«Статистичне питання» у діяльності земських лібералів північної України (60–80 рр. ХІХ ст.)

Abstract

У публікації з’ясовано роль і місце «статистичного питання» у діяльності ліберальних земців Північного Лівобережжя (60–80 рр. ХІХ ст.). На основі історичних джерел висвітлено процеси політичної боротьби навколо проведення статистичних робіт, хід, параметри та основні результати обстеження та описів півночі Лівобережної України. Автор аргументовано доходить висновку, що статистичні дослідження стали принципово важливою віхою у процедурах формування економічної та соціальної програми ліберальної опозиційної фронди.

The publication clarifies the role and place of the "statistical question" in the activities of liberal zemstvo of the Northern Left Bank Ukraine (60–80-s of the ХІХ с.). On the basis of historical sources, the processes of political struggle around statistical work, the course, parameters and main results of the survey and descriptions of the north of the Left Bank of Ukraine are highlighted. The achievements of the opposition front in this area can be considered to be of great importance. Firstly, zemstvo statistical service was created at a rapid pace, the composition of which was replenished by professionally trained and specially invited officials, including from the circle of liberal populism and "ukrainophilism", who received salary from their exclusively zemstvo budget for their scientific work. The work of the said body was groundbreaking, as the department employees invented the so-called "Chernigov type" statistics, the characteristic feature of which was the expeditionary form of work, geographic descriptive methodology of experiments and the imperableness of the average indicators in the surveys in the absence of the Institute of inventories. Secondly, the first fundamental results of statistical studies of northern Ukraine on the basis of economic geography and comparative statistics have provided groundhandling institutions with sound grounds for developing a more equitable tax and fiscal policy in the form of practical implementation of the classical principle of progressive taxation: the greater the assets and their profitability, the higher tax expenditures to the budget. It is not surprising at all that the "statistical problem" became a catalyst for the sociopolitical confrontation between the conservative and liberal parties of zemsky institutions of the Ukrainian Polissya: by the efforts of large landowners, the statistical bureau of the provincial zemstvo council was temporarily closed. Thirdly, during the restored activity of zemstvo statistics, the community of the Northern Left Bank Ukraine received unique results of this ascetic labor in the form of 15 volumes of meticulous descriptions of all the counties of the region and one author's scientific monograph. The content of these works has formed the conceptual foundations for the formation of not only economic, but also the social program of the liberal opposition front of the region. Undoubtedly, the "statistical question" has become a bright litmus for identifying the positions on social transformations in various social circles of Sivershchyna. The author argues that statistical research has become a fundamentally important milestone in the procedures for the formation of economic and social program of the liberal opposition front