“The Foreman Judges for Money, the Clerk Writes for Wine”: Abuses of Power by Officials of the Peasant Self-Government of the Tomsk Governorate on the Pages of the Newspaper “Altai Life” (1911–1914)

The author examines the problem of authority abuse by officials of peasant self-government bodies in the Tomsk Governorate. While numerous studies have explored this topic, they have usually relied on statistical reports and materials from ethnographic expeditions as primary sources. Unfortunately, periodicals have been underutilized as historical sources due to the challenges of collecting and processing substantial amounts of information. Consequently, valuable insights into the maladministration of local authorities have been overlooked, as newspapers contain a wealth of related data. To address this gap, the author of the article studied all 1 111 issues of the daily newspaper “Life of Altai” from 1911 to 1914. Among these issues, 109 (10 %) contained publications about officials, including volost foremen, volost clerks, village headmen, village clerks, sotskii, and desyatskii. Only five of these notes had positive characteristics, while the rest discussed minor shortcomings and gross violations. The article concludes that the newspaper’s accusatory publications drew attention to the problem of providing personnel for local peasant selfgovernment. Officials were forced to publish refutations and adjust their behavior to maintain their positions. In cases of gross and repeated abuses, higher authorities ordered inspections, the results of which, as a rule, dismissed the peasants from their positions. The author proved that the newspaper “Life of Altai” was an effective means of combating abuses by rural and volost officials.