The paper presents the analysis of I. I. Popov’s project about territorial self-administration (zemstvo), worked out on the eve of the first Russian Revolution in 1905. Popov, who was the member of the town council, fully canvassed the basics of self-administration bodies in Siberia, legal groundwork and set of responsibilities for the counties, their jurisdictions in arranging public health service, education, cultural progress, financial support, with due regard for various strata of the society to take part in the elections.