Resistance, Repression, and Reform
.J 15
concern you more than they should,' his mother wrote to him in 1 s I-! 1 1.
that he ought • to show more regard for · ·h l inn.. the common soldier's wclf.^11 , •• ,^1.^1 .'='
often neglected and sacrificed to elegance of dress, useless drill ' • \ llC^1 IS
.... • '^111 " I ti lC" ti1'r-·
50i1al a1nbiliu11 auJ ignuram:e of [their] chiei[sj. '""' Unfortunatl'f, tit. f ' ...
~":1peror 1g~ore. d t h' 1s sens1 .bl e a d. I. l uturc
vice, or at east. interpreted it in. 1 high Iv
1d1osyncrat1c manner. Once he had become tsar, Nicholas surrnun,!,· 1 1. 1 · •
wit. h a ' m1 ·1· nary h ouse h o Id' ( voyennyy d vor ) o f. 1mpressi' c dinh·i"' 11msc t
...^1 · 'ns-m^1..
1853 the Imperial smte included 45 generals and 48 colonels (^1) m-rr 11111 wt .. 1 1
.. I h .. 1 le
drew most of his advisers; but among these men there were h:w "it It I! •.
talent. rot H e ut11ze ·1· d h' 1s persona I a ct' ~utants io· v11ge !' -a d' yu1a11ty) or .iidcs-de-.1.:11111nc
camp as top-level trouble-shooters, m much the same way as t\•fl'r 1 1. d
employed his guards officers (see ch. 6)-but with far less just i fi.-. 11 iun .·^1 '^1 •
m. the mtervenmg.. century R uss1a. h d f a a ter a II d eveloped. SllllC
. a nid^1 ·^111
bureaucratic structure. 1..·11 t arv ·
As a contemporary later recalled,
It was. almost impossible to make a career except by serving in the arm1..·d r, 11 .... 11 1
semor offices. m. the state-m1msters,.. senators,. 'l ~ .•^1 I IC
governors-were ~1v.:n ,,, .. 1 1 1. 1.
men, who were more promment.. h mt e S overe1gn. ' s eye t h an o ff' 1c1als. -of ch·i1 '^1111 II ary
1 · ' 111 .• !!CllCICS 1.
Apart from this, it was taken for granted that every senior person should h;i,·1..· 1. d .·taste of military discipline.^102 1 ' (^1) a
The writer exaggerated, but only slightly. Let us examine an offo:ial handbook
for 1853.^103 In that year (which saw hostilities in the Balkans and so 111. 1 . 1 l
... · ·. no Je
wholly typical) only (^12) provinces of European Russia were left llIHkr the.
trol of civilian governors (see table and Map 3). In 14 others this offkial rnn-
subordinate either to a military governor in his province or else ca 111 l' und ~as
(military) governor-general with responsibility for several provin1..·,.,. 1 ctr a
cases the same man held both offices. In '·"^11 WO
the remaining 23 provincl's lh
highest civilian official was only a vice-governor and the militarv 111. 1. e
ance was even more overwhelming. The typical. ' l 0111111-
military governor w·• ·' • 1 ,. 1 bl
man in his fifties who had entered^110 c-
the army directly from some Pll'sfi ,·
e~ucauona. 1... mst1tut10n, h d a. seen act.ion,. h d b I. gious
a een c osely asso1..·iall'd either
with the tsar personally or with a leading general, and had gained \ 11111 t..
ence of police work on transfer to the civil service. c:xpcn-
The compositi_on of the central govern~ent under .N.icho.las I has lil'l'll more
thoroughly studied. Of the 52 men appointed to mm1stenal posit j 011 , .. 1 •
· ' uunng
his reign 32 (61.5 per cent) held the rank of general or admiral; t hri.~t· rnore h·id
been colonels, and only ten had never served as officers; most ol t 1111 ,., 1 '
-. ,c w 10
99 Dubrovin, Sbornik, v. 79; Lincoln, Nicholos /, p. 60.
100 Pamyamaya knizhka na 1853 g., St. Petersburg, (1853), pp. 150-3.
101 Polie,·k1ov. Nikolay /, p. 323; Curtiss. Russian Army, pp. 46-53.
10~ Shcherba1ov, '12 let molodosti', p. 87; cf. :\I. A. Korf, unpublished diary r, 11 '"·I". 1 1
Zayonchkovsky, Prav. opporat, p. 42. ' "'· l llt'l lV.
IOJ Adres-kalendar·. Obshchaya rospis' vsekh chinol'nykh osob v xosw/anth'. 1811 S
Petersburg, [ 1853], pl. 2. · · 1.