Table of Ranks
The
Table of Ranks (Табель о рангах; Tabel o rangakh) was a formal list of positions and ranks in the military, government, and court of
Imperial Russia. It was introduced in 1722, during the reign of
Peter the Great, while he engaged in a struggle with the existing hereditary
nobility, or
boyars.
The Table of Ranks determined a person's position and status according to service to the
Emperor (
tsar or
czar) rather than according to birth or seniority. The Table placed every
military,
civil, or
court rank in one of fourteen grades, numbered from 1 to 14. Every officer of state had to qualify for the corresponding grade in order to be promoted; grades 1 through 5 received the personal attention of the Emperor.
Anyone, even a commoner, who achieved a certain level on the Table was ennobled as a result of holding a position at that level. A civil servant promoted to the fourteenth grade was endowed with personal nobility (
dvoryanstvo), and holding an office in the eighth grade endowed the office holder with hereditary nobility; at the first, military officers enjoyed hereditary nobility from the lowest, or fourteenth, grade (in 1856, the grades required for hereditary nobility were raised to the fourth grade for the civil service and to the sixth grade for military service).
Vladimir Lenin's father, for example, progressed in the management of people's education up to the rank of Actual Civil (State) Councillor (действительный статский советник) (1874), which gave him the privilege of hereditary nobility.
The origins of the Table lie in
Russian military ranks, which were extensively modified by
Peter the Great with the addition of many distinct ranks and specialities. The first variant of the Table included definition and placement of as many as 262 civil and military positions. By the end of the 1700s, these were removed in favour of universal
grade rank (классный чин).
Svita titles such as
General-Adjutant, Fliegel-Adjutant, etc., were not placed in the Table, as they were personal courtesy titles of the Emperor's
aides-de-camp.
With occasional revisions, the Table of Ranks remained in effect until the
Russian Revolution of 1917.
Collegiate
refers to a system of governmental departments (коллегия, Colleges) created by Peter the Great.
For military and Guards ranks, see
Russian military ranks and
Russian Imperial Guard.''
Related articles
