The Membership of District Courts in Tobolsk and Tomsk Provinces in the Second Quarter of the 19th Century: Results of the Development of the "Regional" Group of Pre-Reform Judicial Bureaucracy

The aim of this article is to analyze the results of the personnel management of the state civil service in the courts and the development of the composition of the judges in Tobolsk and Tomsk provinces in the second quarter of the 19th century To achieve the aim, the author used documents from the personnel records of the state civil service of 1846-1851. In this study, the author used methods of analysis and synthesis, classification, as well as descriptive, historical and typological, historical and genetic ones. The subject of the research is the formal lists of judicial officials. The author analyzed changes in the staff composition of district courts of Tobolsk and Tomsk provinces in the second quarter of the 19th century, results of the development of the regional group of pre-reform judicial bureaucracy. The author came to the conclusion that by the middle of the 19th century the Russian Supreme power managed to overcome the shortage of personnel and to form a stable composition of judges of district courts in Western Siberia, to maintain an appropriate level of their competence. However, local judges were naturally distinguished by the variety of class origin, prior experience of the state civil service. The analysis of the formal lists made it possible to conclude that the number of the former servicemen among the officials involved in implementation of justice in the territory of Western Siberia was minimized. There were no retired officers among judges. In areas beyond the Urals, new people motivated by privileges continued to join ranks of the public civil servants steadily: 13 of the 32 persons came from the European part of Russia; one was an exiled. The high-quality selection of staff by the provincial administration was promoted by the staff training in bodies of provincial or central management; among assessors and judges there constantly were former chiefs of offices and court clerks (according to lists of 1846-1851, 15 of 45 assessors and seven of 17 judges). The average judicial experience of assessors and judges in Tomsk Province in 1850 was higher than that in Tobolsk Province. Judicial officials showed positive achievements in their careers, official certificates on their conscientious service and high professionalism dominated over mentions of prosecution of individuals. By the middle of the 19th century, the level of education of public civil servants in Western Siberia had objectively grown: according to lists of 18461851, of 62 assessors and judges 31 possessed certificates, including 16 of secondary and four of higher education. The factor of education influenced the selection of staff for replacement of positions of members and chairmen of boards of district courts in Tobolsk and Tomsk provinces. The origin of public civil servants in Western Siberia remained diverse. The financial situation of the vast majority of officials traditionally depended on their salary.

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