The article tells us about the reform of local government of the Russian Empire in the middle of the 19th ct., which also extended on the Kharkiv province. The essence of an electoral system which formally provided the equal rights for all social categories of the population, but actually limited electoral rights to class privileges and a property qualification is revealed in this article. It gave unilateral advantages to the local nobility. The dependence of local government activities in the development of primary education from social composition of these bodies is considered on the example of the Kharkiv province. Thus the settled thesis about low activity in the sphere of primary education, as a consequence of prevalence of noblemen in body of a local government is disproved. It is specified how by the efforts of local government of the Kharkiv province the school net extended, training of teachers was carried out, the system of final examinations was changed. It tells about the opposition of local government with representatives of the state power, which tried to limit the influence of the community on the development of a national education in the region.