Abstract: This article addresses one of the key questions regarding the socio-cultural life of the post-reform town: civic engagement, community organisation, and the influence of the crown administration that in many ways determined the appearance and the level of development of various forms of social initiatives. The research is based on materials from Russian towns in which occurred these phenomena – the town being the most creative of all socio-cultural organisms. The study of these aspects of social life substantially helps to resolve the question of whether it was possible to form a civic community in pre-Revolutionary Russia. The relationship between government and towns was secured by legislation in 1870 and 1892. The organisation of town communities happened under conditions when towns sought to change the nature of their relations with the central administration and to receive more autonomy in resolving their problems. The revolution of 1905 and the First World War contributed to the growth of civic engagement, and also to the government making some concessions to towns under the influence of society’s demands. The pre-Revolutionary decade was a time of the social forces’ consolidation and the appearance of new forms of its organisation. The existing opposition of the official authorities to this process determined the failure of the “dialogue” between government and society.