In Russia of the 1870–1880s, development of empirical sociology was deemed unthinkable. However provincial and regional administrations, and later, zemstvo institutions actively carried out statistical surveys of the population on a wide range of socio-economic issues. The work of the Zemstvo statistical bodies in some provinces of the European part of the Russian Empire has been duly studied. Whereas the fruits of the provincial (regional) statistical committees’ studies covering almost all the regions of the Empire are still outside scholarly analysis. The article attempts to bridge this gap to an extent discussing methods and results of these committees’ work as well as their contribution to the development of research procedures, in particular, a pioneering practice of the sampling method. The Terek Regional Statistical Committee had studied the Terek Cossacks’ mode of life under guided by N.A. Blagoveshchensky in 1875–1880. The article examines how the study was organized to survey 12 “typical” villages and what results it yielded. In conclusion, the need to study extensive practices of the rural life statistical surveys of late 19th century is emphasized as a unique indisputable achievement of domestic statistics as well as a pre-sociological stage of empirical research in Russia that contributed to the development of the world statistical science.