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Line 7: [[File:Badge of a land captain Moscow gubernia 1896.jpg|thumb|The badge of a land captain from Moscow Gubernia, Russian Empire, in 1889.]] In 1889 Tsar [[Alexander III of Russia|Alexander III]] promulgated the Land Captain Statute of 1889, abolishing the old position of justice of the peace in the regions of the [[Russian Empire]] and creating the position of land captain to exercise a variety of administrative and judicial functions in the regions of the empire.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=S. Pearson |first1=Thomas |title=Russian Law and Rural Justice: Activity and Problems of the Russian Justices of the Peace, 1865-1889 |journal=Jahrbücher für Geschichte Osteuropas |date=1984 |volume=32 |issue=1 |page=53 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/41046759.pdf?casa_token=6530CofBgDMAAAAA:GPp0l-URZ3HbyQ1fX0jBDS_o3DZLm9A7ZQgmHm42oF2zy_4GTzYyjBlVLx11gD1kWd4ucxHAJEloWieUZfFjJxxLFO3a96VE_q0aQ-aaRO8j7nLH80yG |access-date=23 May 2021}}</ref> The statute had immense impact on the lives of Russian peasants and is regarded as the "foremost legislative achievement of Alexander III's reign".<ref>{{cite journal |last1=S. Pearson |first1=Thomas |title=The Origins of Alexander III's Land Captains: A Reinterpretation |journal=Slavic Review |date=1981 |volume=40 |issue=3 |page=384 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/2496193.pdf?casa_token=Dz0eg2mhK_0AAAAA:_YgQCt2wKOMO8V6URgzmvW0jAgQERSNAeMSIN1OQ1ddGD7Djftk035Lmc9TgxGY7bf9okqKQsNxnOdiPZ_EEMa30xFZTpb_J7UadUPGjb9O7Mox2Md8J |access-date=22 May 2021}}</ref> Each land captain was assigned to a [[volost]]. Captains had the tasks of overseeing traditional village assemblies and of exercising local judicial functions that had previously been given to village assemblies.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Figes |first1=Orlando |title=A People's Tragedy: A History of the Russian Revolution |date=2017 |publisher=Random House |isbn=9781448112647 |page=37 |url=https://books.google.com.au/books/about/A_People_s_Tragedy.html?id=ety5B4feoDoC |access-date=22 May 2021}}</ref> The 1889 Statue has been perceived not as a liberalizing measure, but rather as a "counterreform" intended to reduce peasant self-government and impose increased government control of the rural peasantry.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=S. Pearson |first1=Thomas |title=The Origins of Alexander III's Land Captains: A Reinterpretation |journal=Slavic Review |date=1981 |volume=40 |issue=3 |page=385 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/2496193.pdf?casa_token=Dz0eg2mhK_0AAAAA:_YgQCt2wKOMO8V6URgzmvW0jAgQERSNAeMSIN1OQ1ddGD7Djftk035Lmc9TgxGY7bf9okqKQsNxnOdiPZ_EEMa30xFZTpb_J7UadUPGjb9O7Mox2Md8J |access-date=22 May 2021}}</ref> Despite their poor reputation, in terms of education and ability the land captains were probably no worse on average than other tsarist officials working at the local level at the time.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=A.J. Macey |first1=David |title=The Land Captains: A Note on their Social Composition, 1889-1913 |journal=Russian History |date=1989 |volume=16 |issue=2-4 |page=350-351 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/24656510.pdf?casa_token=Q_G-6dUkIwUAAAAA:JeND3n0JkpEmKWgBmV6a5pjFIpSVa9MBTlqafqjdHSFXL_3WP79AModRaiUDKsvWO-1bA4wO9qBPiy965rSygR92q9hUKyy8G6y1BePh2SQYqqulYNHD |access-date=22 May 2021}}</ref> According to historian [[Orlando Figes]] there were 2,000 land captains throughout the Russian Empire.
== Assessment == The institution of land captain has been received very negatively. The introduction of land captains failed as an attempt to reduce the authority of peasant communes and consolidating state control over the regions.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Adriano |first1=Silvestri |title=The Contrast between Land Modernization and Tradition: Land Ownership in the Last Decades of the Tsarist Empire |journal=Review of Central and East European Law |date=1993 |volume=19 |issue=1 |page=26 |access-date=23 May 2021}}</ref> Figes has written that as the "central agents of the tsarist regime in the countryside until 1917", land captains became hated for frequently mistreating and flogging the peasants in their charge<ref>{{cite book |last1=Figes |first1=Orlando |title=A People's Tragedy: A History of the Russian Revolution |date=2017 |publisher=Random House |isbn=9781448112647 |page=152 |url=https://books.google.com.au/books/about/A_People_s_Tragedy.html?id=ety5B4feoDoC |access-date=22 May 2021}}</ref> and were "widely reviled" as the "personification of autocracy in the localities".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Figes |first1=Orlando |title=A People's Tragedy: A History of the Russian Revolution |date=2017 |publisher=Random House |isbn=9781448112647 |page=37 |url=https://books.google.com.au/books/about/A_People_s_Tragedy.html?id=ety5B4feoDoC |access-date=22 May 2021}}</ref> According to Macey, both contemporary and subsequent assessments of the land captains have treated them with "near-universal vilification".<ref>{{cite journal |last1=A.J. Macey |first1=David |title=The Land Captains: A Note on their Social Composition, 1889-1913 |journal=Russian History |date=1989 |volume=16 |issue=2-4 |page=350-351 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/24656510.pdf?casa_token=Q_G-6dUkIwUAAAAA:JeND3n0JkpEmKWgBmV6a5pjFIpSVa9MBTlqafqjdHSFXL_3WP79AModRaiUDKsvWO-1bA4wO9qBPiy965rSygR92q9hUKyy8G6y1BePh2SQYqqulYNHD |access-date=22 May 2021}}</ref> == See also == | |||