Abstract

The article examines the mutual relations of zemstvo, local administration and government in the context of the decision of the food problem by Smolensk zemstvo during a crop failure in the late 1860s and early 1870s. The author analyzes a complex and resource-intensive food problem in the period of crop failure and famine in one of the non-chernozem provinces of Russia in the initial period of the zemstvo history, when the zemstvo reform of 1864 was not yet completed. She examines the general model of relations between the government and the zemstvo in overcoming famine, the state of food capital, specific zemstvo practices, the importance of large-scale public works, actions of local administrations, etc. The author concludes that historiographical idea about the oppression of zemstvo by the government immediately after its creation is not quite correct. Thus, in the fight against the famine of 1867–1872 in Smolensk province the government relied on the zemstvo, rather than on the administration, and protected zemstvo from the claims of local administrators. It is possible to speak about the trust on the part of the government in zemstvo bodies and their joint efforts to provide the population with food in the crisis conditions of the post-reform modernization of agriculture. Depending on objective factors, local zemstvo and government used food and cash loans and public works as basic practices to combat famine. The need to repay the state food capital received by peasants was a heavy burden for them. The lessons learned from the Smolensk famine were the impetus for consideration of the problem of money shortage in the agricultural sector. The misfortune of peasantry in some provinces of Russia 1867–1872 which was in the focus of attention of government stimulated the study and discussion of general situation in agriculture and influenced the attitude of central and local authorities to the zemstvo, food and taxation issues