Zemstvo officials occupied a prominent place in the social life of Russia in the post-reform period. Many of them participated in the populist movement in the 1870s, but for various reasons they left it and devoted themselves entirely to the zemstvo service, the reby obtaining the opportunity to legally study the way of life, culture, labour activities of peasants and to defend their interests before the landlords, gubernia and uyezd administrations. N. F. Annensky was one of these devotees. The paper attempts to consider his activities as the head of the zemstvo statistical departments (bureaus) of the Kazan and Nizhny Novgorod gubernias. On the basis of the analysis of diverse archival and published sources the author came to the conclusion that while in the zemstvo service N. F. Annensky made a significant contribution to the development of Russian statistics creating new methods of statistical research by combining assessment and soil work. His experience was fruitfully used by statisticians from other gubernias. N. F. Annensky can rightfully be considered one of zemstvo statistical luminaries.