К вопросу о численности протестантов в центральном аппарате России при Екатерине II (на основании списка чиновников 1767 года)

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The article focuses on the share of Protestants among civil servants in the Russian Central government at the beginning of the reign of Catherine II. The analysis is based on the published register of officials in 1767 (“A list of the masters of public Affairs, namely senators, procurators and all those present in colleges, offices, regions, provinces and cities”). The article identifies the religious belonging of those foreign officials who served in the Central state apparatus. During the research the author has solved two problems: at first, he determined a circle of persons who could potentially profess the Protestant faith (whose families came from countries of Western and Central Europe); secondly, the author has produced documentary verification of their confessional status. For this purpose he used the genealogical method, which consists in the search and systematization of unique biographical data, as well as in the ascertainment of family ties (including the data of Lutheran and Catholic metric books). In addition to church books, the article is based on the data of entombments in the non-Orthodox cemeteries of Petersburg, on the personal sources and also on the conclusions of special genealogical and Church historical researches. As a result, the author found that in 1767 among civil officials (of I—XII classes) in the Central state apparatus of Russian Empire the Protestants was not less than 3,3% but not more than 9,2% (on average about 6%). In the officials’ category of the first eight classes (in higher level of administration) the share of Protestants averaged about 7%. In comparison with indicators of previous reigns (under Peter the Great and Anna Ioannovna) there was a decrease in the proportion of Protestants in Russian state apparatus to 1767. The author concludes that foreigners were no longer indispensable for administrative modernization of Russia — as, for example, in the period of Colleges’ reform under Peter the Great. Nevertheless, the Protestants (and Europeans generally) continued to take a strong position in Russian Central government and really were able to influence the governance and political development of our country.