URBAN GOVERNANCE IN THE PROVINCIAL TOWNS OF THE KHARKOV GOVERNORATE IN 1900-1917.

The article focuses on the issues of urban governance in district, nondistrict, medium-size and small-size towns of the Kharkov governorate in 1900-1917. The study is based on materials from Russian and Ukrainian historical archives and newly discovered periodicals. This article utilizes a comparative historical framework to analyse problems of urban governance based on the materials from Great Britain, Germany, the Habsburg monarchy, Poland and multiple large cities of the Russian Empire. In the early 20^th century ten towns of the governorate had complete selfgovernment, while six had incomplete self-government. Until 1910 urban power was concentrated in the hands of 58 people: mayors, town headmen, members of town executive boards and support staff. We analysed the main reasons which affected the quality of urban government decisions: absenteeism of voters, quality power dynamics of urban elites, sources of the conflicts among municipal Dumas and finally town executive boards. It is important to note that towns used three strategies to overcome the managerial crises: examples of which included striving for the right to obtain complete urban self-governance, attempts to expand the number of employees in the town bureaucracy, and hiring professionals in various areas of the urban governance. As a result of re-evaluation of property values from which real estate tax was paid, a tax rates revision for trading establishments, introducing some new local taxes received from the state authorities, searching for funds toward commercial banks the cumulative expenses of urban governments increase for 2.4 times and its dynamics exceeded the population growth. After recalculating taxes per capita, the governorate towns spent 2.37-12.67 rubles, while at the same time expenses were 1.5-2 rubles per capita across the empire. The most important components of interactions between urban government and society at large were the statistical and analytical information publications by the city offices themselves, public discussion of urban problems in the pages of St. Petersburg magazine Gorodskoye delo [Urban affair], in local permanent newspapers after 1912, participation of society representatives in decision-making on a wide range of urban issues since 1907 and rise of different forms of people's self-organization particularly during the First World War. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]