Personnel policy of the Russian government in the second quarter of the XIX century (on the example of the Orenburg civil governors)

The aim of presented article is to examine the mechanism and motives of appointment and dismissal of civil governors of the Orenburg province at the second quarter of the XIX century. This topic is disclosed on the basis of the study of sociocultural characteristics of six civil governors, such as education, property status, age, managerial experience, marital status, formal and informal criteria of their appointments to the positions and their dismissal. The article is based on official sources from the archives of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (Russian State Historical Archive) the Chancellery of Orenburg military governor (State Archive of the Orenburg region). In this methodological approach, the author relies on the principles and methods of institutional theory and historical sociology. The administrative practice in the Orenburg region at the second quarter of the XIX century showed that civil governors corresponded in their social status, military career, age level to the Russian characteristics in general. The differences were connected with the educational level, the estate of the Orenburg civil governors, period of their ruling and could be explained by peculiarities of the region in the system of the Russian Empire. Preferences were given to the officials who knew the specificity of the region or who worked in the regions, mainly in Siberia, having similar features with the Orenburg region (large territory, availability of Cossack army) and who got high appreciation of the military governor. A military governor as a chief ruler of the Orenburg province had a big impact on the appointment and dismissal of the civil governors. Such a peculiarity of decisions on personnel questions can be explained by a borderline position of the Orenburg province. The goal of the policy of Nicholas I in the field of local government was to strengthen the power of the governor. The central government paid attention not only to legislative regulation, but also to the business and personal qualities of local administration heads, while using the supervisory functions of the Third section of His Imperial Majestry's Own Chancellery.

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