Nadezhda Vladimirovna Abramova

The article is devoted to the change in the legal status of landed estate of the Polish gentry in nine western provinces of the Russian Empire in the 19th century. The author draws on extensive regulatory and legal material and archival documents illustrating the reasons for the adoption of exemptions from the general guidelines on ownership and mortgage for the gentry, whose representatives received Russian citizenship after the “Kingdom of Poland” joining Russia in 1815. After two uprisings in the thirties and sixties of the XIXth century, persons of Polish nationality were recognized as unreliable subjects. A restriction of rights was introduced upon this strata to maintain order in the border lands of the Russian Empire. In this regard, the concept of “a person of Polish origin” was introduced into the legal acts, which did not apply to Catholics in general, but only to Poles and those Western natives who acquired Polish nationality. Thus, persons of Polish nationality constituted a group of subjects identified on a national basis, which was also associated with a confessional one. The analysis of the materials allows concluding that the supremacy of the interests of the state, expressed in the infringement of the rights of a social group identified as unreliable, was an effective method of state building and part of the strategy for protecting the interests of the Russian Empire.

The article aims at the assessment of legal regulation of pledge in the Boards of Social Welfare of the Russian Empire in the first half of the 19th century. The boards established by Catherine II worked as provincial banks accredited to meet the needs of the inhabitants of the governorates. The study focuses on the activity of the boards, which reflects the details of the economic development of the governorates, including those in the territories of Georgia and Azerbaijan integrated into the Empire in the first third of the 19th century. The author draws on extensive legal material and archival documents illustrating the reasons for the adoption of exemptions from general pledge regulations in relation to some of the boards. The specifics of the economic development of the territories, in a number of cases, empowered the legislator to expand the list of legalized pledge for certain governorates. The main subjects among the borrowers in the boards were nobles and merchants. Insufficient landownership of the nobility in a number of governorates led to the guarantee as one of the possible conditions for obtaining a loan in the boards. Due to the identified corrupt practices of the officials for obtaining loans in the boards, state workers were identified as special subjects of law, in respect of which special legal provisions were introduced in the boards.