Civil Servants

Categories / Population/Professional Groups
CIVIL SERVANTS, a social-professional group forming a part of the St. Petersburg population, serving state institutions. In 1722 Emperor Peter the Great introduced a Table of Ranks, defining the hierarchy of officials (with the first rank being the highest and the 14th the lowest rank) and a regime for promotion. The lowest category of civil servant possessed consisted of individuals possessing no rank. In the 18th to the early 20th centuries in St. Petersburg they were responsible for all the highest organs for the management of the country: the Senate, Colleges (18th century), the Government Assembly, the ministries and main government (from the start of the 19th century). In 1869 civil servants consisted of more than 8,000 people in St. Petersburg. The state service was 76.5% - Russian, 8.4% - German, 7.5% Polish), in 1897 there were approximately 8,000 civil servants and more than 5,000 office administrators for legal and surveying department (there is no information concerning other departments). After October 1917 civil servants started working for the Soviet State. With the transfer of government to Moscow (March 1918) only local governmental organs remained. Since the 1990s there has been a growth in the number of civil servants for federal ministries: in 2001, 7,000 city civil servants were working and 11,000 servants of the federal government.

References: Юхнева Н. В. Этнический состав и этносоциальная структура населения Петербурга, вторая половина XIX - нач. XX в.: Стат. анализ. Л., 1984. С. 56-65; Шепелев Л. Е. Чиновный мир России, XVIII - начало XX в. СПб., 1999.

A. Y. Chistyakov. Peter I, Emperor
Юхнева Н. В. Этнический состав и этносоциальная структура населения Петербурга, вторая половина XIX - нач. XX в.: Стат. анализ. Л., 1984
Шепелев Л. Е. Чиновный мир России, XVIII - начала XX в. СПб., 1999 Senate
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