Dialogues about the Rights of Nobility Assembly in the Context of the Electoral Conflicts in Russia of the First Quarter of the 19th Century

Abstract

The article presents the results of a research how, in the first quarter of the 19th century, nobility assemblies expressed their disagreement with the governor’s decision not to confirm the results of vote or to discharge the elected candidates for the positions of noble leaders, employees of local administration and court. Historical sources for the research are individual complaints and collective applications of nobility assemblies, reports of governors, and the orders of the Minister of Internal Affairs on the question of elections. Attention is paid to the language features of the texts and the arguments used by the representatives of nobility assemblies regarding their right to challenge the governor’s decisions, even if their position contradicted the operating legal norms. As a result, several interconnected rational and emotional arguments were revealed: the arguments of “honour”, “service” and “general opinion”. The author states that the electoral conflicts in Russia of the last third of the 18th and the first half of the 19th centuries, regardless of whether they were the conflicts of values or the conflicts of interests, were a factor of the emergence of elements of the public sphere and proto-institutes of civil society in Russia.