Russia has a profound tradition of local autonomous government, for example, the public assembly of ancient Ross and the rural commune organization of Moscow State. Before the 18th century, local autonomous government in Russia mainly took the form of autonomous government of local urban and rural communes of lower classes, characteristic of taxpaying communes. In the 18th century, Ekaterinna II promulgated the Edict of Urban Emancipation and the Edict of Noble Emancipation, which marked the beginning of gradable, upperclass and urban and rural local autonomous government overwhelmed by the noble class and industrial and merchant class. Russian local autonomous government, which contained no meaning of selfgovernment in the western countries, was governed by the state principle, that is, the centralist principle. However, with the growth of external impact from the western countries, the basic trend of the 1864’s Russian reform of local autonomous government can be clearly seen.

Russian great reform; tradition of local autonomous government; rural commune; the Edict of Urban Emancipation; the Edict of Noble Emancipation