Zemstwo or rather zyemstvo, formally called 'land institution' (rus. 'земские учреждение') was a form local self-government that existed in the Russian Empire since 1864, having been introduced with the land reform issued by Alexander II, being detailed specifically in the 'Ordinance about Governorate and Uyezd institutions' issued on 1st January 1864 (governorates and uyezds were, respectively, top and middle rank administrative units in the Russian Empire at the time).

According to Sergey Stepanovich Lanskoy, then a Minister of the Interior, the introduction of zyemstvos was a way to repay the dvoryans for their loss of feudal privileges over their subjects, giving the former a dominant role in the local administration. The dvoryans (lit. 'courtiers', from Russian 'dvor' meaning 'court') were class of servitors, obliged to provide military and administrative services for the local rulers in exchange for land, not unlike ministeriales in the Holy Roman Empire or the knightly class in general, with some traits similar to Polish nobility in 16th and 17th century or Western gentry. Subjects of the landholders were generally tightly bound to them in servitude and were obliged to work chiefly in the land belonging to the owner directly. This was slowly changing throughout 19th century, with the percentage of serfs decreasing to 60% of its original value until the end of reign of Nicholas I. His successor, Alexander II developed this further issuing the 'Land and Will Manifesto' on 19th February 1861 (O.C.), effectively abolishing serfdom and giving the peasants personal freedom. The reform also introduced local self-governance, transferred the ownership of peasants' houses to them and granted them lots of land for personal use in exchange of specific amount of work on the previous landowner's fields or yearly tax. The reforms were not introduced uniformly throughout Empire, as in 1890 they existed only in 34 of 50 governorates in the European part of Russia (housing roughly 70% of the population of the European part of the Empire and 50% of its total number), in Bessarabia and in the Don Army Region. Other regions, such as Caucasus, Siberia and Central Asia id not have any. There were also not present in Kingdom of Poland and Great Duchy of Finland, as these regions had their own administrative structure.

Zyemstva had many prerogatives that were primarily focused on the organization of the local infrastructure and communal activities. They were in charge of the collection of local taxes and managing the funds slated for the local issues, development of the hospitals, grammar and high schools, roads and other infrastructure, supervision of local mutual land insurances, support for the poor and victims of disasters organization and supervision of local services, such as post office, fire brigades or veterinarians and general support for the development of local enterprises and economy. Central government could have subsidize various enterprises on zyemstvo's request, but otherwise did not interfere on its own. Central government was, in turn, governing all military and policing matters, railways and major transit roads, universities and partially also high schools, especially in the cities. In addition, members of the local assembly standing at the head of the zyemstvo were also given position in various commissions, committees and councils planning and coordinating various activities in their respective governorates, which bodies were gradually developing throughout second half of the 19th and early 20th century. They were also electing their representatives on the assemblies of higher rank (e.g. zyemstvo assembly elected representatives at uyezd assemblies, while the latter were electing representatives on governorate assemblies). In general, a single representative on the lowest level represented on average 6500 citizens. When the State Council, initially conciliatory and later also legislative body has been established in 1906, each of the aforementioned assemblies were also able to elect from among themselves a single Council member.

All this might seem pretty obvious and par of the course for any republican areas, including e.g. substantial part of the medieval cities, but for the mid-19th century Russian Empire, the practical application of self government at the medium and then low administrative level still was a novelty, with the government still being absolutist and the economy bearing strong feudal traits.

As the instance of self-government, zyemstwa quickly became the activity centres for the local entrepreneurs and intelligentsia, contributing to the development of liberal thought and essentially formation of the opposition to the absolutist monarchy. This opposition, although initially apolitical, soon started to take the liberal position in relation to the monarchy, sometimes using various events, such as great famine of 1891 for their cause. In this particular case, liberally-inclined members of zyemstvo tasked with rendering help for the starving regions often presented the situation as the proof of government's inability to tackle important problems. Regardless of validity of such claims, the zyemstvo nevertheless an important step towards democratization of life in Russian Empire and played an important role in transformation of Russian monarchy from absolute to parliamentary that formally occurred on 23rd April 1906 (O.C.).

So in short, zyemstva were instances of self-government, composed of various estates, although with elevated position of gentry. They were tasked with some aspects of administration and development of their immediate areas and its members were eligible to vote and be elected for similar assemblies of the higher level, up to and including equivalent of Russian Parliament.