City councils of Saratov province’s uyezd towns: officials and working efficiency (1870's – 1914)

This article is based on previously unknown documents from the State Archive of the Saratov oblast. For the first time ever, it is an analysis of the correlation between the official staff of executive power organizations in the Saratov province’s uyezd cities and effectiveness of their work. It focuses on the factors that decrease the working efficiency of the city councils. The author concluded that in the post-reformed Russia the official staff of city councils and their efficiency provided a success in solution of municipal problems as well as a prestige of these self-regulating executive institutions.