Tambov viceroyalty – a new stage of the administrative and territorial structure of the Tambov region

The research is devoted to the study of the significance of the Tambov viceroyalty as one of the stages of the administrative and territorial structure of the Tambov region. The main problem was to determine the role and significance of the viceroyalty in the process of developing a separate administrative and territorial unit with the center in Tambov. For the analysis of this topic, both historical and interdisciplinary research methods were used: historical-comparative, historical-typological, historical-legal. The political and administrative system created by Peter I remained incomplete. The existing shortcomings of the system of local and gubernatorial administration, becoming more and more obvious, pushed Catherine II to reform local government. The main merit of the ongoing reform is the creation of local government, acting independently. It can be said that the “Institutions for the Administration of the Governorates of the All-Russian Empire” became a document of “great strength” by historical standards – they basically operated until the liberal reforms of the 1860s, to a certain extent – until October 1917. Changes related to the local administration of Russia in the 18th century they directly affected the status and role of Tambov. The provincial city of the early 18th century became by the end of the same century the center of the vast Black Earth governorate.