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Page 3
To this end she fostered security of property and person, at least for members of the upper classes. In implementing this goal she followed two paths. First, by the Statute on the Provinces (1775) she concentrated the administration of the empire by breaking up its territory into manageable units (guberniia) under appointed governors responsible to the sovereign and accountable to the senate. Governors were to be assisted by boards of officials organized according to function and, on the district level, by police officers elected by, and from among, the local nobility or wealthy urban population. Second, the empress planned to promote the formation of a civil society by granting the three principal estates of the realm the right to form corporations. These would serve to register their members, and to protect group interests, as well as each individual member's person and property. The Charter to the Nobility (1785) put local resident nobles in charge of district police, some judicial matters, and the protection and supervision of orphans, widows, and incapacitated persons. The Charter to the Towns (1785) similarly gave an active administrative role to urban elites, while reserving paramount authority to governors and appointed officials. A third charter giving state peasants a degree of self-government on the village level was drafted but never implemented.
The copyright of the article The Imperal Succession. Expansion and Westernization. - Page 3 in Russian History is owned by Alexander Batyukov. Permission to republish The Imperal Succession. Expansion and Westernization. - Page 3 in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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