The Russian Empire 1450–1801

Citing the endurance of sacred foundations of legitimacy: V. M. Zhivov,“The Myth of the State in the Age of Enlightenment and it ...

Marie-Antoinette(New York: Zone Books, 1999). On sexual rumors and slander on Elizabeth I: Carole Levin,The Heart and Stomach of ...

14 Army and Administration Expansion of the administration and army captured most of the attention of eighteenth-century rulers. ...

after his defeat on the Prut River in 1711. He immediately set off on the Grand Embassy of 1697–8 where, along with diplomatic m ...

mid-century the army displayed its characteristic diversity appropriate for Russia’s imperial terrain: 172,000field troops, 74,0 ...

men into service, their numbers needing to be constantly replenished due toflight, disease, starvation, and battlefield injury. ...

left his family and home forever. His wife and children were typically left with few resources, becoming a burden on relatives a ...

waves, searching for the most effective taxation structure. Muscovy’s bureaucracy had arguably been top-heavy with central admin ...

already in 1700 salaries for some chanceries were docked. Salary was often under- paid or not paid at all: scribes were expected ...

renamed“secretaries,”but the Table left their status ambiguous; a law of 1724 allowed them hereditary nobility, but throughout t ...

handle the work coming from myriad institutions in the capitals: one governor complained that he received orders fromfifty-four ...

depended upon patronage; for lesser office, promotions were regularly granted after eight years of service, rather than accordin ...

local administration, Iu. V. Got’e, found that in the eighteenth century local noblemen regularly served locally. Rulers between ...

allowed to buy land where they served, and in 1760 governors’terms were extended. To create an administrative structure of units ...

with a gubernia-level governor (gubernator) with somewhat less direct power. The reform reintroduced the short-lived Petrine div ...

minors and the insane. This body introduced something akin to the concept of habeas corpus to Russian law in allowing investigat ...

the state budget but at rates less than other officials in similar ranks; their chancery staffs were similarly less well provide ...

Russian and local norms to form the foundations of an Imperial law in certain important areas such as property and family law.”T ...

was better educated than their seventeenth-century counterparts, bringing more talent and career experience to administration, e ...

reforms, Paul I combined estate-oriented courts into single all-estate courts; he abolished the Courts of Equity and Boards of S ...