Issues regarding the activity Bessarabia’s Zemstva, although being an important facet of the history of the land between Prut and Dniester, are poorly reflected in the literature. Only some aspects, such as the status of Zemstva, its spheres of competence, budget and social composition are reflected somewhat larger. In the shadow of past remain several problems, which require a broader approach. One of these problems is the commercial navigation on the river Dniester in preoccupations of Bessarabia’s Zemstva.

The analysis of published documents let us ascertain that Bessarabia’s Zemstva succeeded in drawing attention to the Russian imperial authorities on the issue of commercial navigation on the Dniester River. However, it is clear that in practical plan things didn’t stay so well as in the plan of intent. Obviously, on the other hand, that decentralization of power led only to a bureaucratization of the administrative machinery. From this point of view, the problems of commercial navigation on the river Dniester were discussed and researched but not solved.