The object of the research: Kharkiv municipal government as a multifunctional phenomenon. The aim of the dissertation: reconstruction of the process of formation, functioning and activities of municipal authorities of Kharkiv, the changes in the development process, as well as analysis of the impact of self-governing structures on the economic and cultural development of the city. The methods: analysis, quantitative, synthesis, system-structural, biographical, comparative-historical, problem-chronological, historical-systemic, descriptive. The scientific novelty of the research is in the fact that it is a holistic, specific historical study of the activities of municipal authorities of Kharkiv, which analyzes and summarizes the experience of Kharkiv City Council (Duma), Administration (Uprava) and their subordinate committees in cooperation with national authorities for a long period of time: 1871 - December 1919 (from the moment of creation and beginning of activities of Kharkiv Council (Duma) and Administration (Uprava) to their complete liquidation). The content and regional features of functioning of bodies of municipal authorities are also revealed. The financial-budgetary, economic, cultural-educational, and social aspects of the activities of self-governing structures of Kharkiv, which had previously been covered in scientific literature in fragments, are considered in a new way. The novelty is in the used archival materials, some of which were first introduced into scientific circulation and involved in the study of the history of municipal authorities in Kharkiv. The history of formation and development of post-reform self-government bodies from 1871 to December 1917, June - December 1919 in Kharkiv was comprehensively studied for the first time. The emphasis is placed on the issues that weren’t solved positively by the municipal authorities of Kharkiv in that period. The reasons for some ineffectiveness of Kharkiv municipal authorities were analyzed, too. The features of establishment and formation of Kharkiv municipal authorities; the information on the structure, membership, and functions of Kharkiv City Council (Duma) and Administration (Uprava); the principles of organization and conducting the elections to municipal authorities; the priority vectors of Kharkiv self-government activities in the period of social and political transformations from 1914 to December 1919 were specified. Some statistical data on the income and spending of Kharkiv self-government structures; information about economic, social and cultural-educational activities of Kharkiv municipal authorities. The practical meaning of investigation: materials of the dissertation can be used in the preparation of scientific works, textbooks, programs and special courses on history of Ukraine, history of Sloboda Ukraine and other disciplines. Field of application: educational process.
