Supernumerary town (Russian: Заштатный город, romanizedzashtatny; Безуездный город, pre-reform orthography: Безъуѣздный городъ, romanizedbezuyezdny gorod, lit.'county-less city') was a type of a city in the Russian Empire which was not an administrative center of any territory.[1][2]

Coat of arms of the supernumerary city of Chuguyev

During the reign of Catherine II of Russia, when an uezd was disbanded, its administratice centre typically lost its status as a city, with the corresponding loss of city privileges of its inhabitants. To bypass this, a new category of urban settlements was introduced.[3]

The 1796 reform of the administrative division by Emperor Paul I of Russia decreased the number of uyezds and their centers were reclassified as supernumerary towns. The reform established the population number as a criterion for a supernumerary town.[4]

In the second half of the 19th century the governorate centres constituted 8 percent of cities, uezd cities counted 71 percent, and supernumerary towns counted 21 percent.[5]

Over time the term zashtatny gorod has acquired the meaning of an insignificant/backwater city.

See also

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References

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  1. ^   "Безуездный город" . Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary (in Russian). 1906.
  2. ^ Elias Heifetz, The Slaughter of the Jews in the Ukraine in 1919, 1921 p. 276
  3. ^ Белов, Алексей Викторович (2012). "Сеть городов и городских поселений Российской империи при Павле I" [Network of cities and urban settlements of the Russian Empire under Paul I]. Труды Исторического факультета Санкт-Петербургского университета (in Russian) (11). Saint Petersburg University: 35–44.
  4. ^ Циберт В. (2003). "Становлення органів самоврядування міст Південної України в останній чверті XVIII - середині XIX століття" [Formation of self-governing bodies in the cities of Southern Ukraine from the last quarter of the 18th century to the middle of the 19th century] (PDF). Наукові праці історичного факультету Запорізького державного університету (in Ukrainian) (XVI). Zaporizhia: Prosvita Publ. [Просвіта]: 31–33. Archived from the original (PDF) on 12 December 2013.
  5. ^ Щепетев, Василий Иванович (2004). История государственного управления в России (in Russian). Yuridichesky Center Press [Изд-во «Юридический центр Пресс»].