№ 5 - 2000
Kamensky A.B.
A View of the History of Russian Territorial Government System

This note by a well-known student of Russian political history of the 18th century offers comment in response the above article by A.G.Trifonov and B.V.Mezhuyev analyzing the activities of czarist Russia’s governors-general. The author of the note disagrees with the prevailing opinion that the provincial government reform of 1775 was exclusively a reaction to the Pugachev uprising. The historian holds that the Cathrinian reformations in the sphere of territorial government (and the introduction of the institution of governors-general among them) were entirely within the logic of political development of the 18th century, the epoch of enlightened monarchy, and were a continuation of the Peterian provincial government reform. Both the Peterian and the Cathrinian reforms of provincial power pointed towards the establishment of the model of regular State in Russia. The experience of the governors-general under Cathrine the Second, in the author’s opinion, should be recognized as felicitous.