Provincial Administration in Siberia in the Context of M. M. Speransky's Reform

Abstract

The research featured the reasons behind the development of an optimal management model in Siberian provinces, which slowed down the integrative processes of the official imperial policy. Governor-General of Siberia M. M. Speransky intended to eliminate the legal nihilism and arbitrariness of Siberian bureaucracy. His ideas provided the basis for the so-called Institution for the Management of Siberian Provinces – a document that structured the administration of Siberian provinces in the first half of the XIX century. The document regulated all types of management and record keeping at the level of provinces and governorates. The research revealed the features of provincial administration, control, supervision, and subordination. The author analyzes the powers of Governors-General and Civil Governors as representatives of the Supreme power in provincial administrations. The article outlines the positive and negative characteristics of the transformation of the regional management model. The authors defined a contradiction between the legal provisions and the legal reality that developed after the implementation of the Institution for the Management of Siberian Provinces, which was due to both personnel inconsistencies and the discrete nature of the administrative policy of the autocracy in Siberia.