Authors

Discussion

The zemstvo was founded in 1864 as part of the Great Reforms. This institution of all-estate local self-government became known as both a driving force of constitutionalism and the more radical political opposition in the Tsarist Empire.

Nikolai F. Bunakov, born in Vologda in 1837 and died in Voronezh in 1904, was a committed zemstvo activist. He is known for his innovative pedagogy at his model school in Petino.

Less known and systematically researched is the range of his communication and networking activities through travelling, correspondence, events and publications. The success of these activities brought him into the sights of the Tsarist authorities, who sought to impede him and thus involuntarily politicised him. Around 1900, the intensification of his communication relationships came to a dramatic climax. Bunakov was sentenced to internal exile on the accusation of links to anti-autocratic statements.

Bunakov saw himself as a man not of the capitals, but of the provinces. The paper discusses the scope of his activities and interprets his statements on the future of the multi-ethnic empire and the role of the zemstvo.