Administrative and management systems in territories of tatars living at the end of XVIII - the beginning of the XX centuries

This article deals with the administrative and management systems which were used in the territory where Tatars lived (Ural-Volga region) in the Russian Empire. It is established that the living of the Tatar people wasn't considered as the main feature of the region. Thus, until 1917 there was no plan to set up a separate administrative unit covering the area of the prevailing Tatar population (unlike, for example, the Bashkir and Kazakhs). The then administrative system reflected the imperial character of the Russian state. It manifested itself in the formation of a vertical power structure supported by the local elite and taking into account local management traditions, but controlling all key institutes and positions. The hypothesis is proved that evolution of the Russian government in the territory of the Ural-Volga region was based on the process of gradually pulling up suburban territories to the standards of local management in central Russia. These standards didn't consider national traditions of management, were based on the unified principles of rationalization and bureaucratization of management with the priority of state interests in administrative practice.