EDUCATION AND LINEAGE: FROM THE HISTORY OF RUSSIAN CIVIL SERVICE IN THE 19 TH CENTURY

Abstract

The system of positions and ranks at work in the Russian Federation's civil service is similar to the Table of Ranks introduced by Peter the Great. During the 19th century, attempts were periodically made to reform Peter the Great's system. This article demonstrates that, in the 19th century, the number of civil servants continued to grow, the percentage of nobility in governmental civil service was gradually shrinking, and the level of education among civil servants was increasing. The question of abolishing the system of ranks was repeatedly raised. Higher education being obtainable by commoners allowed them to get a rank and served as a kind of “social lift.” Transformations in governmental service were inseparable from the ideas of educational qualification for different categories of civil servants. The article also shows how the system of civil servants' education was changing. In the first half of the 19th century, attempts to introduce compulsory exams to obtain a certain rank often led to collisions and did not give the results desired. In the second half of the 19th century, universities began to specialize in civil servants' education. Reforms of normative acts regulating the system of civil service were winning their way with great difficulties. The last attempt to bring about significant changes in this field was made by the Commission for the Revision of the Charter of Civil Service, established in 1895. One of the first Bolsheviks' decrees was the Decree on the Abolition of Estates and Civil Ranks. However, later the system of ranks was restored. The investigation of its history would assist the improvement of the modern civil service.