Kyakhta city municipality: a special administrative project to transform the Trans-Baikal transboundary area (the second half of the 19th century)

Based on archival materials, the paper shows the development process of a special administrative and territorial structure that is Kyakhta city municipality. It existed from 1851 to 1863 and included Troitskosavsk, Kyakhta Trade Quarter, Ust-Kyakhta Bourgeois Quarter and their adjacent territories. The study summarizes the new data on the subject matter, in particular, the documents of the Russian State Historical Archive that are introduced for the first time. A special transboundary status of the Trans-Baikal region is shown. The need to build the trade and economic relations with China was a reason for creating a new administrative and territorial structure. The presented materials made it possible to describe a range of problems that arose during the discussion of the city municipality project by the imperial administration. The research focused on the main comments made by officials, in particular, D.N. Bludov, the Chief Manager of the Second Section of His Imperial Majesty’s Own Chancery.