Expenditures on Pensions and Benefits in State Budget of Russian Empire in 19th to Early 20th Century

Abstract

The article deals with the issue of the place of expenditures for the payment of pensions and benefits in the structure of public expenditures of the Russian Empire. It is shown that the amount of expenditures on pensions in absolute terms constantly increased (from 1741 to 1913 by more than 13 times). Since the amount of pensions paid, determined by the Pension statute of 1827, remained unchanged until 1917, this growth was determined by a constant increase in the number of pension recipients. This increase was due to an increase in the number of civil servants. At the same time, the share of expenditures on pensions and benefits in the expenditure part of the budget of the Russian Empire (“ordinary expenses”) fluctuated, reaching a maximum (5.1%) in 1871 and a minimum (2.3%) in 1903-1904. These fluctuations were determined by changes in the amount of the expenditure part of the empire’s budget, which increased noticeably by the beginning of the 20th century. On the whole, expenditures on pension provision accounted for a significant part of budget expenditures, exceeding such significant expenditure items as, for example, the expenditures of the Ministry of Public Education or the Ministry of State Property (Ministry of Agriculture and State Property, Main Directorate of Land Management and Agriculture), although they were inferior to the expenditures of the Military Department. The insufficiency of the size of pensions, due to their invariability, was combined with the burdensomeness of pension expenditures for the state, but a radical reform of the pension system did not take place.