The Russian experience of the administrative supervision over the municipal self-government (1870's)

This article is based on previously unknown archival documents. It analyzes the experience of administrative supervision by the Moscow provincial authority over the Podolsk municipal public self-government in the 1870s. Main attention is given to the attempts of the Moscow governors P.P. Durnovo and V.S. Perfilyev to impose disciplinary action against the Podolsk mayor F.S. Dobrotvorsky. It concludes that the Municipal reform of the 1870s created complex, but in some cases insufficiently effective mechanisms of administrative supervision over municipal self-government. The formalism of the administrative supervision prevented the establishment of cooperation between the provincial authority and the municipal self-government.