Official hierarchy and city and urban village typology established at the end of XVIII-XIX centuries

The article deals with one of the aspects of the cardinal reform of the city that took place in the reign of Catherine II. The reform of the city, taking place within the framework of the administrative and territorial reform of Catherine II, was closely related to the process of creating a network of new «small» provinces and the formation of a network of cities and urban settlements in each of the new entities administrative. The city network (a network of cities and urban settlements) was a complex (rather than a set) of settlements of a particular region, having (in the presentation of contemporaries) the status of the city or its official signs. In the course of its existence, a distribution of functions occurred within the network. The set of functions inherent in different urban settlements, determines their character and face in the broadest sense of the word. All functions can be conditionally divided into two groups: administrative and economic. In our study, attention was drawn to the approval of a set of administrative functions outside the city as part of the country’s spatial and settlement to the establishment of certain types of cities and urban settlements, with a set of features and responsibilities. In this case, between the types of settlements a stable hierarchy as administrative centers established. The reason for its appearance is wider than the need for formal subjection. The network of cities and urban settlements of the country, established by the beginning of the XIX century, was complex with a heterogeneous structure. It included settlements, officially called cities according to the rules of its time, and other structures that do not belong to this group. The latter also performed city functions and were considered contemporaries on a par with the «official» cities, separating themselves from rural settlements. The name of settlements did not always correspond to their economic quality. Along with the administrative type of cities, there were intermediate forms of urban settlements, which, according to the norms of that time, did not apply to cities (non-resident cities, supernumerary cities, settlements, small towns). In addition, archaic forms of settlements connected with cities and partly fulfilling their functions, were preserved. An important peculiarity of this historical period is the simultaneous existence of numerous and diverse forms of urban settlements including archaic ones. This circumstance is caused by the transitional nature of the time, the implementation of administrative reform, as well as the desire of the authorities to implement the process of transformation without a radical breakdown and social protest.