Buryat community and Siberian Governor-General Mikhail Speransky

Abstract

The paper deals with circumstances of development ‘The Native Statute’ by M. M. Speransky and his coworkers in 1822. As Siberian Governor-General M. M. Speransky was closely acquainted with the life, economy, social rules, self-government, internal and external conflicts of Transbaikal Khori-Buryats. In 1820 dealing with the affairs and aggravated conflicts among the ethno-territorial Transbaikal Buryat community, Speransky in fact took over management of the group, made necessary arrangements, and reformed self-government. Subsequently, on the basis of his crisis management experience Speransky developed provisions of ‘The Native Statute’. In this paper basic features of ‘The Native Statute’ (1822) have been analyzed. Analysis reveals the estate paradigm of ‘The Native Statute’. ‘The Native Statute’ was aimed, on the one hand, at preserving the relative autonomy of indigenous communities, and on the other, to promoting their integration into the social and economic institutions of the empire. ‘The Native Statute’, based on the realities of the Buryats, designated the official social class of ‘kochevye inorodtsy’ (nomads). This legislation in its ‘conservational’ aspect, in fact, legalized and codified the practice, which was already among the Buryats as an integral part of their way of life and government. Despite numerous attempts to revise and dissolve it, ‘The Native Statute’ remained effective until the early twentieth century. Stability of ‘The Native Statute’ was based on the fact that it, unlike many other legislation, did not break the existing adapted structure of the economy, social practices and institutions of self-governance, but merely arrange them, carefully fit into empire-wide estates model. Refs 22.