Formation of the Bureaucracy of the Russian Empire in the XVIII Century (Civil Service)

The article is dedicated to the 300th anniversary of the Table of Ranks of 1722. The purpose of the article is to study the process of formation of the corps of civil servants in the civil service of the Russian Empire, as well as the problems associated with this process. First of all, this is the problem of personnel, which directly concerns the forced recruitment of people from the tax-paying estates to the public service. Another topic in the framework of solving the personnel problem is an attempt to create a purely noble state apparatus by introducing the position of collegiate cadets for noble children. In this regard, the role of the decree of Peter I of January 31, 1724, as well as the possibility of acquiring secretarial positions by non-noble personnel is considered. Additional problems for the formation of civil service personnel were such as the lack of the proper level of required education among the nobility, initially negative attitude of the nobility towards the civil service, and, in addition, the continuing shortage of personnel in provincial state institutions. Another important milestone in the development of the domestic public service was the manifesto of Peter III on February 18, 1762 “On granting liberties and freedom to all Russian nobility”, which gave rise to a lot of problems associated with the transition of officers to the civil service and the abolition of the position of collegiate cadets. The personnel problem is increased by the provincial reform of 1775, as a result of which representatives of non-noble classes (including taxable ones) massively began being enrolled in the civil service, with their withdrawal from the capitation salary. The completion of the process of formation of the state apparatus was the transformation of Paul I, aimed at transforming the right of the nobility to serve as a duty and reviving the noble position of collegiate cadets.