the life of the province, the destruction of the established mode of government. The publicized vision of the transformation of peasant self-government by members of the Zemsky Liberal Opposition of the Ukrainian Polesie has become a catalyst for the adoption of reactionary decisions by the authorities, such as the closure of the Kakhanov Commission. One way or another, the declared proposals became part of the broad democratic political agenda of the Zemsky Liberal Movement in the north Left Bank of Ukraine, and Russian absolutism received the “final arguments” to develop a set of legislative innovations that would become part of the Counter-Reformation era