The contribution of the Berdyansk zemstvo in the last third of the 19th century to the development of the district and the tasks of the modern development of the city and the municipal district as part of Russia.

The purpose of this article is a historical study of the contribution of the Berdyansk Zemstvo, an innovative body of public self-government in post-reform Russia at that time, to solving administrative, economic, and socio-cultural issues of the county and the entire Tauride province, and to developing skills to involve the peasantry, merchants, and the mixed class in local government. The subject of the study was the analysis of the results of changes in the local government system in terms of taking into account the needs of people living in the territory of the county and the city. The author examines in detail the contribution of his predecessors to the source study and historiography of the issue. Special attention is paid to the practical significance of the research, which is seen in the use of specific historical knowledge about approaches, methods and algorithms for solving economic and social problems by zemstvos in state and municipal management of the region's development at the present stage. In the study, the author uses a number of specific methods of historical analysis: the actualization method, which involves taking into account past historical experience and predicting its use in modern regional development management; a statistical method in which the author examines the mention in the local press and statistical collections of data related to the study of problems of local self-government in Berdyansk county. The main conclusions of the study are the provisions that, based on the example of the history of the Berdyansk Zemstvo, we can talk about significant progress in solving managerial tasks at the local government level; about gaining experience that is still in demand today in various areas of public life. The author's special contribution is to examine the activities of the Berdyansk Zemstvo in the last third of the 19th century in the development of the county from various perspectives: enriching the practice of local government; the nomination and implementation of valuable initiatives aimed at the development of the city