The System of State Taxation of Urban Real Estate in the Central Asian Outskirts of the Russian Empire in the Late 19th — Early 20th Centuries

ББК 63.3(5Каз) УДК 94(574/575)

Abstract

The article analyzes the process of formation of the regional model of state taxation on urban real estate on the basis of record management documents of the authorities of the Steppe and Turkestan General-governorates, as well as statistical data. It is noted that the dominance of traditional economic relations in the Central Asian outskirts, the small presence in the regional economy of the market sector and the corresponding urban infrastructure precluded the possibility of carrying out here Zemstvo reform and the creation of local governments — Zemstvos. That fact defined features of formation of Zemstvo duties system, including the taxation on city real estate. They began to impose the tax in the Central Asian outskirts much later than in the whole Empire — in the late 19^th century, its distribution and control were entrusted to the regional and county governments. In the conditions of uneven growth of the number of cities and urban settlements in the Steppe Region and Turkestan in the post-reform period, the introduction of the urban real estate tax occurred in stages. Thus, in the Steppe Region the urban population began to pay the tax since the introduction of the Steppe situation in 1891(the introduction of the Steppe legal status in 1891), in Turkestan — only since 1905. In general, it should be noted that the amounts received from the collection of real estate tax were insignificant and could not fully financially ensure the infrastructural and social development of cities and urban settlements of the Central Asian outskirts of the Russian Empire.