Table of Ranks

A manuscript copy of the 1722 Table of Ranks

The Table of Ranks (Russian: Табель о рангах; tabel' o rangakh) was a formal list of positions and ranks in the military, government, and court of Imperial Russia. Peter the Great introduced the system in 1722 while engaged in a struggle with the existing hereditary nobility, or boyars. The Table of Ranks was formally abolished on 11 November 1917 by the newly established Bolshevik government.

Principles

The Table of Ranks re-organised the foundations of feudal Russian nobility (mestnichestvo) by recognising service in the military, in the civil service, and at the imperial court as the basis of an aristocrat's standing in society. The table divided ranks in 14 grades, with all nobles regardless of birth or wealth (at least in theory) beginning at the bottom of the table and rising through their service (sluzhba) to the tsar.^[1] While all grades were open by merit, promotion required qualification for the next rank, and grades 1 through 5 required the personal approval of the tsar himself. Despite initial resistance from noblemen, many of whom were still illiterate in the 18th century and who shunned the paper-pushing life of the civil servant, the eventual effect of the Table of Ranks was to create an educated class of noble bureaucrats.

Peter's intentions for a class of nobles bound to the tsar by their personal service to him were watered down by subsequent tsars. In 1762 Peter III abolished the compulsory 25-year military or civilian service for nobles.^[2] In 1767 Catherine the Great bought the support of the bureaucracy by making promotion up the 14 ranks automatic after seven years regardless of position or merit. Thus the bureaucracy became populated with time servers.^[3]

Achieving a certain level in the table automatically granted a certain level of nobility. A civil servant promoted to the fourteenth grade gained personal nobility (dvoryanstvo), and holding an office in the eighth grade endowed the office holder with hereditary nobility. Nicholas I raised this threshold to the fifth grade in 1845.^[4] In 1856 the grades required for hereditary nobility were raised to the fourth grade for the civil service and to the sixth grade for military service. The father of Vladimir Lenin progressed in the management of education, reaching the 4th rank and becoming an "active state councillor" (действительный статский советник), which gave him the privilege of hereditary nobility.^[5]

With occasional revisions, the Table of Ranks remained in effect until the Russian Revolution of 1917.

Table of Ranks

The original table, as set down by Peter I, is shown below:

Grade[6]	Civil ranks[6]	Military ranks[6]	Court ranks[7]
I	Chancellor (Канцлер)	General field marshal General-admiral	None
II	Active privy councillor[Note 1] (Действительный тайный советник)	General Admiral	Grand marshal
III	Privy councillor (Тайный советник)	Lieutenant general Vice admiral	Grand master of the stables
IV	Active state councillor (Действительный статский советник)	Major general Rear admiral	Grand marshal of the court Grand chamberlain
V	State councillor (Статский советник)	Brigadier Captain-commodore	Marshal of the court Grand cup bearer
VI	Collegiate Councillor (Коллежский советник)	Colonel Captain 1st rank (Navy)	Master of the stables
VII	Court councillor (Надворный советник) (from 1745)	Lieutenant colonel Captain 2nd rank (Navy)	None
VIII	Collegiate assessor (Коллежский асессор)	Major Captain 3rd rank (Navy)	Titular chamberlain
IX	Titular councillor (Титулярный советник)	Captain Staff captain	None
X	Collegiate secretary (Коллежский секретарь)	Staff captain	None
XI	Naval secretary (Корабельный секретарь)	None	Chamber groom (lit. "Chamber junker")
XII	District secretary (Губернский секретарь)	Lieutenant Midshipman	None
XIII	Provincial registrar (Кабинетский регистратор)	Sub-lieutenant Constable	None
XIV	Collegiate registrar (Коллежский регистратор)	Guidon Bearer	None

Peter I stipulated that "princes related to us or married to our princesses always take precedence" and that when military officers of the army and navy were of the same rank, "the naval officer is superior at sea to the land officer; and on land the land officer is superior to the naval officer". He laid down that fines of two months' salary should be assessed against those falsely claiming a higher rank or gaining a rank without qualification. He stated that service with a foreign monarch would not automatically confer the rank until approved by the tsar, as "we do not grant any rank to anyone until he performs a useful service to us or to the state", while women were to "advance in rank with their husbands".^[6]

An 1898 copy of the Table of Ranks

Notes

1. The Russian word "действительный" means "actual, valid, real, effective, true" and in this context is sometimes translated as "actual" or "acting" (which has the disadvantage of confusion with the English language concept of acting rank).

External links

• Waliszewski, Kazimierz. "The Social Reform — The Table of Ranks". Peter the Great: his life and work. Forgotten books. pp. 454–456.
• (Russian) Table of Ranks
• Peter I's Table of Ranks

References

1. Catherine A. Schuler (1 May 2009). Theatre and Identity in Imperial Russia. University of Iowa Press. pp. 16–18. ISBN 978-1-58729-847-9.
2. Marc Raeff (18 May 1966). Origins of the Russian intelligentsia: the eighteenth-century nobility. Harcourt, Brace & World. pp. 91–92.
3. Richard Pipes (1990). Russia Under the Old Regime. Penguin. p. 135.
4. Geoffrey A. Hosking (1997). Russia: People and Empire, 1552-1917. Harvard University Press. p. 155. ISBN 978-0-674-78119-1.
5. Louis Fischer (2001). The Life of Lenin. Phoenix. p. 6. ISBN 978-1-84212-230-3.
6. Frank W. Thackeray; John E. Findling (31 May 2012). Events That Formed the Modern World: From the European Renaissance through the War on Terror. ABC-CLIO. p. 25. ISBN 978-1-59884-902-8.
7. Mark Conrad’s Russian Military History - Table of Ranks