Organization of volosts of temporarily obligated peasants of the Vologda province in 1861

The paper deals with the analysis of the process of organizing the volost structure of former serfs in the Vologda province in 1861. The source base of the study was legislative acts and office materials. The latter were identified in the funds of the Russian State Archives and the State Archives of the Vologda Region. The study showed that the process of organizing volosts and approving their composition was completed by September. It included two stages: the first one was the development and approval of projects for the distribution of villages into volosts, the second one was the direct opening of volosts with the formation of boards in them. Regional features of the settlement of temporarily obligated peasants and the predominance of small landowners there influenced the process studied. Thus, special commissions entrusted with drawing up projects functioned only in three southwestern Uyezds, in the rest of the territory their duties were performed by Uyezd police officers. On the initiative of conciliators, the second period of the analyzed activities began before the approval of the volost projects by the provincial office. Initially, these actions were not approved by the provincial government. However, the Uyezd officials argued their point of view. As a result, the regional government approved the already finalized composition of local administrative units.