The article outlines the results of a study on the history of obshchina and peasant community self-government in Nizhny Novgorod palace village in the second half of the 16th century. The aim of the work was to study the main categories of the mir representatives and their functions. The research is based on a combination of unique documents, for example, the «sotnaya gramota» of the Uzola volost of 1560, and some the mass sources - decree letters, scribble, otvodnaya and otkaznaya books. An important conclusion is made concerning the relationship between the practice of implementing the zemstvo reform and the activities of community representatives in the Nizhny Novgorod palace village. The study revealed individual cases when the boundaries of peasant communities and palace territorial-economic complexes did not coincide. Analysis shows that there are certain features in the functioning of mir starostas and other elected peasants in bread-making and honey-making villages.
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