In accordance with the decree of the All-Russian Emperor Peter I, all ranks in the empire had a clear hierarchy. The establishment of the Table of Ranks had a great influence on the official routine in the country and on the fate of representatives of the nobility. Changes were made to the Table of Ranks from time to time, but in fact it existed until 1917.
Establishment of the Table of Ranks
Peter the Great went down in history as a transforming tsar. During his reign in the Russian Empire there were significant changes in the field of military affairs, church administration, culture and life. The structure of the civil service system has also undergone changes. By decree of January 24, 1722, the Table of Ranks was introduced, according to which all ranks in the Russian Empire were ordered into 14 classes. The lowest class is the fourteenth and the highest is the first.
It should also be noted that military officials had more social benefits than civilians. This trend is partly due to the fact that in the Petrine era, the status of the military increased significantly, since the Russian Empire pursued an active foreign policy.and waged wars with her opponents.
In the Table of Ranks, which can be found in the photo below, all ranks were clearly ranked. The position of a person was determined not by the nobility of his family, but by personal merits.
The main result of Peter's innovation was an increase in social mobility, which was an undoubted advantage for that time.
College Secretary
There was a strict hierarchy in the civil service system. This helped to increase the efficiency of the work of officials. A person, no matter how noble his family, could not apply for a high position if he did not have the appropriate qualifications.
Collegiate secretary is a civil rank of the X class (in the army, he corresponded to a staff captain). Persons with this rank could occupy, albeit low, but leadership positions. In accordance with the decree, it was assigned only after graduating from educational institutions. To receive the rank of XI class - titular adviser - the term of service was 3 years.
Main provisions of the decree:
- Civilian ranks, which included the rank of collegiate secretary, were given by seniority or for special service merits.
- For demanding honors above one's rank at official meetings or public celebrations, a fine equal to two months' salary of the offending person was due.
- Public punishment entails the loss of rank. Subsequently, it can only be returned by a publicly declared nominalspecial merit decree.
- Everyone, in accordance with his rank, must have a crew and uniform (livery).
The photo shows Mikhail Anarovich in the uniform of a collegiate secretary. Three stars were attached to the buttonholes of the uniform, the diameter of which was 11.2 mm. The emblem of the service department was also attached there.
Famous collegiate secretaries
Everyone is familiar with the work of Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin, but few people know that he held a public position and actively rotated among the diplomatic corps, carrying out responsible instructions from the top leadership. In 1817, Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin completed his studies at the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum and was awarded the rank of collegiate secretary. The first place of his service was the Collegium of Foreign Affairs. There is no information about Pushkin's work in this department due to the secrecy of his work. A number of researchers point out that the creative successes of Alexander Sergeevich were the result of his purposeful and intensified work on himself during his service in the secret department.
In addition to Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin, the rank of collegiate secretary was also given to one of the classics of Russian literature - Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev - and composer Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky.
The latter was forced to join the Main Engineering Department in 1863 due to lack of funds. Public service has become a difficult test for a talented musician. People from the composer's inner circle wrote about how painful it was for them to see Mussorgsky's calligraphic lines of reports instead of unborn scores.
Mentioned in fiction
One of the most famous characters in Russian literature, who held the rank of collegiate secretary in the table of ranks, is Ilya Ilyich Oblomov. In his youth, he received a good education, then rose to the aforementioned rank and retired. During the action of the novel, Oblomov had already lost interest in everything, and his only dream was a life without hardships and worries.
In "Dead Souls" by N. V. Gogol, one of the central heroines of Korobochka's poem is called "a collegiate secretary". She herself, of course, had nothing to do with public service. And they called her that because her deceased husband had this rank.
