Volost assemblies in Right-bank Ukraine during the post-reform period

Functioning of the volost assemblies in Right-Bank Ukraine is a has not yet been sufficiently studied in the modern historiography. The purpose of this article is to research the functioning of an elected collective governance body of the volost, namely its assembly, in Right-bank Ukraine. Art. of the Common statute defined the volost assembly as the main regulatory body of a volost. According to the same statute, the main functions of the volost assembly were: election of local government officials and supervision of their activities, distribution of taxes and diverse payments, supervision of village assemblies, election of delegates which were tasked with representation of the volost community in different representative organs and, finally, appointment and supervision of wards. Moreover, the volost assembly dealt with the military conscription issues. Thus, according to the law, this regulatory body was managing fiscal, administrative and domestic affairs. Traditionally, the assembly consisted of volost and village officials and peasants elected per every ten households. Furthermore, in Right-bant Ukraine, the presence of elected representatives for different categories of landless peasant was mandatory (one person per twenty workers). This norm, however, was often ignored, according to the documents. Officials explained it by the fact that landless peasants usually sought work outside their own volost, so that they could not be represented in effect, although it did not bother their fellow villagers much. The author has also observed that the turnout during the active agricultural period in the summer has typically been lower than during the winter. It can be concluded that the volost assembly in Rightbank Ukraine did not succeed in becoming the main regulatory body of the volost in practice, as most of its functions were fictitious. The main reasons for that in author's opinion were high, almost complete, illiteracy and patriarchy of the peasants' political culture as well as technical organizational problems. Almost the only issue which was actively addressed during the assemblies was the land issue, when the assembly could rule a decision that went against the existing legislation.