Crisis landownership of the nobility in the late XIX century and projects to overcome it

The article considers the crisis statement of the noble landownership at the end of the XIX century. It analyzes the causes of the crisis, the views of contemporaries on this issue, and projects out of the situation. The authors study the aspects of development of the post-reform noble landownership that have not received sufficiently complete review in the scientific literature. The negative effects of the abolition of serfdom for the noble landownership, which led to the ruin of the nobility and the sale of estates, are revealed; the projects to overcome this crisis are analyzed. The analysis of the perceiving of the problems by the nobles is undertaken; the key proposals for overcoming the crisis are revealed on the regional archives material. The paper defines that a significant part of the nobility was well aware of the problems that led to the reduction of the nobility landownership, the result of which was the weakening of the nobility as the corporation. These problems were actively discussed at the district and provincial assemblies of the nobility. Seeking the way out of this situation, the majority of the nobility traditionally associated the main hopes with the supreme power, which was, in their view, to take measures to support the nobility. But hopes for government support were not justified: although the government issued several laws, it almost did not help the noble landownership, which continued its decline at the beginning of XX century.