| Titre | The eighteenth-century Russian nobility [Bureaucracy or ruling class?] | |
|---|---|---|
| Auteur | John P. Le Donne | |
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Revue |
Cahiers du monde russe Titre à cette date : Cahiers du monde russe et soviétique |
| Numéro | volume 34, no 1-2, janvier-juin 1993 Noblesse, État et société en Russie XVIe - début du XIXe siècle | |
| Rubrique / Thématique | III |
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| Page | 139-147 | |
| Résumé anglais |
John P. Le Donne, The eighteenth-century Russian nobility: bureaucracy or ruling class?
The following questions are examined: 1. The term bureaucracy is applied indiscriminately to social categories that do not belong together and cannot possibly form a single socio-political formation; 2. At least four social categories were recognized by the Table of Ranks, but a fifth was kept out: the secretarial and clerical apparatus which cantiot properly be called a bureaucracy; 3. The four categories formed a political apparatus including a ruling elito, an upper and lower management level, and a reserve of officers transferred when needed to till lower management positions. These categories were in turn part of a much larger formation: the political infrastructure of the Empire; 4. This political apparatus and political infrastructure are considered in the article as the ruling class of the Empire, because it possessed a monopoly of the political function which sharply distinguished it from the dependent population; 5. The existence of the ruling class did not create attempts to limit the ruler's power, because there existed a fundamental identity of interests between ruler and ruling class; 6. The Russian Empire in the eighteenth century was thus ruled by a collective autocracy of ruling families at the head of patronage networks that divided the spoils of office for the purpose of maximizing both its privileges and military power. Source : Éditeur (via Persée) |
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| Article en ligne | http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/cmr_0008-0160_1993_num_34_1_2341 |
