Local government and local self-government: some historical and legal parallels

An effort to draw attention to the problems of defining the concept and content of the category «local self-government» in the Soviet and modern periods of the history of Russia is made in the article. The study concluded that local self-government and its implementation mechanism have been and remain the subject of numerous discussions and studies. At the same time, it should be noted that many aspects of the Soviet period of development of managerial principles at the local level have both negative and positive characteristics, which to a great extent explain the existing uncertainty regarding local government and its legal regulation in recent Russian history, and allow us to find points of application of the best Soviet practices of local government development at the present stage of the Russian statehood. In this regard, the author would like the available past experience in the development of institutions of government and democracy to become at least a «reason» for discussion by the federal legislator and motivated researchers and further enrich the complexity of such a young but dynamically developing branch of law – municipal law.