Permalink : http://hdl.handle.net/2115/38979

The Right-Bank Ukraine (Kiev, Podolia, and Volyn Provinces) was the only region in the Russian Empire in which the system of peace arbitrators was preserved until the end of tsarism. Many scholars assume that land captains were not introduced in the Right-Bank Ukraine because the local Polish nobility was too strong. However, in many of the peripheries of the Russian Empire, despite the fact that the Russian aristocracy was not numerous, a system of land captains could be introduced by sacrificing the requirement that the captains be "local". Why then did the peasant administration reforms in 1874 and 1889 bypass the Right-Bank Ukraine? By the end of 1860 the peace arbitrators in the internal provinces of the empire had completed their main duties, i.e. the conclusion of redemption contracts. In the Right-Bank Ukraine, various legal remnants of the Rzeczpospolita (such as servitude and eternal tenant farmers) and the contradiction between traditional household landownership and "communal" methods of emancipation (modeled after Russia) made land relations far more complicated than in the internal provinces. These complicated civic relations in the Western provinces created an extremely "litigious society" in the region, with even peasants requiring professional judges. Land captains, who were little more than amateur judges in charge of both judicial and administrative matters, were unacceptable here. Moreover, whereas a justice of peace in the internal provinces, abolished by the 1889 reform, had been elected by county zemstva assemblies, in the peripheries of the empire they were appointed by the Minister of Justice. Thus the combination of peace arbitrators (specializing in "educational administrative works") and the appointed justices of peace (in charge of judicial matters) appeared more professional than the system of land captains. Peace arbitrators in the internal provinces showed little enthusiasm for supervising peasant self-governments and courts. Consequently they were abolished in 1874. After the 1863 uprising, the first peace arbitrators in the Right-Bank Ukraine, who had predominantly been Polish, were completely replaced by civilian officials and ex-servicemen recruited from other regions of the empire. If the peace arbitrators in the internal provinces were notable locals subordinate only to the Senate, these arbitrators were commissars realizing the South-Western Governor-Generals' will to de-Polonize the Right-Bank Ukraine. Therefore they were particularly interested in supervising peasant self-governments in order to sever them from any "Polish influences." Peace arbitrators in the Western provinces preceded land captains. After the 1889 reforms in the internal provinces, a number of governors and governorgenerals in the Western provinces requested that a system of land captains be introduced in their regions as well. However, the South-Western Governor-General Mikhail Dragomirov (1898-1903) and his successor Nikalai Kleigelis (1903-05) attempted to modernize the function of peace arbitrators. This was during the period when the tsarist government attempted to soften the anti-Polish, pro-peasant policies it had pursued after the 1863 uprising. This supported the argument for the introduction of land captains in the Western provinces. On the other hand, however, it was also the period in which the educated society of Russia, irrespective of state officials or zemstvo activists, was urged by their desire to mingle with the peasantry. As there were no zemstva in the Right-Bank Ukraine, no one apart from peace arbitrators could respond to this call. Peace arbitrators were mobilized for the purposes of public education, co-operative movement, agricultural aid, etc. From the perspective of nationality policy, the de-Polonizing role of the peace arbitrators changed from employing direct methods, such as their interventions in land relations, to the indirect method of attempting to emancipate the Ukrainian peasant masses from "Polish exploitation" by raising their cultural level.