Municipal Statute of 1846

a law promulgating reforms of municipal self-government for the city of St. Petersburg.

The Municipal Statute of 1846 provided for the replacement of the so-called six-member duma by an all-class municipal duma, the general duma, which with its executive organ, the administrative duma, was made up of the representatives of five strata: (1) hereditary noblemen; (2) personal noblemen, honorary citizens, and men made equal in rank to personal nobles; (3) merchants of all three guilds; (4) the petite bourgeoisie of the capital not registered in the guilds; and (5) the craftsmen or petite bourgeoisie of the capital registered in guilds. The right to vote for the general duma belonged to men owning real property yielding an annual profit of no less than 100 rubles who had been registered in municipal society for not less than two years. The mayor was appointed by the government from candidates of the higher estates who owned real property worth at least 15,000 rubles. In 1846, only 1.2 percent of the population of St. Petersburg enjoyed the right to vote. The aim of the Municipal Statute was to improve the city economy and to establish self-government, but the old feudal institutions, only partly reformed, prevented the statute from fulfilling its stated aims.