Policy of Territorial Integration in the Russian Empire in the 19th Century

The article is devoted to the peculiarities of the regional integration policy pursued by the state authorities of the Russian Empire in relation to the annexed lands in the 19th century. An appeal to the realities of the past era predetermined the reliance on the principle of historicism. Four main models used in the period under review in relation to different regions are identified and substantiated. The differences in the approach to integration in relation to the western and eastern outskirts of the Empire, as well as the Central Asian lands, are shown. The relationship between territorial integration and the integration of the population, its inclusion in the general orbit of socio-economic and 19 political-legal relations of the state is substantiated. The importance of forming a single legal space to ensure state unity is emphasized. It is concluded that the integration policy implied, first of all, the establishment of an effective management system in the new territories, and the government pursued a fairly flexible policy, taking into account local specifics and using the already established structures. However, the preservation of the existing legal systems in certain annexed territories led to a rupture of the Russian legal space, violated its integrity, which in turn negatively affected the unity of the state.