Urban Problems and Local Government in Late Imperial Russia: Moscow, 1906-1914.

Abstract

This is a study of the process of modernization in one Russian locale. The first chapter outlines the character of the city and some of its major social problems, thus defining the scale of the task facing the municipality if it wished to improve conditions or even maintain the status quo in the face of rapid population growth. Next, the responsibilities and limitations of the municipality are examined. The City Statutes of 1870 and 1892 and the Extraordinary Measures of 1881 are discussed in the context of Russian history and in terms of their significance for Moscow and other towns. The following section deals with the social composition and politics of the municipal government and discusses the question of the "bourgeois" character of the city Duma and its reputed concentration and defending upper-class interests. Such a view of the Duma is found to be misleading; instead, it was a liberal body dedicated to gradual social change, civil liberties, and the right to act independently of central government tutelage. The structure, functions, and interaction of the police with Moscow's people are then examined. Organized into a gradonachal'stvo (city governorship), the city's police carried out traditional Russian police functions, including some ameliorative efforts and day-to-day political repression. The role of the police in contributing to or reducing political and social tension in Moscow is analyzed. The last three chapters cover the considerable efforts of the municipality and the occasional ones of the police to improve conditions in such areas as transportation, education, public health, housing, and recreation. In bolstering the quality, scale, and availability of its programs, the city government promoted social betterment and integration of the lower classes into urban life. By no means did the Moscow Duma deserve the labels of "indifferent" or "reactionary" that Western and Soviet writers have ascribed to it. In its efforts to improve city life, the local government had constantly to deal with the effects of prior neglect, rapid in-migration, regular interference from the state, and limited financial capability. The Duma also moved slowly to attack some problems because it was still bound by traditional Russian upper-class and governmental attitudes toward urban problems; i.e., they were seen, if noted at all, as the concern of someone else somewhere else. Yet the period 1906-1914 witnessed the rapid development of a trend in the Moscow government toward accepting permanent responsibility for social problems. In this sense the city was also modernizing. Despite many improvements, numerous aspects of Moscow's life remained dismal in 1914. State control and interference, which greatly hampered municipal efforts, showed little sign of lessening; this augured badly for the prospects of improvement in Russia's cities and of the country's peaceful evolution toward a more open social and political order.