From 1878 to 1881 Town regulations of the year 1870 came into force in the county centres of the province of Kaunas. They gave a great deal of independence to the town municipalities and broadened their competence. The Town regulations provided that there must be two offices of town self-government, i. e. the town Dūma and the Board. The vote was given to the owners of real estate and the persons having a licence for industrial and trade enterprises. In 1892 the newly introduced regulations partially changed the election procedure and brought in the election census. The Jewish people were deprived of the suffrage. Although the tsarist statistics of population are not very reliable, they allow to determine the approximate number of electors in towns. In the first election in Panevėžys about 4,1% of townspeople could have taken part. The percentage in Šiauliai and Raseiniai was 4,8 and 1,7 respectively. At the beginning of the 2O'h century the electors did not make 1 % for the most part. Only in Ukmergė the figure exceeded 2%. [...]

From 1879 to 1914 a small quantity of townspeople were given the right to vote in Panevėžys Municipality. In the year 1879 the electors made 5,14 %, in the year 1904 - 1,85 %, in the year 1908 - 1,82 % and in the year 1912 - 2% of all the townspeople in Panevėžys. At the beginning of the 20th century the majority of electors were Lithuanians. Starting with the year 1908 they also dominated in the Municipality of the town. The electors' activity at the election was not high. In 1908 it was 24 5 and in 1913 it was only 21,2 %. The administration of the Russian Empire was trying to control the Municipalities of the towns and to subordinate them to its own interest. Panevėžys Municipality would oppose to that, therefore conflicts would arise at the beginning of the century. The resistance movement was organised by the representatives of the Polish national movement. In 1914 Lithuanian national movement group was formed in the Municipality.

Among numerous works devoted to the history of Panevėžys, O. Maksimaitienė's inheritance takes up the leading part. The historian was born in St. Petersburg. She studied at St. Petersburg, Voronezh and Kaunas Gymnasiums. After graduation from the Lithuanian university she worked in Mažeikiai and Kėdainiai Gymnasiums, and in 1935-1957 she worked in different schools in Panevėžys. In 1957-1970 the historian worked at the Institute of History; after the retirement she continued her work there without any pay. She died in 1999. About one-fifth of her published inheritance is dedicated to the local research. One of her most important works is the ascertaining of the foundation date of Panevėžys. She denied the approach that had dominated for the whole century that Panevėžys already existed in the 14,h century and proved the fact that the city was first mentioned in the historical sources in 1503. The historian's major work devoted to the city is The History of Panevėžys. The 865 pages manuscript was finished in 1971, but because of the inflexible publishing system the publication of the book was delayed considerably. The author was under constant pressure because the book had to conform to the Marxism-Leninism ideology. That was the reason why the contents of the book suffered. [...]

Straipsnyje nagrinėjama Ukmergės miesto savivaldybės veikla ir pilietiškumo joje raiška 1879–1915 metais, kai galiojo carinėje Rusijoje liberaliausi savivaldos įstatymai. Tiriama, kokias sąlygas pilietiškumas turėjo reikštis savivaldos institucijose ir kokiomis konkrečiomis formomis jis pasireiškė. Tuo tikslu tiriama savivaldybių rinkėjų sudėtis, kiekis, pačių savivaldybės narių socialinės ir nacionalinės charakteristikos. Nagrinėjami savivaldybės veiklos prioritetai, finansinės jų realizavimo galimybės, carinės administracijos siekiai ir požiūris į savivaldybę.