V. Bodrova Yu.

THE WELL-BEING OF PROVINCIAL BUREAUCRATS BASED ON MATERIALS FROM TVER’ PROVINCE, DATING FROM THE FIRST HALF OF THE 19TH CENTURY

Authors

V. Bodrova Yu.

Keywords:

bureaucracy, financial circumstances, property, pay, bribery.

Abstract

This article uses official documents, periodicals, and personal sources to analyze the material standing of noble and non-noble bureaucrats in Tver’ during the first half of the nineteenth century. The majority of provincial nobles owned a small to medium number of serfs, thereby making it necessary to take up state service to bolster their material standing with salary and pension payments. State service attracted those of non-noble lineage with the prospect of improving not only their material, but also their social standing. However, in practice, the majority of state officials barely survived on their official salaries. Their pay just covered the basic necessities, leading them, on the one hand, to seek additional, not always legal forms of income and, on the other hand, to change their demographic behavior: namely, by marrying at an older age and reducing the size of their families.

THE WELL-BEING OF PROVINCIAL BUREAUCRATS BASED ON MATERIALS FROM TVER’ PROVINCE, DATING FROM THE FIRST HALF OF THE 19TH CENTURY