Table Of ContentRULING RUSSIA
POLITICS AND ADMINISTRATION
IN THE AGE OF ABSOLUTISM
1762-1796
STUDIES OF
THE HARRIMAN INSTITUTE
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY
The W. Averell Harriman Institute for Advanced
Study of the Soviet Union, Columbia University,
sponsors the Studies of the Harriman Institute in
the belief that their publication contributes to
scholarly research and public understanding. In
this way the Institute, while not necessarily en
dorsing their conclusions, is pleased to make avail
able the results of some of the research conducted
under its auspices. A list of the Studies appears at
the back of this book.
JOHN P. LEDONNE
RULING RUSSIA
Politics and Administration
in the Age of Absolutism
1762-1796
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS
PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY
Copyright © 1984 by Princeton University Press
Published by Princeton University Press, 41 William Street,
Princeton, New Jersey 08540
In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press,
Guildford, Surrey
All Rights Reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data will be
found on the last printed page of this book
ISBN 0-691-05425-8
Publication of this book has been aided by a grant from
the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
This book has been composed in Linotron Sabon
Clothbound editions of Princeton University Press books
are printed on acid-free paper, and binding materials are
chosen for strength and durability.
Printed in the United States of America
by Princeton University Press
Princeton, New Jersey
TO SON1A
HAPPY CHILD OF RUSSIA, GEORGIA,
AND THE WESTERN BORDERLANDS,
WHO MADE THIS BOOK
POSSIBLE
PREFACE
This book follows the publication of Isabel de Madariaga's magisterial
study of the reign of Catherine the Great, but focuses on the internal
administration of the Empire. No comprehensive study of the great
reforms of 1775-1785 has yet been written, although they are as
important as those of the 1860s. Some very valuable work has been
done on the bureaucracy and the nobility, but Russian law and pro
cedure as well as finance have been almost completely ignored; and
no systematic survey of Great Russia's relations with its borderlands
is yet available. Scholars seeking to take up the challenge face a choice:
they may treat any of these subjects in some detail, or attempt in a
general work to present a global view of Russian internal administra
tion at one of the most interesting periods of its history. Without the
benefit of preliminary monographs and fully conscious of the many
pitfalls attending such an enterprise, I have chosen the second course
in the belief that a general work describing institutions and procedures
will give scholars interested in more specific aspects of domestic admin
istration a framework and a background lacking until now.
Archival materials have been used to supplement basic references
to the Collection of Laws of the Russian Empire; they have been most
useful for a study of military-budget procedures, a subject on which
virtually nothing has been written. In order to help students of insti
tutions I have tried to identify as many officials as possible within the
scope of a general work, a difficult task without access to the rare
Calendars of administrative personnel published from 1765 on. For
background material on the Legislative Commission, the Organic Law,
and the Charters of 1785 the reader is referred to Professor de Ma
dariaga's work.
This book attempts to meet the need for the facts of Russian admin
istration; it is also an investigation of the social foundations of political
power. Certain fundamental questions must be asked in Russian his
toriography if we are to proceed beyond the sterile assumption that
the Russian political order was ruled by an "autocrat" commanding
mindless "bureaucratic servitors," scattered among a passive nation.
Did a Russian state really exist in the eighteenth century? Was a
bureaucracy subservient to the ruler the center of gravity of the political
order? And, if it was not, what was the ruling class of the Empire?
Who sustained the legitimacy of both the ruler and the ruling class,
and what forces fashioned a consensus without which there could be
V 111 PREFACE
no effective government? There are no simple answers to these fun
damental questions, but this book will suggest approaches for solving
them.
Why the reign of Catherine? It is customary to see the accession of
Alexander I in March 1801 as marking the beginning of the third and
last period of the Romanov dynasty, while the middle period is made
to begin with the reforms of Peter the Great and end with the chaos
seemingly created by Paul. Any periodization serves a purpose in our
search for order, but it also obscures the fundamental continuity of
the historical process which creates, affirms, and submerges intricate
patterns of ever-changing relationships and carries along great men
and women toward the fulfilment of their destiny. Catherine's reign
marked both an end and a beginning, and the great reforms of 1775-
1785 which filled its middle years marked the turning point. In the
1770s the uneasy combination of Petrine and Muscovite institutions
was laid to rest, the central government was radically transformed,
and a comprehensive reorganization of local administration was com
pleted. The centralist reaction, which began under Paul and reached
its zenith under Nicholas I, cannot be understood without an appre
ciation of the import of Catherine's great reforms and of their moti
vation. Here these reforms are seen as the response to a vast social
movement engulfing not only central Russia but the borderlands as
well, and compelling a redistribution of authority between the political
leadership and the rank-and-file nobility, a movement of such scope
that the central government was no longer viable in 1796 and required
drastic overhaul. It has often been claimed that Catherine's reign was
the golden age of the Russian nobility; it remains to be shown why
such a claim could be made.
I wish to thank Professor Marc Raeff for his persistent encourage
ment over many years and for the patience with which he listened to
various theories suggested by a scholar in search of a unifying theme
in a very difficult work; Professors John Keep and Richard Wortman
for their interest and constructive criticism; Professor Charles Lelong
for teaching me to appreciate the geographical context of historical
developments; Ruth Mathewson for her invaluable editorial assist
ance; and Nina Lencek for good cheer in moments of discouragement.
This work would not have been completed without the financial as
sistance of the American Council of Learned Societies and the Russian
Institute of Columbia University and a travel grant from the Inter
national Research and Exchange Board; their help is gratefully ac
knowledged. Thanks are due to Professor Mikhail Timofeevich Be-
lavskii, my adviser at Moscow University; Svetlana Romanovna Dolgova
at TsGADA, and Elena Nikolaevna Dmitrochenkova at TsGVIA, who
PREFACE ιχ
gave me valuable material on military finance. And those who have
worked at TsGADA in recent years remember the gracious hospitality
of Zoia Sergeevna Murasheva which contributed to making work in
the archives such a pleasant experience.
The portraits are from the Slavonic Division, The New York Public
Library, Astor, Lenox, and Tilden Foundations.
