RUSSIA: On this day: 6 February

On February 6, 1722, Emperor Peter I approved the “Table of Ranks,” the document that changed the bureaucratic system of the Russian Empire for nearly 300 years.

A popular story says that Peter got the idea of the “Table of Ranks” from the mathematician Gotfried Leibniz. It is more possible that Peter developed the “Table” by himself. He studied the laws of different European countries, and based his system on Danish legislation.

At the end of the 17th century, the precise rank structure existed neither in the Russian army nor in Russian civil services. The European army ranks – captain, major, general - were mixed with traditional Russian titles. There were independent systems of ranks and titles in the Duma, in the court, in the departments, and the functions of different officials were not defined clearly. The basic feature of this structure was a lack of opportunity for common people to achieve any title – only the patrimonial aristocrats had such rights.

Peter I divided all the positions in the army and civil services into three types - civil, military and court - and into 14 classes or ranks. Every civil servant, military man or courtier had to start his service at the lowest rank and then to move up the career ladder to the top rank. Peter did not deprive anyone of the old titles, but stopped conferring them, so rather soon they all were gone.

According to the “Table”, lineage was not a justification for career development anymore – noblemen and people from low orders served on the same terms. Every man from a low estate received individual nobility upon joining the army or entering civil service, and inheritable nobility after achieving high-rank positions. After every revision of the “Table,” this statement changed and the mentioned rank became higher.

To enter the service or to join the army one had to be educated. Peter prohibited uneducated people not only from building a career, but also from getting married. When one was discharged, his rank did not change, and only a court of law could deprive a man of his rank.

Actually, the “Table” regulated the entire lives of military men and the civil servants. They had to wear the liveries appropriate for their ranks, and to own the appropriate carriages. If at a public ceremony one demanded honors not suitable for his rank, he had to pay a big fine. The “Table of Ranks” applied even to women. Married women moved from rank to rank according to the career progress of their husbands, and the daughters’ ranks were based on the ranks of their fathers.

Noblemen who avoided service were punished, but they tried to do it anyway. There was a loophole in the law - one could move from rank to higher rank not because of his merits, but because of the length of service. Knowing that, many noblemen signed their little children up to the army. When the child reached the draft age, he went to the army not as a soldier, but as a highly-ranked officer. In 1796, Emperor Pavel I prohibited this custom – he had arranged a troop review and hundreds of mothers with newborn children had come to St. Petersburg.

The “Table” was in force until the revolution in 1917.