Sub-legislative normative legal acts of zemsk self-government bodies in the second half of the XIХ century as a source of studying their social activities (by the materials of Tsaritsynsky uezd, Saratov province)

The article analyzes the legal acts of zemstvo self-government bodies in the first years of the zemstvo reform in the Russian Empire. The authors highlight aspects of zemstvo legislation that allow studying the social policy of zemstvos from the point of view of its goal-setting, financial, organizational, staffing and practical results. The authors come to the conclusion that resolutions, reports and other documents of the Zemstvo county assemblies are an important source that characterizes the technology of legislative activity of the Zemstvos; the problems they had to face due to the insufficient elaboration of many issues in state legislative acts; ways of development and improvement of social functions of local self-government.