Martin Antonenko
A Fixture
- Joined
- Jul 11, 2008
- Messages
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The Table of Ranks!
Tsar Petr I...
...orders on February 4, 1722 the introduction of the so-called "Table of Ranks"!
Incidentally, the tsar borrowed the word “rank” from the German language ("Rang") because there is no suitable word in Russian to date.
From now on, people in the careers of the Russian civil service – regardless of whether they are military or civilian – are assigned to a specific rank class.
This rank table - Russian "Tabel' o rangach" - regulated careers in the state administration and at court as well as officer careers in the army and navy in 14 rank classes and other sub-ranks.
Here is such a table...:
Man was, so to speak, trapped in his respective rank, since he only received the offices, ranks, real estate, privileges and decorations that corresponded to his rank, as the implementation regulations regulate in detail. The entire civil service is therefore also organized militarily!
The first - and highest rank - is held by field marshals, equal to the respective chancellor (head of the civilian government!)
The 14th and lowest rank is taken by the sons of nobles, the so-called "Junker".
Later it will also be regulated how many people may belong to each rank class at the same time.
The military column was divided into infantry, guards, artillery and navy.
The first five classes made up the generals, followed by the staff officers in classes six to eight and the other officers in classes nine to fourteen down to sub-ensign, with "guard" always being rated one class higher than "line" in the rank table. . A Guard Major held the same position in the rank table as a "Line" Colonel!
In the table of ranks, the holders of military rank classes were privileged, since the holders of all 14 ranks automatically belonged to the hereditary nobility.
Civil and court officials, on the other hand, were only entitled to this right from the eighth grade. The right to be ennobled in the military ranks also extended to the children of the incumbent. Children of holders of civil and court offices, on the other hand, were denied this right.
From 1856, hereditary nobility was only achieved by reaching the fourth civil class (Real Councilor of State) or from the sixth military class (Colonel, Major in the Guards). The tsar reserved the right to award the highest ranks one to five (councillors of state / ministers, generals).
According to the law, even the oldest hereditary nobility was lost if a family did not achieve a rank in the ranking table within three generations!
Civil and court offices of ranks nine through fourteen were associated with personal nobility. The holders enjoyed a number of privileges, such as being exempt from corporal punishment, poll taxes and conscription.
Unlike holders of the hereditary nobility and the hereditary nobility of merit, they could not inherit their privileges. In addition, they were not allowed to own serfs, participate in meetings of the nobility, and hold no elective offices reserved for the high nobility.
The establishment of a clear official career path should prevent abuse in the allocation of offices.
The respective requirements for the ranks were determined by the Senate, so that it should no longer be possible to pursue a career without the appropriate qualifications.
Nobles who shied away from government service and did not appear in the table of ranks did not gain respect in society, since deference was based on the level of executive office. When signing, for example, they had to sign "unworthy country squire" so that their lack of social status was pointed out to everyone.
The rank also determined the manners in everyday life, for example the form of address ("Excellence", "Your Highness", "Your Honor", etc.) or the dress code.
Ascending to the next higher rank - and thus to more privileges, higher orders, income and benefits - could only be achieved through special merits - in theory.
But protection is much more important for the actual rise in the ranking table!
After all, someone had to recognize the respective merits and ensure that these “higher places” were acknowledged and appreciated accordingly!
Originally intended with good intentions and selection for the best, the ranking system has degenerated into a farce over the years - especially at the higher and highest ranks - as it encouraged favoritism, servility, cowardice and toadyism and punished independent spirit and opinion.
The Russian Minister of War Wladimir Suchomlinow may serve as an example for this...:
Suchomlinow, who publicly boasted that he had not read a single textbook since the Russo-Turkish War of 1877/78 because the "laws of war remained the same forever", as he put it, was for the training and equipment of the Russian army before the First World War responsible.
Suchomlinow despised the machine gun as "unsoldier" and opposed a major purchase of these weapons. Result: In 1914 the Germans outnumbered the Russians by 4.5:1 in machine guns.
Suchomlinow encouraged the construction of light field artillery and rejected heavy artillery. When war broke out, the Germans had six times more heavy artillery than the Russians!
Suchomlinow was opposed to building permanent positions because it would tempt the soldiers, he said, to "cowardice."
Consequence: The soldiers only learn rudimentary position building during their training – and then had to catch up on what they had not learned in the field under enemy fire – what
–taken the lives of tens of thousands of you.
Suchomlinow relied on the bayonet attack as the only correct tactic. Consequence: The bayonets were permanently mounted on the rifles of the Russian soldiers, which made the weapons very unwieldy and almost useless in trench warfare.
Suchomlinow relied on the soldiers' boots instead of railway construction. So some Russian units marched from Mlawa on foot into the Battle of Tannenberg - five full days of marching - and arrived on the battlefield already exhausted.
The tsar was the only promoter, but it was Sukhomlinov who decided which proposals the ruler would see at all!
Anyone who acted like Suchomlinow, spoke after his mouth and did not attract negative attention, inevitably rose - if only because of the seniority! - on. In addition, there were finely spun and widely branched "cable teams" that helped each other further up.
However, anyone who attracted negative attention with their own opinions and thoughts that were perhaps too uncomfortable, too modern or even independent was guaranteed to remain unconsidered!
Here lies one of the main reasons for the catastrophic failure of the Russian generals and bureaucracy in the Russo-Japanese War (1904/05) and in the First World War!
Peter I's ranking system, introduced 300 years ago today, applied until the Bolsheviks abolished it in 1917.
However, the Bolsheviks only abolished the table itself!
For party cadres and state officials, the link between rank in the hierarchy and access to certain privileges (such as size, furnishings and location of the apartment...
...size and brand of company car...
... access to certain consumer items that were sold in special stores called "Berjoska's"...
... access to certain luxury resorts and the like.
All of this was regulated down to the smallest detail - albeit unofficially!
Ordinary Soviet citizens in the "Fatherland of the Working People", who could only dream of such things, used to refer to these circles as "Nomenklatura"...
Actually, this word means "complete list of all names", behind which the ambiguous term "everyone who has access to privileges" hid.
And it's still like that today.
Tsar Petr I...
...orders on February 4, 1722 the introduction of the so-called "Table of Ranks"!
Incidentally, the tsar borrowed the word “rank” from the German language ("Rang") because there is no suitable word in Russian to date.
From now on, people in the careers of the Russian civil service – regardless of whether they are military or civilian – are assigned to a specific rank class.
This rank table - Russian "Tabel' o rangach" - regulated careers in the state administration and at court as well as officer careers in the army and navy in 14 rank classes and other sub-ranks.
Here is such a table...:
Man was, so to speak, trapped in his respective rank, since he only received the offices, ranks, real estate, privileges and decorations that corresponded to his rank, as the implementation regulations regulate in detail. The entire civil service is therefore also organized militarily!
The first - and highest rank - is held by field marshals, equal to the respective chancellor (head of the civilian government!)
The 14th and lowest rank is taken by the sons of nobles, the so-called "Junker".
Later it will also be regulated how many people may belong to each rank class at the same time.
The military column was divided into infantry, guards, artillery and navy.
The first five classes made up the generals, followed by the staff officers in classes six to eight and the other officers in classes nine to fourteen down to sub-ensign, with "guard" always being rated one class higher than "line" in the rank table. . A Guard Major held the same position in the rank table as a "Line" Colonel!
In the table of ranks, the holders of military rank classes were privileged, since the holders of all 14 ranks automatically belonged to the hereditary nobility.
Civil and court officials, on the other hand, were only entitled to this right from the eighth grade. The right to be ennobled in the military ranks also extended to the children of the incumbent. Children of holders of civil and court offices, on the other hand, were denied this right.
From 1856, hereditary nobility was only achieved by reaching the fourth civil class (Real Councilor of State) or from the sixth military class (Colonel, Major in the Guards). The tsar reserved the right to award the highest ranks one to five (councillors of state / ministers, generals).
According to the law, even the oldest hereditary nobility was lost if a family did not achieve a rank in the ranking table within three generations!
Civil and court offices of ranks nine through fourteen were associated with personal nobility. The holders enjoyed a number of privileges, such as being exempt from corporal punishment, poll taxes and conscription.
Unlike holders of the hereditary nobility and the hereditary nobility of merit, they could not inherit their privileges. In addition, they were not allowed to own serfs, participate in meetings of the nobility, and hold no elective offices reserved for the high nobility.
The establishment of a clear official career path should prevent abuse in the allocation of offices.
The respective requirements for the ranks were determined by the Senate, so that it should no longer be possible to pursue a career without the appropriate qualifications.
Nobles who shied away from government service and did not appear in the table of ranks did not gain respect in society, since deference was based on the level of executive office. When signing, for example, they had to sign "unworthy country squire" so that their lack of social status was pointed out to everyone.
The rank also determined the manners in everyday life, for example the form of address ("Excellence", "Your Highness", "Your Honor", etc.) or the dress code.
Ascending to the next higher rank - and thus to more privileges, higher orders, income and benefits - could only be achieved through special merits - in theory.
But protection is much more important for the actual rise in the ranking table!
After all, someone had to recognize the respective merits and ensure that these “higher places” were acknowledged and appreciated accordingly!
Originally intended with good intentions and selection for the best, the ranking system has degenerated into a farce over the years - especially at the higher and highest ranks - as it encouraged favoritism, servility, cowardice and toadyism and punished independent spirit and opinion.
The Russian Minister of War Wladimir Suchomlinow may serve as an example for this...:
Suchomlinow, who publicly boasted that he had not read a single textbook since the Russo-Turkish War of 1877/78 because the "laws of war remained the same forever", as he put it, was for the training and equipment of the Russian army before the First World War responsible.
Suchomlinow despised the machine gun as "unsoldier" and opposed a major purchase of these weapons. Result: In 1914 the Germans outnumbered the Russians by 4.5:1 in machine guns.
Suchomlinow encouraged the construction of light field artillery and rejected heavy artillery. When war broke out, the Germans had six times more heavy artillery than the Russians!
Suchomlinow was opposed to building permanent positions because it would tempt the soldiers, he said, to "cowardice."
Consequence: The soldiers only learn rudimentary position building during their training – and then had to catch up on what they had not learned in the field under enemy fire – what
–taken the lives of tens of thousands of you.
Suchomlinow relied on the bayonet attack as the only correct tactic. Consequence: The bayonets were permanently mounted on the rifles of the Russian soldiers, which made the weapons very unwieldy and almost useless in trench warfare.
Suchomlinow relied on the soldiers' boots instead of railway construction. So some Russian units marched from Mlawa on foot into the Battle of Tannenberg - five full days of marching - and arrived on the battlefield already exhausted.
The tsar was the only promoter, but it was Sukhomlinov who decided which proposals the ruler would see at all!
Anyone who acted like Suchomlinow, spoke after his mouth and did not attract negative attention, inevitably rose - if only because of the seniority! - on. In addition, there were finely spun and widely branched "cable teams" that helped each other further up.
However, anyone who attracted negative attention with their own opinions and thoughts that were perhaps too uncomfortable, too modern or even independent was guaranteed to remain unconsidered!
Here lies one of the main reasons for the catastrophic failure of the Russian generals and bureaucracy in the Russo-Japanese War (1904/05) and in the First World War!
Peter I's ranking system, introduced 300 years ago today, applied until the Bolsheviks abolished it in 1917.
However, the Bolsheviks only abolished the table itself!
For party cadres and state officials, the link between rank in the hierarchy and access to certain privileges (such as size, furnishings and location of the apartment...
...size and brand of company car...
... access to certain consumer items that were sold in special stores called "Berjoska's"...
... access to certain luxury resorts and the like.
All of this was regulated down to the smallest detail - albeit unofficially!
Ordinary Soviet citizens in the "Fatherland of the Working People", who could only dream of such things, used to refer to these circles as "Nomenklatura"...
Actually, this word means "complete list of all names", behind which the ambiguous term "everyone who has access to privileges" hid.
And it's still like that today.
