The leader of the nobility is an elected and very important position in the system of local self-government and the management of the nobility. It was established by her decree Catherine II in 1785. The position of the leader of the nobility, its varieties and features will be described in this essay.
First variety
There were two types of positions of leader - a county and provincial. The district marshal of the nobility was elected by the respective departments. The elected leader became chairman of the zemstvo district assembly after his appointment was approved by the governor.
He also served as chairman of the school council, convention, and a number of other local bodies. Such leader of the nobility was elected for a period of three years. It is worth noting that he received absolutely no monetary or other remuneration for his service. This circumstance made the position very honorable.
Responsibilities
County leaderof the nobility, in addition to the performance of the class duties of the nobility assigned to him, was actively involved in the general state activities. The law provided for membership, as well as chairmanship, in a number of commissions that represented various types of authorities in the county.
The position of leader in the county was very responsible also because in the Russian Empire the administrative system did not provide for a single leader, as well as one administration at the county level. In the provincial system, however, things were different.
The leader of the nobility (district) was a member of many county organizations and institutions. He acted as a kind of link between the de facto disparate institutions and the county head. After being in the position of leader of the nobility for 3 three-year terms, he received the rank of state councilor (V class). It should be noted that the district leaders were independent and did not obey the provincial leaders.
Provincial Marshal of the Nobility
This position was also elective. After his approval, he became the leader of the nobility throughout the province. He was elected, like the county, for a period of three years. It is worth noting that the number of officials in the state was minimal. The district and provincial leaders had only their own secretary, as well as several clerks. At the county or provincial congress, a separate secretary was provided.
The provincial leader had no salary or other remuneration for his activities. At the same time, he hadgiven a large number of responsibilities. He was considered a person who is in active public service.
Regardless of whether the leader had a class rank, he was an "ordinary". This is a person who holds a position and performs the duties assigned to him, while enjoying certain benefits and rights.
However, the leaders of the nobility were considered as such only for the duration of their position. For example, they had the right to own land, were exempted from military service, zemstvo duties. And they also had the right to enter the service in the Imperial Palace, and immediately in the officer rank. They were awarded the rank of State Councilor IV class.
Features
Unlike the county, the provincial marshal of the nobility received the rank of state councilor (V class) after three years of service. And in the case of length of service three times for three years, he was awarded the rank of IV class. An interesting fact: as mentioned earlier, the leaders did not have a salary, but they were en titled to a pension.
The position of the leader could in no case be combined with any regular positions in the civil, state or military services. The only exception was in Astrakhan and three provinces of the Caucasus region.
The duties of the provincial marshal of the nobility in fact consisted of two completely unrelated parts. He conducted the affairs of the nobility as an elected person at the meeting of the self-government of the nobles, while submitting to the province. He performed administrative and state affairs as an appointed official,answering directly to the emperor.
Noble Elections
Elections of the leader of the nobility were held in all regions and provinces of the Russian Empire. The only exceptions were those areas in which the nobility was small and could not fill elected positions. These were the Vyatka, Arkhangelsk, Perm, Olonets provinces and all other regions of Siberia.
In the North-West of the empire, the leaders of the nobility were not elected, but appointed. This was due to the fact that nobles of Polish origin prevailed in those areas, and their presence in the post in question was undesirable.
The appointment was made by the Governor General or the Minister of the Interior. In the Ostezeya provinces (the territory of the present-day B altic states), noble institutions differed somewhat from the main all-Russian ones, but, nevertheless, they had subordination, like the main ones, and elections in them were made according to special rules.
Next, two of the representatives of the leaders of the Russian nobility in such provinces as Tambov and Yaroslavl will be considered.
Nikolai Nikolaevich Cholokaev
The last Tambov leader of the nobility in the period from 1891 to 1917. was Nikolai Nikolaevich Cholokaev. The years of his life 1830-1920. He was a prominent statesman, a real state councilor, a member of the State Council. Nikolai Nikolayevich was born into a noble landowning family in the Morshansky district of the Tambov province.
In 1852 he graduated from Moscow University, Naturalfaculty. In the period from 1853 to 1859 he was an honorary trustee of the Shatsk district school, and from 1858 he was a member of the Tambov provincial committee, which was engaged in improving peasant life.
Take office
After serfdom was abolished in 1861, N. N. Cholokaev took up the post of mediator and served in it for 7 years. From 1868 to 1870, after the introduction of the regulation on justices of the peace in the Tambov province, he was a district justice of the peace in the Morshansky district. In addition, for 12 years, starting in 1876, Cholokaev was a member of the presence in the Morshansky district, where he was in charge of the affairs of the peasants.
When the provision on zemstvo institutions was introduced in the Tambov province, Nikolai Nikolayevich was elected both county and provincial vowel. Since 1891 he has been the marshal of the nobility in Tambov. In 1896 he was promoted to actual state councilor. And from 1906 to 1909, N. N. Cholokaev was a member of the State Council from the Tambov Zemstvo.
Bishop John
In the world his name was Ivan Anatolyevich Kurakin. He was the penultimate leader of the nobility in the Yaroslavl province - from 1906 to 1915. Years of life 1874-1950. He managed to visit both an official and a politician, marshal of the nobility, member of the State Duma of the III convocation, active state councilor, minister of finance in the Provisional Government of the Northern Region, served in the army. In the last month of his lifevicar of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, had the title of Bishop of Messina.
I. A. Kurakin came from the princes Kurakin, was the great-great-grandson of Alexei Kurakin, prosecutor general, and the son of Anatoly Kurakin, a member of the State Council. While still an officer, in 1901 he was elected leader of the nobility in the Mologa district. He held this position until 1905. And in 1906, Kurakin took the post of Yaroslavl provincial marshal of the nobility. From 1907 to 1913 he was a member of the State Duma, where he was a member of the Octobrist faction, was a member of the Central Committee of the Union of October 17 party.
These interesting and versatile personalities were the leaders of the Russian nobility.
