Zemstvo institutions of Astrakhan, Orenburg and Stavropol provinces in the initial period of the February revolution: cooperation with the public institutions and participation in the strengthening of the bourgeois law order

The article covers the revolutionary-democratic changes in the local government system of the South-Eastern Russian provinces at the end of February - March of 1917. The author has analyzed the reaction of the zemstvos towards the overthrow of autocracy, has shed light on the cooperation of zemstvo institutions with municipal Dumas and other authorities in the creation of so-called civil committees, militia formation, strengthening of the institution of commissars of the Provisional Government and deciding of acute social and economic issues as well as has emphasized the importance of the corresponding events for the democratic reorganization of the Russian society.