Town Governors of the Beginning of the Catherine Era: The Case of the Gorokhovetsky Governor Semyon Ivanovich Lebedev

The focus of this study is on the social stratum of the town governors (gorodovye voivody), who were the lowest link in the vertical of administrative and territorial administration of Russia in the period 1728—1775. Little is known in the literature about the activities of these administrators, and their bribery is mostly unsubstantiated. Governor of the town Gorokhovets collegiate assessor S. I. Lebedev held this position for an exceptionally long time, his biography, based on archival documents from the Gorokhovetsky voivodeship office and the magistrate, allows to show both some aspects of his personality and his activities in current affairs and extreme situations, to identify both typical and special features of voivodeship administration in the Russian Empire of the Enlightenment era.