Ispravnik

Ispravnik. Name of an official on the county level in the Russian Empire. Ispravniki were introduced by Catherine II in 1775. At first they were county heads elected from among the local nobility. From 1862 they were appointed by the gubernia governor and their functions were expanded to include supervision of the county police and prisons and membership in various county committees and commissions. In 1874 they became members of the county bureaus for peasant affairs. They were responsible directly to the governor, and their police authority in the county, except in those towns that had their own police force, was practically unrestricted.