This book talks about the administrative difficulties and difficult cultural and psychological conditions in which the official appointed to the post of governor found himself. Materials from denunciations, senatorial checks, and reports from secret observers serve as sources for identifying failures, gaps and vulnerabilities of the local government system that existed in Russia in the first half of the 19th century. Analysis of the discovered evidence provides grounds for revising existing ideas about administrative practices and power resources of the provincial bureaucracy, its conflicts with the bodies of noble self-government, the search for effective forms of management, and clashes of personal and group interests. The results of the study will be of interest to both professional historians and amateur historians. (The first edition of this book was published under the title “Kazan governors in the dialogues of authorities (the first half of the 19th century)”, Kazan, 2008 - 228 pp.)