«The taxes be distributed not in the old way...»: distribution of state and local taxes by the Bogorodskaya volost peasants at the beginning of the XX th century

The article presents first results of a study of peasants' tax distribution acts as a mass source on the methods of the tax distribution by the Russian peasant commune at the beginning of the XXth c. A rare set of the Tomsk district (uyezd), Bogorodskaya volost distribution acts for the years 1904, 1907 and 1908 was taken for consideration. The summarized data from the acts presented in the tables makes evident that local levies and state taxes would be distributed in different ways: the former - by adult workers, the latter - by worth. To explain this difference authors apply inner analysis of certain acts as well as documents of the tax inspectorate. It was the pressure of reformers from the government, careful of introducing income tax basics in all the branches of the Russian tax system, that caused worth marks to appear in the distribution acts. Though drawing back against the pressure of officials, peasants all the same used marks different from true profitability of households. In fact, they used to estimate productive forces of each household, which resembles considerably the distribution by adult workers, more familiar to peasants. Thus interaction of the liberal ideas and the peasant traditions would create something new in the Russian tax system.