On the basis of a wide range of published and archival sources, the issues of organization and activities of noble committees on peasant affairs in the northwestern provinces of Russia were investigated. The problems of relations between world mediators and landowners, peasants and local authorities are considered. Considerable attention was paid to noble land ownership and land use, the processes of evolution of the landowner economy in the post-reform years were traced, the close interweaving of capitalist and semi-repost drawings in the nobility economy was shown. The picture of the state of the landowner economy in the second half of the 19th - early 20th centuries is complemented by the analysis of rental relations and the characteristics of the labor force used in the estates.