АРИСТОКРАТИЯ И БОГАТСТВО В РОССИЙСКОЙ ИМПЕРИИ В 1890-1914 ГГ.: СТРУКТУРА ЛИЧНЫХ РАСХОДОВ КРУПНЕЙШИХ ЗЕМЛЕВЛАДЕЛЬЦЕВ (ПО ДОКУМЕНТАМ РГАДА, РГИА, ГАРФ)

Abstract

Based on the study of archival materials, the article examines the structure of personal expenses of the biggest landowners of the Russian Empire in 1890–1914s. Significant sums of money that remained in the hands of the Russian aristocracy after spending on the development of the economy in the estates, on the transfer to bank funds and mortgage payments, were mainly directed to personal needs and the maintenance of Palace residences. The budgets of the biggest landowners also included expenditure items for charitable purposes. Personal expenses in the period under review were constantly growing, but retained their traditional structure. The aristocracy sought a balance between productive expenditure and the cost of maintaining its social status. Economic prosperity on the eve of 1914 allowed the biggest landowners to keep the usual daily way of life and compete with the new industrial and financial classes of the Russian society in demonstrating wealth. As it may appear, the increase in personal expenses of biggest landowners, especially against the backdrop of the breakdown in social ties with the fringe gentry and partly with the lumpen nobility, attested, among other things, to the benefits and advantages that the emerging “industrial era” brought to aristocracy.