The article focuses on an important period in the history of local administration in Yakutia when indigenous self-government was formed. The author considers formation of the vertical power structure both in regional administration (commandants, commissioners, judicial authorities, assessors) and in potestary institutions and forms of self-government in Yakutia (ulus chiefs, princelings). The author applies comparative method in research. For the first time the hierarchy between various structures of local government and indigenous self-government in Yakutia is analyzed considering dynamics of their formation.

Before the provincial reform of 1775 in Yakutia the forming indigenous self-government was opposed to the local government. Undertaking the reform required much effort. It was inappropriate to implement general methods in local conditions. The Yakuts insisted on direct subordination to the administrative and judicial authorities of the Yakut regional administration.