А.Е. Мелвин

E. IZMAILOV AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE TREASURY-CHAMBER CLAN OF TVER’ PROVINCE, 1800-1860

Authors

А.Е. Мелвин

Keywords:

Bureaucracy, officialdom, treasury chamber, Tver’ province, Aleksandr Izmailov

Abstract

This article concentrates on the internal stratification of Russian officialdom during period leading up to the Great Reforms. Using archival records, personal documents, and literature it analyzes the composition of the treasury chamber’s staff in Tver’ province, links between members of the staff in the chamber, and the supervision of the staff by the vice-governor Aleksandr Izmailov. By studying personnel records and the spectrum of social and familial ties that developed among members of the chamber’s staff, the author illuminates the emergence of dynastic lines that were often linked by family ties or friendships and the tendency of officials to serve in the institution for extended periods. These links – reminiscent of those present in a clan – likely became an obstacle for Izmailov, who had arrived from St. Petersburg to serve as vice-governor, but was soon thereafter forced out of his post in Tver’. The author ultimately concludes that the Russian imperial bureaucracy during the first half of the nineteenth century possessed an insular quality not only on the regional level, but on the institutional level as well

E. IZMAILOV AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE TREASURY-CHAMBER CLAN OF TVER’ PROVINCE, 1800-1860