Activities of local government institutions on the Stolypin agrarian reform implementation in the territory of Belarus (1906-1914)

Introduction. The preparation and implementation of the Stolypin agrarian reform attracted the attention of researchers of the 20th - 21st centuries. However, the interaction of the entire system of already existing and new local government institutions in implementing the reform in Belarus has not become a subject of a special study. The purpose of the article is to prove the interaction of local government institutions within the implementation of the Stolypin agrarian reform in 1906-1914 in the territory of Belarus. Methodology. The sources of the article were legislative acts, as well as the information founded in the archival and published documents. The general scientific and specific historical methods were used there as well as the principles of objectivity, historicism, the value approach. Results. In the early 20th century, a system of local government institutions on the implementation of the government agrarian policy was formed in the Empire. It included land (zemstvo) captains, their district (uyezd) congresses and provincial (guberniya) agencies (prisutstviya). The implementation of the Stolypin agrarian reform required the creation of new institutions - land management commissions. The absence of zemstvo and noble election in the territory of Belarus caused the peculiarities of the formation of the commission staff. Land captains and members of land management commissions carried out explanatorywork among the population about the benefits of the transition to farms (khutors) and cuts of lands (otrubs). Based on the information collected by land captains, land management commissions drew up land management plans for the next year, distributed and carried out the work. District congresses and provincial agencies approved land certificates. Conclusion. The success of the reform depended on the coordinated work and cooperation of all elements of the local government system, the prevalence of household land use. The explanatory work carried out by land captains and members of land management commissions, the promotion of sale of banking lands, allotment of land units to ownership and the transition to new household forms received support of the population. All those facts ensured the success of the implementation of the Stolypin reform in the territory of Belarus.