Ostsee provinces. Outskirts and the general imperial system of government (Polish and Baltic provinces, Siberia)
Ostsee provinces, Baltic provinces- administrative-territorial units of the Russian Empire, created, starting in 1713, in the Baltic states as a result of the victory over Sweden in the Northern War, secured by the Treaty of Nystadt and as a result of the third partition of the Commonwealth (Courland province).
Until the middle of the 19th century, the provinces had considerable autonomy and, until the end of their existence, retained a part of the legal system separate from the general imperial one. In 1915-1918. the provinces were occupied by German troops; independent Latvian and Estonian states arose on their former territory, and a small part of the Courland province (the extreme south-west of its territory with the city of Palanga) went to Lithuania.
background
From the 13th to the 16th centuries, the territory of the future Baltic provinces was part of the Livonian Confederation created during the crusades. During this period, such features as the dominance of Western Christianity (initially Catholicism, then Lutheranism) and Baltic Germans in the society were formed in the region. After the Livonian War, Estonia belonged to Sweden (Swedish Estonia; Ezel briefly belonged to Denmark), Courland - to the Commonwealth, Livonia - originally to Poland (as part of the Duchy of Zadvinsk), but in the 17th century it was conquered by Sweden (Swedish Livonia).
North War
Petrovsky provinces
Catherine's provinces
The Livland Rules of 1804 abolished the former serfdom, replacing it with a system of subordination of peasants to landlords according to the Prussian model
The abolition of serfdom in the Baltic provinces occurred earlier than in the Great Russian ones - under Alexander I (1816 - mainland Estland, 1817 - Courland, 1818 - Ezel, 1819 - Livonia), but the peasants were freed without land.
Control Features
As part of the Russian Empire, the Baltic provinces had a special status. The basis of their management was local legislation (“The Code of Local Laws of the Ostsee Provinces”), according to which the internal administration of the region was carried out by the nobility along with government agencies. Although the sphere of competence of the latter expanded from the end of the 18th century, until the outbreak of the First World War, the governor, as a representative of the central government, was forced to organize his official activities in such a way as not to violate the privileges of the Baltic nobility.
The issue of the relationship between the general imperial and local legislation in the Baltic provinces was actively discussed by Russian lawyers in the 1830s-1890s. Local Baltic jurists, representing the Baltic-German legal school Theodor von Bunge, insisted that only laws issued specifically for him could be valid in the region, and from Russians, only those whose distribution to the Baltic states was specifically stipulated. The Bunge school allowed the application of general imperial legislation only if the applied norms corresponded to the basics of the local legal order, and only when there was a gap in the Baltic.
In the late 1890s, P. I. Belyaev acted as an opponent of the Bunge school. In his opinion, general imperial law was in force in the region, and he considered the Baltic laws as part of Russian legislation. This concept justified government intervention in social and economic relations in the Baltics.
see also
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Notes
Literature
- Alexy II, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia.// Orthodoxy in Estonia. - M..
- Andreeva N.S. The Baltic Germans and the Russian government policy at the beginning of the 20th century. SPb., 2008
- Andreeva N. S.// St. Petersburg Institute of History of the Russian Academy of Sciences..
- Andreeva N. S.// St. Petersburg Institute of History of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Abstract diss..
- Mikhailova Yu. L.// The Baltic region in international relations of the XVIII-XX centuries: Abstracts of the international conference.
- Tuchtenhagen, Ralph .
An excerpt characterizing the Ostsee provinces
- Who is this? Petya asked.- This is our plast. I sent him to pick up the language.
“Ah, yes,” said Petya from Denisov’s first word, nodding his head as if he understood everything, although he decidedly did not understand a single word.
Tikhon Shcherbaty was one of the most needed people in the party. He was a peasant from Pokrovsky near Gzhatya. When, at the beginning of his actions, Denisov came to Pokrovskoye and, as always, calling the headman, asked what they knew about the French, the headman answered, as all the headmen answered, as if defending themselves, that they did not know anything, know they don't know. But when Denisov explained to them that his goal was to beat the French, and when he asked if the French had wandered into them, the headman said that there had been marauders for sure, but that in their village only Tishka Shcherbaty was engaged in these matters. Denisov ordered Tikhon to be called to him and, praising him for his activities, said a few words in front of the headman about the loyalty to the tsar and the fatherland and hatred for the French, which the sons of the fatherland should observe.
“We do no harm to the French,” said Tikhon, apparently timid at these words of Denisov. - We only so, means, on hunting dabbled with the guys. It’s like two dozen Miroderov were beaten, otherwise we didn’t do anything bad ... - The next day, when Denisov, completely forgetting about this peasant, left Pokrovsky, he was informed that Tikhon had stuck to the party and asked to be left with it. Denisov ordered to leave him.
Tikhon, who at first corrected the menial work of laying out fires, delivering water, skinning horses, etc., soon showed a great desire and ability for guerrilla warfare. He went out at night to plunder and each time brought with him a dress and French weapons, and when he was ordered, he brought prisoners. Denisov put Tikhon away from work, began to take him on trips with him and enrolled him in the Cossacks.
Tikhon did not like to ride and always walked, never falling behind the cavalry. His weapons were a blunderbuss, which he wore more for laughter, a lance and an ax, which he owned like a wolf owns teeth, equally easily picking fleas out of wool and biting thick bones with them. Tikhon equally faithfully, with all his might, split logs with an ax and, taking the ax by the butt, cut out thin pegs with it and cut out spoons. In the party of Denisov, Tikhon occupied his own special, exceptional place. When it was necessary to do something especially difficult and ugly - turn a wagon in the mud with your shoulder, pull a horse out of the swamp by the tail, skin it, climb into the very middle of the French, walk fifty miles a day - everyone pointed, chuckling, at Tikhon.
“What the hell is he doing, hefty merenina,” they said about him.
Once a Frenchman, whom Tikhon was taking, shot him with a pistol and hit him in the flesh of his back. This wound, from which Tikhon was treated only with vodka, internally and externally, was the subject of the most cheerful jokes in the whole detachment and jokes that Tikhon willingly succumbed to.
"What, brother, won't you?" Ali cringed? the Cossacks laughed at him, and Tikhon, deliberately crouching and making faces, pretending to be angry, scolded the French with the most ridiculous curses. This incident had only the effect on Tikhon that, after his wound, he rarely brought prisoners.
Tikhon was the most useful and brave man in the party. No one more than him discovered cases of attacks, no one else took him and beat the French; and as a result, he was the jester of all Cossacks, hussars, and he himself willingly succumbed to this rank. Now Tikhon was sent by Denisov, that night, to Shamshevo in order to take language. But, either because he was not satisfied with one Frenchman, or because he slept through the night, he climbed into the bushes during the day, into the very middle of the Frenchmen and, as he saw from Mount Denisov, was discovered by them.
After talking for some more time with the esaul about tomorrow's attack, which now, looking at the proximity of the French, Denisov seemed to have finally decided, he turned his horse and rode back.
- Well, bg "at, tepeg" let's go and dry ourselves, - he said to Petya.
Approaching the forest guardhouse, Denisov stopped, peering into the forest. A man in a jacket, bast shoes and a Kazan hat, with a gun over his shoulder and an ax in his belt, was walking through the forest, between the trees, with long, light steps on long legs, with long dangling arms. Seeing Denisov, this man hurriedly threw something into a bush and, taking off his wet hat with drooping brim, went up to the chief. It was Tikhon. Pitted with smallpox and wrinkles, his face with small narrow eyes shone with self-satisfied amusement. He raised his head high and, as if restraining himself from laughter, stared at Denisov.
“Well, where did pg fall?” Denisov said.
- Where had you been? I followed the French,” Tikhon answered boldly and hastily in a hoarse but melodious bass.
- Why did you climb during the day? Beast! Well, didn't you take it?
“I took it,” said Tikhon.
– Where is he?
“Yes, I took him first of all at dawn,” Tikhon continued, rearranging his flat, turned-out legs in bast shoes wider, “and led him into the forest. I see it's not good. I think, let me go, I’ll take another more carefully one.
“Look, rogue, it’s true,” Denisov said to the esaul. - Why didn’t you pg "ivel"?
“Yes, what’s the point of driving him,” Tikhon interrupted angrily and hastily, “not a busy one. Don't I know what you need?
- What a beast! .. Well? ..
“I went after another,” Tikhon continued, “I crawled into the forest in this manner, and I lay down. - Tikhon unexpectedly and flexibly lay down on his belly, imagining in his faces how he did it. “One and do it,” he continued. - I'll rob him in this manner. - Tikhon quickly, easily jumped up. - Let's go, I say, to the colonel. How to make a noise. And there are four of them. They rushed at me with skewers. I attacked them in such a manner with an ax: why are you, they say, Christ is with you, ”Tikhon cried out, waving his arms and frowning menacingly, exposing his chest.
“That’s what we saw from the mountain, how you asked the arrow through the puddles,” said the esaul, narrowing his shining eyes.
Petya really wanted to laugh, but he saw that everyone was holding back from laughing. He quickly turned his eyes from the face of Tikhon to the face of the esaul and Denisov, not understanding what all this meant.
“You can’t imagine arcs,” Denisov said, coughing angrily. “Why didn’t you bring peg?”
Tikhon began to scratch his back with one hand, his head with the other, and suddenly his whole face stretched into a radiant stupid smile, which revealed the lack of a tooth (for which he was nicknamed Shcherbaty). Denisov smiled, and Petya burst into merry laughter, which was joined by Tikhon himself.
“Yes, quite wrong,” said Tikhon. - The clothes are poor on him, where to take him then. Yes, and rude, your honor. Why, he says, I myself am the son of Anaral, I won’t go, he says.
Back in 1842, a false idea was thrown among the peasants of Livonia that they would receive state lands if they converted to Orthodoxy. The riots then taking place on this occasion were at the same time stopped, but the spark continued to flicker and in 1845 flared up again.
In the month of March, some residents of the city of Riga expressed a desire to join Orthodoxy, and at the same time, representatives of the Livonian nobility, fearing a renewal of the previous unrest, petitioned for measures to be taken against this. The fears of the nobles were recognized as futile, and by the Highest Command it was announced that Latvians could be allowed to join Orthodoxy, so long as they asked not through attorneys, but personally, and worship for them to be performed in the Latvian language in one of our churches. In June, rumors spread in the Derpt and Verro districts that the time had come to register for a change of faith, and Livonian peasants flocked in droves to the priests in Riga, Verro and Derpt. The local authorities took every precaution to eliminate the disturbances. The peasants were instructed that they should appear only with leave orders from the landowners and no more than a tenth of the population, but Latvians came even without a view, 300 or more people each; they were explained that they would not receive any worldly benefits from a change of faith, but the peasants remained convinced that their situation should improve and that if not the Sovereign Emperor, then His Heir would grant them state lands.
It is quite natural that these events were accompanied by murmurs from the nobles and unrest on the part of the peasants. The latter quit their jobs, showed insolence and hatred; and in the month of October, the excitement increased to the point that the marshal of the Derpt district of the nobility petitioned for the sending of troops to maintain peace.
It is hardly possible to determine the causes of the present events. The Russians explain that the desire of Latvians to change their faith comes from their own desire; that the Protestant clergy, in order to preserve their own interests, intrigue against this desire and do their best to keep the peasants in their former faith; that the nobles of Livonia, taking the real events for dangerous excitement, present the matter in a false form. On the contrary, the upper and middle estates in Livonia prove that the Orthodox clergy are inciting the peasants, that the Latvians change their faith without any conviction, solely to avoid dependence on the landlords, and that a change in confession, without promising lasting success to Orthodoxy, is not a religious, but a political revolution, endangering the edge. Again, it is difficult to determine which side justice is on, but, nevertheless, the general desire of Latvians to convert to Orthodoxy has grown to such an extent that it is as dangerous to stop this impulse as it is to promote it. Therefore, the Sovereign Emperor has been commanded by the Highest: to leave the Latvians regarding the change of faith to their own conviction, but to strictly persecute those who dare to incite them to disorder; equally watch that the Livonian nobles and the Protestant clergy do not deviate those who wish from Orthodoxy.
They also note that it would be useful to abolish in the Ostsee provinces those of the local privileges that do not agree with the circumstances of the time and are in conflict with the orders of our government. For example, the minister of public education 10 tries to spread the Russian language in those provinces, and on the basis of privileges in government offices, business is carried out there only in German and they will not even accept requests in Russian! Nowadays, the Orthodox confession is spreading in the Ostsee provinces, and due to local privileges, the Orthodox there cannot engage in foreign trade, because this is provided to the Great Guild, in which only Lutherans are registered; Russians are not allowed to any crafts in the cities, because only a Lutheran can be a master; finally, a Russian nobleman cannot enjoy all his rights in the Ostsee provinces; in a word, the Orthodox faith and the Russians in the Ostsee provinces are humiliated before the local faith and inhabitants.
The gendarmerie headquarters officer stationed in Livonia reported that no matter how hard he tries by pliability and politeness to acquire the favor of the local authorities, it always removes him from any influence on affairs. The chiefs of police, who are appointed there from the crown, also have no power, and the cities are ruled by burgomasters, who fearlessly allow themselves various abuses. For more than 40 years, the Ostsee provinces were not audited by anyone. In October 1845 the Minister of the Interior 11 considered it necessary to send to Riga his official, a collegiate adviser Khanykov 12 . instructing him to revise the economic part of the city government. Having met the need to verify the original protocols of the Great Guild, Khanykov demanded these documents, but the merchants of Riga refused him this; later, when the governor general 13 suggested that the guild deliver the protocols to the auditor, the merchants, instead of immediate execution, made a bolt * and, putting all the balls on the opposite side, informed the governor-general that, due to their privileges, they were not obliged to issue their protocols for consideration and that they would consider themselves not in the right not to fulfill the will of the Governor-General in such a case only if he does not propose, but prescribes to them.
Thus, the upper and middle classes in the Ostsee provinces, separating themselves from the general rights and duties of the ruling people in Russia, keep themselves, as it were, in their original position. Therefore, especially now, with the spread of Orthodoxy in the Ostsee provinces, it would be necessary to gradually and carefully weaken the power of those local privileges that limit the rights of Russians, and place the Orthodox there in the position in which the ruling people should be within the boundaries of their Empire.
Notes
* So in the text. Modern - ballot.
Wednesday, December 31, 1845
The small but proud Baltic peoples like to talk about their Europeanness, which was constantly hindered by the Russian "occupation". Intellectually advanced (in different directions) Russian liberals unanimously sympathize with the Balts. People who have experienced the Soviet era sometimes recall with nostalgia the Western European medieval architecture of Riga and Tallinn, and are also inclined to consider the Baltics "Europe". But almost no one talks about the fact that the very existence of the small Baltic nations is connected with the policy of the Russian imperial authorities. Most of the inhabitants simply know from the Baltic history only the “occupation” of 1940. Meanwhile, the transformation of the amorphous aboriginal population into full-fledged, albeit small nations, is entirely the fruit of the policy of the authorities of the Russian Empire in the Ostsee region a century and a half ago, which was called Russification. And, of course, it is precisely for this reason that modern Estonians and Latvians are distinguished by such pathological Russophobia - such is the gratitude of small nations.
Among the most important questions of Russian life in the second half of the 19th century was the question of the Baltic, or Baltic. Three Baltic provinces were called the Ostsee region - Estland, Courland and Livonia (now it is the territory of Estonia and Latvia). Annexed to Russia in the 18th century, these provinces retained many features of local government. Along with the Grand Duchy of Finland, the Kingdom of Poland (until 1831), the Baltic provinces, which even in the Russian press were often called Ostsee in the German manner (recall that in Germany the East Sea - Ostsee, the Baltic Sea is called), remained almost unintegrated into the composition of Russia. All power - political, economic and cultural - was in the hands of the local German nobility and burghers, direct descendants of the Teutonic "knight-dogs" of the 13th century. Having conquered this region in those days, where the tributaries of Russia lived, who later became known as Estonians and Latvians, the knights created their own state - the Teutonic Order, which for more than three centuries threatened all neighbors and brutally oppressed the conquered natives. After the Livonian War, the Order disintegrated, but Sweden and Poland, which took possession of the Baltic lands, retained inviolability all the rights and privileges of the German barons. In a certain sense, the dominance of the barons even increased, since the central power, which was previously represented by the order authorities, was now entirely in the hands of the chivalry and the burghers.
Having annexed Livonia and Estland to himself, Peter the Great retained all the old privileges for the local German barons and burghers, including the estate system of noble administration and court. Courland, annexed to Russia in 1795, also retained the old system of government, unchanged from the time of the Duchy of Courland. The Baltic Germans, even under Russian rule, ruled the Baltics in exactly the same way as in the 13th century.
In this region there was a special legal regime, different from the system of all-Russian statehood and characterized by the dominance of the German language, Lutheranism, a special set of laws (Ostsee law), legal proceedings, administration, etc. The functions of internal administration of the region were carried out by the bodies of the German nobility. The governor of any of the three Baltic provinces, who was a representative of the central government, until the outbreak of the First World War, was forced to organize his official activities in such a way as not to violate the privileges of the nobility. In 1801, all the provinces were united into a single governor-general, but the power of the barons did not shake from this - most of the governor-generals themselves came from Baltic barons, or were married to Baltic German women, and other governor-generals quickly found a common language with the barons . Is it any wonder that in 1846 there were only six Russian officials under the Governor-General.
The word “Ostzeets”, which meant a Baltic German (as opposed to a St. Petersburg German artisan or a Volga peasant colonist) and, more significantly, a supporter of the preservation of German privileges in the region, by the middle of the 19th century began to denote a kind of political party that had a huge influence in life.
In those days, as, indeed, a century later, in the Soviet era, the Baltic States for some reason was considered an "advanced" and "European" society. But nothing could be further from the truth. In the second half of the 19th century, in the Baltic provinces, feudal institutions and orders were preserved in huge numbers, which had long since disappeared in the rest of Europe. It is no coincidence that the prominent Slavophil Ivan Aksakov called the Ostsee provinces "a museum of historical rarities of the social and social structure." Referring to the Baltic legislation, the German barons skillfully sabotaged all the decisions of the central government, which sought to introduce all-Russian laws in the Baltic states, in particular, zemstvo and city self-government.
The strength of the claims of the barons was given strength by the fact that in their mass they were really absolutely loyal to the Russian emperor. A huge number of sailors, generals, administrators, scientists, came from among the Baltic nobility. Actually, this is exactly what Peter I was striving for, preserving and expanding the Baltic privileges. For a century and a half, such a policy gave excellent results - the Russian authorities could always be calm in relation to the strategically and economically important Baltic lands, and the Baltic chivalry supplied the empire with qualified and loyal personnel in the military and administrative apparatus of the state.
The Ostsees were also distinguished by some personal qualities that distinguished them against the background of certain categories of the Russian nobility. So, they were not characterized by contempt for all types of labor activity, which was so characteristic of the Polish gentry, and even of some Russian old-world landowners. Many Ostseers have been successful in entrepreneurial activities. The desire for education was also inherent in the Ostsee, and it is not by chance that a number of outstanding scientists emerged from among them.
There were few Ostsees in the revolutionary movement. Thus, there were quite a few Germans among the Decembrists, but most of them were St. Petersburg, not Baltic Germans. Similarly, there were almost no Ostsee among the Narodnaya Volya and Bolsheviks.
In the first half of the 19th century, the position of the Ostsee in Russia became especially significant. Alexander I considered the Baltic provinces as a training ground for "running in" the reforms that would then have to follow throughout the empire. If in Finland and Poland the emperor experimented with constitutionality, then in the Baltic states an attempt was made to free the serfs. As you know, Alexander I sincerely sought to put an end to serfdom, but he perfectly understood that, with all his autocracy, it was impossible for him to oppose the main estate of Russia. And that is why the emperor tried to turn the Baltic states into a place for an experiment on the abolition of serfdom. It was all the easier to do this because the landowners and serfs belonged to different peoples.
Back in 1804, under pressure from official St. Petersburg, the German nobility passed the so-called peasant law, which recognized the minimum right to land for the cultivators and determined the amount of peasant duties in relation to their soul owner. Until that time, the indigenous Balts did not have any rights at all, and all their duties were determined at their discretion by their masters!
However, the Baltic nobility quickly managed to neutralize this law, and as a result of various "additions" and "clarifications", the number of feudal duties for the peasants even increased.
In 1816-1819. nevertheless, serfdom in the Baltic provinces was abolished, but all the land remained with the landlords, so that the liberated peasants turned into landless farm laborers. In Estonia, it was only in 1863 that peasants received identification documents, and the right to freedom of movement of the corvee, which was carried out by “free” peasants, was canceled only in 1868, that is, half a century after the “liberation”.
Trying to prevent the organization of their former serfs, the barons sought to settle their peasants in separate farms. Of course, all the land among the farmers was baronial. In 1840, the peasants owned only 0.23% of all arable land in the Livland province! At the same time, a deliberate policy of alcoholization of the indigenous Balts was carried out. Drunkenness really took on a huge scale in the region. As the authors of the Latvian textbook on the history of Latvia admit, "mired in alcoholism, the peasants began to degrade spiritually." It is no coincidence that in native Russia in the middle of the 19th century there was an expression “to go to Riga”, which meant to drink to death.
Numerous symbolic actions have also been preserved, demonstrating the servile obedience of Estonians and Latvians to their German masters. So, until the beginning of the 20th century, the custom of kissing the baron's hand was preserved. Corporal punishment for farm laborers continued until 1905. In fact, until the end of the 19th century, that is, decades after the abolition of serfdom, in the Ostsee region, the barons enjoyed the right of the first night
The main categories for determining the social affiliation of a person in the Ostsee region were the concepts: Deutsch (German) and Undeutsch (non-German). Actually, by the middle of the 19th century, in the 2 million population of the three Ostsee provinces, there were approximately 180 thousand Germans, and their number was gradually decreasing not only in relative, but also in absolute numbers. But the power of the Baltic Sea people was strong and the reason for this was very prosaic - official Petersburg was almost never interested in the position of the Baltic aborigines.
However, in opposition to the introduction of all-Russian legislation in the region, it was not only the opposition of the Baltic Sea people that manifested itself, but the desire to prevent local Latvians and Estonians from participating in the administration, who lived on their own land as second-class people. The arguments against the participation of local residents in self-government were given purely racist ones. So, a native of Estonia, an outstanding Russian scientist - naturalist, founder of embryology, Karl Baer spoke unflatteringly about Estonians: “Estonians are very greedy. Already the northern country itself makes it easy to assume; however, they far surpass their neighbors at the same geographical latitude in this. Hence the reasons why from childhood they fill their stomach too much and stretch it ... Like other northern peoples, Estonians are very fond of vodka ... As for spiritual culture, most European peoples surpass them significantly, because very few Estonians have learned to write ... Of the shortcomings, which cannot be denied in any way, I would list them: laziness, uncleanliness, excessive subservience to the strong and cruelty, savagery towards the weaker. So spoke a prominent scientist who tried to be "above" primitive chauvinism. But the rest of the Eastseas thought the same way.
The Germans are considered a sentimental nation, but the German government is a tough government, devoid of any sentimentality. If the Russian feudal lords could still retain certain patriarchal feelings towards “their” peasants, then the Ostsee barons, who ruled by right of the conquerors, could only treat the indigenous population of the region as working cattle. In the 17th century, the Dutchman J. Straits, who visited Swedish Livonia, described the life of the local residents as follows: “We passed by small villages, the inhabitants of which were very poor. Women's clothing consists of a piece of cloth or a rag that barely covers their nakedness; their hair is cut below the ears and hangs down, like those of a wandering people, whom we call gypsies. Their houses, or rather huts, are the worst you can imagine, they have no utensils except dirty pots and pans, which, like the house and the people themselves, are so unkempt and untidy that I preferred to fast and spend the night in the open. than to eat and sleep with them.... They have no beds and sleep on the bare ground. Their food is coarse and nasty, consisting of buckwheat bread, sauerkraut and unsalted cucumbers, which aggravates the miserable condition of these people, who live all the time in need and sorrow due to the disgusting cruelty of their masters, who treat them worse than the Turks and barbarians treat their slaves. Apparently, this people should be governed in this way, because if they are treated gently, without coercion, without giving them rules and laws, then disorder and discord can arise. This is a very clumsy and superstitious people, prone to witchcraft and black magic, which they do so awkwardly and stupidly, like our children, who scare each other with beeches. I have not seen them have any schools or education, therefore they grow up in great ignorance, and they have less intelligence and knowledge than savages. And despite the fact that some of them consider themselves Christians, they hardly know more about religion than a monkey who has been taught to perform rituals and ceremonies .... ”Meanwhile, in the modern Baltic republics, the time of Swedish rule is considered almost a golden age !
N. M. Karamzin, who had already visited Russian Livonia in 1789, noted that the Livland serf brings his landowner four times more income than the Russian serfs of Simbirsk or Kazan provinces. This was due not to the greater industriousness of the Latvians, and not even to the German order, but simply to more efficient and cruel exploitation of the serfs.
Medieval guilds with an ethnic character have been preserved in the Baltic cities. So, for example, in the charter of the butcher's shop there was a decree that only persons whose parents were Germans could be accepted as students, and everyone who married "non-Germans" should be immediately excluded from the shop.
In general, the fact that the Latvians and Estonians were not assimilated by the Germans at all, as happened with the more numerous Polabian Slavs and Prussians, was probably due precisely to the arrogance of the local barons, who did not at all seek to spread their language and culture to the conquered natives, since a common culture could equalize them in rights. However, in the middle of the 19th century, the Germanization of Latvians and Estonians seemed quite possible. The number of "shameful Latvians" and "juniper Germans" from among the Estonians who switched to the German language and identifying themselves as Germans, really grew. A hundred and fifty years ago, neither Latvians nor Estonians had any national self-consciousness. They did not even have the name of their ethnic group. The fact that Estonians and Latvians generally survived as ethnic groups is entirely the merit of the Russian imperial authorities.
For example, at that time, Estonians called themselves "maarahvad", i.e. "peasants", "village people". The Finns still call Estonia "Viro", and the Estonians - "virolainen". This is due to the fact that, in view of the lack of a common name, the Finns called the entire territory by the name of the area closest to them, i.e. in Estonian "Viru". The absence of a self-name speaks of the underdevelopment of self-consciousness and the inability to think of oneself as a single people, and even more so the lack of a need to form a national state. And only in 1857 the founder of the newspaper in Estonian "Perno Postimees" Johann Voldemar Jannsen (1819-1890) instead of the previous name "maarahvas" introduced a new name - "Estonians"
Although both indigenous Baltic peoples had a written language from about the 16th-17th centuries and separate literary works were published using Latin, Polish and Gothic fonts and German spelling, in fact, literary norms did not yet exist. The first newspaper in Estonian was published by pastor O. Mazing back in 1821-23, but in general it was not until 1843 that pastor Eduard Ahrens compiled an Estonian grammar (before that, for a few works in Estonian, spelling based on the German standard spelling was used).
Only in the 60s and 70s. In the 19th century, the Latvian educator Atis Kronvald created such new words for Latvians as: tevija (Motherland), Vesture (history), Vestule (writing), dzeja (poetry), etc. The first textbook of the Latvian language was published in Riga in Russian in 1868 year!
Finally, another, perhaps the most revealing example of the "specialness" of the Baltic region, was the situation of local Russians. In fact, they were in the position of foreigners, although many of them had lived here for many generations. Back in the 17th century, many Russian Old Believers, defending their faith, fled to the then Swedish Baltic states and to the Duchy of Courland, whose ruler Duke Jacob himself invited immigrants from Russia, hoping to make up for the loss of his subjects after the plague. In Courland, the Russians founded the city of Kryzhopol (in German - Kreutzberg, now - Krustpils). After the accession of the Baltic States to Russia, the number of Russian immigrants increased slightly. The reason was clear: there were no free lands here, the oppression of the barons was clearly more ferocious than that of “their own” Russian landlords, and in the cities, Russian merchants and artisans were forced to experience pressure from local German workshops.
Only in the reign of Catherine II, in 1785, the Russian residents of Riga finally received the right to choose city self-government and be elected. So, less than seventy years after the end of the Northern War, the conquerors finally equalized their rights with the conquered. During the reign of Catherine, attempts were made to strengthen the influence of Russian culture and education in the Ostsee region. In 1789, the first educational institution with the Russian language of instruction, the Catherine School, was opened in Riga. But in general, official St. Petersburg probably did not know at all about the Russians of the Ostsee region. Suffice it to say that the astonished Tsar Nicholas I found out about the existence of numerous Old Believers in Riga quite by accident after the Old Believers thoughtlessly published a printed report on their activities.
In 1867, out of 102,000 inhabitants in Riga, Germans accounted for 42.9%, Russians - 25.1%, Latvians - 23.6%. Such an indicator clearly showed the role of each of the ethnic communities in the Baltics.
Local Russians, however, during their life in the Baltic provinces of Russia also acquired special features. “A strange transformation,” writes the Riga Bulletin in 1876, “is done with a visiting Russian when he has lived for several years in the so-called Baltic region. He becomes something miserable... depersonalized, like a worn penny. Isolation from the root leads to the loss of the national character, the ordinary Russian mindset, language and even the very appearance. One of the Russian residents of Riga, V. Kozin, placed in 1873 in the same "Rizhsky Heralds" the following verses:
It's nice to live here ... but not very much:
There is no space here, freedom,
Somewhere wide nature
Here, turn around in full breadth.
Hiding thoughts here under a bushel,
Keep your mouth shut
Keep hearts under a corset
The arms are as short as possible.
The only thing is in our side!
You walk on your own.
Everything is so free, whatever,
Everything is so tempting to roam.
You'll break your damn hat.
Put your hands on your sides:
“You, they say, are not a pointer to me:
I don’t want to know, and it’s full! .. "
This was the position of the Ostsee region in the empire. It is understandable why the Baltic Sea issue was perceived so painfully by Russian society.
(To be continued)
Sergei Viktorovich Lebedev, doctor of philosophical science
Aksakov I.S. Full Sobr. Soch., V.6. 1887. P.15.
Kenins History of Latvia. Textbook. Riga, 1990, p. 108
I.Y.Straits. Three memorable and full of many vicissitudes journey through Italy, Greece, Livonia, Muscovy, Tataria, Media, Persia, East Indies, Japan ... Published in Amsterdam 1676 translated by E. Borodina OGIZ-SOTSEKGIZ 1935. Pp. 141
Karamzin N. M. Letters from a Russian traveller. M., 1980, p. 32-33
N. S. Andreeva
(Research within the framework of the virtual workshop "Power and society in the political and ethno-confessional space of Russia: history and modernity".)
The Baltic provinces within the Russian Empire had a special status: their general management was carried out on the basis of local legislation - the Code of Local Laws of the Ostsee Provinces, which fixed the specific features of the administrative structure of the region. They consisted in the fact that the functions of internal administration of the region were carried out by the bodies of the nobility along with government agencies. Despite the steady since the end of the 18th century. expanding the sphere of competence of the latter, the governor, who was a representative of the central government, until the outbreak of the First World War, was forced to organize his official activities in such a way as not to violate the privileges of the nobility.
The question of the relationship between the general imperial and local legislation in the Ostsee provinces is not an easy one (ie, could the norms of Russian law apply there and in what cases). This problem was actively discussed by Russian and Baltic lawyers in the 30-90s of the 19th century. According to Baltic jurists, who relied in this respect on the theory substantiated by F. von Bunge, a prominent representative of the Baltic German law school (he led the codification of local legislation), only laws issued specifically for him could be valid in the region, and from Russian only those which were specifically reserved for the Baltic states. The application of the general imperial legislation was allowed (provided that the applied norms corresponded to the basics of the local legal order) only when there was a gap in the Baltic legislation.
This point of view was criticized by the lawyer P.I. Belyaev in the late 90s of the 19th century, according to whom general imperial law was in force in the region, the Baltic laws were part of Russian legislation, and there was no special local legal order there. This concept fully justified the intervention of the government in the Baltic social and economic relations.
On the whole, the Ostsee provinces before the First World War were governed on the basis of the Code of Local Laws and laws issued especially for them (which were included in the continuation of the Code). As practice showed, the legislative activity of the government in relation to the Baltic states was based on principles close to the theory of F. von Bunge. However, in the 19th century there was a tendency (in particular, the jurist Baron B.E. Nolde pointed to it) of replacing local law with general imperial law,3 which indicated the gradual unification of the Baltic states with the indigenous Russian provinces.
1. The role of the nobility in the management of the region.
Due to the fact that the Baltic nobility was the main social pillar of the special status of the Baltic States within the state, it seems necessary to dwell in detail on the characterization of its role in local government.
Unification measures of the government of the late 70-80s. 19th century, directly affected the fundamental interests of the Baltic-German nobility. Thus, in 1877, the city regulation of 1870 was extended to the Baltic provinces, which eliminated the medieval guilds and workshops and rebuilt city government on purely bourgeois principles. In 1888, a police reform was implemented, replacing the estate police institutions with state ones (however, at the same time, the volost and manor police remained; the right of the manor police lasted until 1916); in 1889, a judicial reform followed, extending the judicial statutes of 1864 to the Baltic provinces (however, the institution of jurors was never introduced here). Laws of 1886 and 1887 public schools and teacher's seminaries were withdrawn from the jurisdiction of the nobility and passed under the control of the Ministry of Public Education. The Russian language was finally introduced as the language of correspondence between government and local class institutions, as well as among the latter (the transition to this was carried out from 1850)4.
Despite the fact that all these government reforms significantly reduced the competence of the chivalry (organizations of the Baltic nobility), removing court cases, the police, and the management of rural schools from their jurisdiction, it still remained quite wide. The knighthoods continued to enjoy important, as they were called in journalism, "political rights": the right to participate in the management of the Lutheran Church of the provinces and the empire (a number of its highest positions were filled by representatives of the Baltic nobility), and leadership of the zemstvo affairs and, thus, retained their decisive role in the inner life of the region.
It should be noted that the Baltic nobility, in contrast to the nobility of the inner provinces, enjoyed broad self-government. The competence of the Landtag (meeting of the nobles of the province), which formed the basis of the self-government bodies of this class (with the exception of Courland, where the parish assemblies played the most important role), was not limited; the subject of his meetings could be all, without exception, issues relating to the affairs of the corporation and the life of the region as a whole. According to the current legislation, the decisions taken by the Landtag on estate matters were not subject to approval by the provincial authorities and were communicated to them only for information5. This order caused frequent clashes between the governors and the nobility and served as a pretext for accusing the latter of opposition to state power. The chivalry, on the other hand, considered such demands from the provincial administration as an infringement on their legal rights. In particular, the conflict that arose between the governor and the landrat collegium (one of the highest bodies of noble self-government) due to its refusal to provide the governor with detailed information and documents on the decisions adopted by the Landtag was dealt with by the Senate, the Committee of Ministers and the Minister of the Interior for five years: from 1898 to 1903 All the demands of the governor were recognized as justified, and the landrat collegium was obliged to present to the provincial authorities the provisions of the Landtags, conventions and county assemblies in a clear and precise presentation6. Frequent conflicts of this kind prompted the local authorities to petition the government for the transformation of the chivalry along the lines of the noble organizations of the inner provinces.
The degree of self-government granted to the Baltic nobility is evidenced by the fact that in Courland and Estonia the leaders of the nobility and noble officials, after their election by the Landtag, took office without approval from the highest authorities, in Livonia and on the island of Ezel a different procedure was in effect - two candidates for the positions of landrats and leader of the nobility were submitted for approval by the governor, who held the final choice7.
The existence of the noble fund, replenished by self-taxation of the members of the corporation, and the income received from the “chivalry estates” (estates granted for the maintenance of noble officials), guaranteed the financial independence of noble organizations. The right granted to them to directly appeal (in fact, to initiate legislation) to the local authorities, the Minister of the Interior, and, in the most important cases, to the emperor, provided the Baltic nobility with wide autonomy in matters of estate self-government8.
At the same time, according to the legal status in the society, the Baltic nobility formed two unequal groups: one, not numerous, included representatives of the so-called. immatriculated (or matrikulirovannye) childbirth, that is, included in the matrix - the noble genealogy book (each of the four knights - Estland, Livonia, Courland and Ezel had its own matrix). They were called chivalry, in contrast to the non-matriculated nobles - landzass (also called zemstvo); in 1863, special genealogical books were created for this category, different from matrikul9. According to the data provided by M.M. Dukhanov, at the beginning of the 80s of the 19th century, there were 405 surnames in Livonia, 335 in Estonia, 336 in Courland, and 11010 on Ezel Island. The chivalry had full rights as part of a corporation - positions in noble self-government were filled only from among its representatives (provided that they owned noble estates), with the exception of some minor ones, such as the position of treasurer (it could be occupied by persons of any status), a secular member General Consistory and some others11. Matriculated nobles who did not own estates were not allowed to participate in self-government, with the exception of Courland, where representatives of the chivalry, who were not owners of estates, participated in the affairs of the corporation, provided that their income corresponded to the established level of property qualification12.
The landzasses, who owned knightly estates, in each of the three noble societies enjoyed a different amount of rights, for example, in Livonia, from 1841, they were granted the right to vote at the Landtags on issues of noble folds (contributions in the order of self-taxation, part of which went to satisfy zemstvo needs ), in Estonia they acquired this right in 1866, in Courland - in 187013. Decrees 18.02. and 11/5/1866, persons of all classes of the Christian faith were allowed to acquire real estate of any kind in Courland and Livonia (including knightly estates), this measure was extended to Estonia and Ezel in 1869. Followed in 1871 and 1881. Decrees, in the form of a temporary measure (later not canceled), the owners of estates - not nobles with the right to personal vote, were allowed to participate in the Livonian Landtag, with the exception of issues related to the internal life of the corporation, such as the election of noble officials, inclusion in the matrix, exclusion from her, etc.; persons of all classes were granted the right to be elected to positions of self-government, except for leadership (leader, landrats, county deputies), as well as with the exception of positions filled by noble officials15. In Courland, this legalization came into force in 1870; here, from among non-nobles, it was allowed to elect deputies to the Landtag, but in this case, the chivalry additionally elected one more deputy from itself16.
The BALTIC REGION (Ostzeysky Krai), in the Russian Empire, consisted of three provinces: Estland, Livonia and Courland. Until 1876 it was a special general government. The Baltic region for a long time, even after joining Russia, enjoyed autonomous rights and management features that put it in many respects in an exceptional position in comparison with other provinces and regions of Russia. These features and rights were gradually smoothed out, but remained in many parts of the class, social, administrative and judicial system until 1917. literati (professionals) ruling, predominantly urban, class of the population. Latvians in the south and Estonians in the north (80% of the population) represented the indigenous inhabitants of the region: peasant proprietors, farm laborers, the lower classes of the urban population, part of the literati and merchants. Along the shores of Lake Peipsi there were many Great Russian settlements, as in the eastern Illuk region. Courland, where Belarusians and Lithuanians mixed with the Great Russians. In addition, many Russians lived in large cities - Riga, Revel, Yuriev, Libau; Jews settled in arr. in Courland.
Story. During the XIV-XV centuries. there was a struggle between the Livonian branch of the Teutonic Order and the bishops. This struggle ended in the XV century. the victory of the order, which from that time actually began to rule the country. Since 1459, Estonia was also subordinate to the order. The Livonian Order reached its apogee under the leadership of an experienced commander, Herrmeister Walter von Plettenberg (1494-1535), who got rid of dependence on the Teutonic Order, which at that time was busy fighting Poland. The Reformation, however, had a corrupting effect on the organization of the order based on Catholicism, and Plettenberg's successors could not avert his death. In 1558, Tsar Ivan IV Vasilyevich, having taken Derpt, captured Bishop. Herman, and the Derpt bishopric ended its existence. Estonia then voluntarily submitted to Eric XIV of Sweden. The Bishop of Ezel and Courland sold his possessions in 1560 to Duke Magnus of Holstein, and Herrmeister Gotthardt Ketler concluded on November 28. 1561 Treaty of Vilnius with King Sigismund August of Poland, on the basis of which Courland became a Polish fief duchy; Ketler, on the other hand, was approved by the crown duke of Courland. Part of Livonia, lying north of the Western Dvina, was annexed to Poland. The Livonian Order was gone, but Riga still retained its independence for 20 years.
Sigismund Augustus and Stefan Batory had to defend their new possessions from Ivan IV. In 1582, according to the Zapolsky Treaty, the tsar renounced Livonia and ceded Dorpat to Poland. Under the successor of King Stephen Sigismund III, Livonia became the arena of Jesuit propaganda and the theater of struggle between Poland, Sweden and Russia. The son of Charles IX of Sweden, Gustav Adolf, was waging this war with particular vigor, having seized Estonia and Livonia up to the Western Dvina. He drew attention to the internal affairs of the country, streamlined the judicial institutions and church structure, founded the University of Dorpat (1632). Wars with Poland, Denmark and Russia under Charles X and Charles XI did not deprive Sweden of Livonia. Heavy wars exhausted her finances, but thanks to the generosity of the monarchs, especially Queen Christina, state estates not only in Sweden, but also in Livonia and Estland fell into the hands of the nobility. Therefore, at the Reichstag in 1680, it was decided to select appanages in Sweden and in the Ostsee region. This "redaction" was carried out in Livonia very abruptly, which, of course, caused unrest in the country and, in turn, prompted Charles XI in 1694 to abolish the provincial states in Livonia and entrust the government of the country to the governor-general with unlimited powers.
The accession of Livonia and Estonia to Russia took place in n. 18th century With the outbreak of the Northern War, both provinces became the theater of operations. After the battle of Poltava, Estonia and Livonia were finally occupied by the tsar. Only Riga, Pernava and Reval, conquered in 1710, remained in the hands of the Swedes. Peter I, by issuing a letter of commendation, at the same time approved the privileges of the nobility and urban estates of the Ostsee region. Aug 30 In 1721, at the conclusion of the Peace of Nystadt, both provinces were formally ceded to Russia by Sweden. As for local government, from 1710 Livonia and Estonia were one entity, but already in 1713 Peter I appointed special governors for both provinces. In 1722 Derpt u. was separated from the Revel lips. and attached to the Riga. Judicial and police regulations remained, according to the capitulation, unchanged. The governor carried out the main supervision of the civil and military part, without violating the advantages of the zemstvo and urban estates. The nobility concentrated in their hands the zemstvo administration, the court and the zemstvo police (ordnungsgerichty). Only in one respect has reform been carried out. Peter I in 1718 established a supreme tribunal for Livonia and Estonia in St. Petersburg, which from 1737 was subordinate to the Senate. The judicial institutions of the provinces and the magistrates of Riga, Reval and Narva were subordinate to this tribunal.
Under Catherine II in 1783 a major reform was undertaken by introducing the Institution of Governorates in Livonia and Estonia. Following this, in 1786, the all-Russian City Regulations of 1785 were established. In 1795, Courland was annexed, which in the same year was transformed into Courland Province. Only the forest management remained unchanged. Following the accession to the throne of the imp. Paul I, the institution of provinces was also abolished by decrees of November 28, December 24. 1796 and 5 Feb. In 1797, the former local institutions were restored, but with some changes, that is, in all three provinces, provincial boards, provincial prosecutors and state chambers with treasuries remained; The Senate in Petersburg became the highest court.
In 1801, all three provinces were united into a separate governor-generalship, which existed until 1876. In 1802, a university with a theological faculty for persons of the Lutheran faith was established in Dorpat. Dec 28 1832 legalizations were issued for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Russia. In 1834 the gofgerich was transformed. End of the 19th century took place for the Ostsee region under the sign of a number of fundamental reforms. March 26, 1877 was followed by a decree on the transformation of city government; the general city regulation of 1870 was introduced everywhere. This reform was completed in 1878. Another very important reform concerned the police. The law of June 9, 1888 replaced the former noble elective police with a government one on a general basis with minor changes. The functions of the police officer were performed here by the county chief. In Riga, Reval, Mitava and Derpt, there were, in addition, city police departments. The reorganization of the police served as a preparatory measure for another fundamental reform, namely the transformation of the judiciary and the peasant offices. Already imp. Alexander II, by law of May 28, 1880, ordered the introduction of magistrates' courts according to the all-Russian model, but after the death of the tsar, this law was not put into effect. But with imp. Alexander III, this reform was completed. The law of June 3, 1886, which expanded the competence of the prosecutor's office, paved the way, and according to the law of June 9, 1889, judicial statutes of 1864 were extended to the Ostsee region with some changes. The Ostsee civil law remained in force. At the same time, government commissars were appointed for peasant affairs, who were entrusted with supervision of the volost public administration and the correct application of the laws that determined the relationship of the peasantry to the landowners. With the introduction of the Russian language in 1884, educational institutions were also transformed. This reform extended not only to lower and secondary educational institutions, but also to the university, the veterinary institute in Yuriev, and the polytechnic institute in Riga.