«To the table and to the apartment»: additional payments to dignitaries of Nicholas I

Abstract

The article is devoted to the analysis of additional monetary payments for the higher bureaucracy of the Russian Empire of Alexander I and Nicholas I. this issue is not sufficiently studied in domestic and foreign historiography. Researchers either did not specifically consider additional monetary payments, or did not allocate a specific group of Ministerial bureaucracy. The Ministers, together with the Emperor, determined the political course, and as the permanent entourage of the monarch, they formed the “face” of the reign. Under Nicholas I, many Ministers held high positions for more than 10 years. The basis of monetary income of Russian officials was a salary by rank or position. In addition, there were additional payments: canteens, apartments, runs, and other money. For Junior officials, the amount of these payments was strictly regulated. For Ministers and adjutants-General, it depended on the Emperor’s attention to a particular person. In the article, special attention is paid to the Minister of state property P. D. Kiselev as a fairly typical figure for the era of Nicholas I. Additional payments to P. D. Kiselev can be compared with the amount of the annual salary. The basis of its capital was a one-time grant of 600,000 piastres as a reward for the administration of Moldova and Wallachia, which turned the average local nobleman into a rich nobleman. Despite legal regulations that set the Ministerial salary, Ministers of equal rank could receive different salaries and additional payments. Dependence on cash payments were made by the Russian Ministers from the nobles to officials. This indicates the gradual modernization of the state apparatus of the Russian Empire, the formation of a regular bureaucracy.