Діяльність Бессарабської обласної межової контори (1818–1891 рр.): законодавчі новації та повсякденна практика.

The article focuses on the formation of the land registers system in the Bessarabian region, the reform of land relations in the region in accordance with the all-Russian standards. The paper analyzes the main legal and regulatory documents that served as a legal basis for the general surveying of the Bessarabian lands and with the help of which all the legal incidents arising in the course of the activity of the surveying expeditions were solved. Among such documents it is necessary to name the following: «On the surveying of the state lands of the Bessarabian region and the division of these lands into plots» (March 7, 1817), «On the establishment of a special commission for drawing up the rules for the general demarcation of the lands of the Bessarabian region (No. 23578 dated October 17, 1849)», «On the change in the order of demarcation of the lands of the Bessarabian province: the highest approved opinion of the State Council (No. 1591 of May 19, 1883)» and others. There were studied two approaches proposed by the Russian government for carrying out surveying works in the region: one for state lands and the other for those that were privately owned. Thus, for surveying state lands in Bessarabia, an expedition was sent to which eight surveyors from provinces adjoining the Bessarabian region were enrolled. On April 29th, 1818, the Bessarabian Regional Land Surveying Office was established to survey private property, church, monastery and city lands in Orheisky, Khotinsky and Yassky districts and to consider land conflicts in Akkerman, Izmail and Bender districts of the Bessarabian region. In addition, the article explores the technical foundations of the survey and the main problems that employees encountered during the surveying works in the Bessarabian region. In the author’s opinion, the main problems that slowed the pace of the survey of individual land plots were: the dominance of traditional forms of land ownership and land use in the region, sabotage by the local population of measures of general surveying, ethnic diversity of the population in the Bessarabian region, the presence of a significant number of land conflicts, lack of proper communication between the local population and government institutions.