Editing Table of Ranks (section)

==Principles==
The Table of Ranks re-organized the foundations of feudal Russian nobility (''[[mestnichestvo]]'') by recognizing service in the military, in the civil service, and at the imperial court as the basis of an aristocrat's standing in society. The table divided ranks in 14 grades, with all nobles regardless of birth or wealth (at least in theory) beginning at the bottom of the table and rising through their service (''sluzhba'') to the tsar.<ref name="Schuler2009">{{cite book|author=Catherine A. Schuler|title=Theatre and Identity in Imperial Russia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EMPoQxkeS8EC&pg=PA17|date=1 May 2009|publisher=University of Iowa Press|isbn=978-1-58729-847-9|pages=16–18}}</ref> While all grades were open by merit, promotion required qualification for the next rank, and grades 1 through 5 required the personal approval of the tsar himself. Despite initial resistance from noblemen, many of whom were still illiterate in the 18th century and who shunned the paper-pushing life of the civil servant, the eventual effect of the Table of Ranks was to create an educated class of noble [[bureaucrat]]s.

Peter's intentions for a class of nobles bound to the tsar by their personal service to him were watered down by subsequent tsars. In 1762 Peter III abolished the compulsory 25-year military or civilian service for nobles.<ref name="Raeff1966">{{cite book|author=Marc Raeff|title=Origins of the Russian intelligentsia: the eighteenth-century nobility|url=https://archive.org/details/originsofrussian00raef|url-access=registration|date=18 May 1966|publisher=Harcourt, Brace & World|pages=[https://archive.org/details/originsofrussian00raef/page/91 91]–92}}</ref>  In 1767 [[Catherine the Great]] bought the support of the bureaucracy by making promotion up the 14 ranks automatic after seven years regardless of position or merit. Thus the bureaucracy became populated with time servers.<ref name="Pipes1990">{{cite book|author=Richard Pipes|title=Russia Under the Old Regime|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AemmnQEACAAJ|year=1990|publisher=Penguin|page=135|isbn=9780297768449}}</ref>

Achieving a certain level in the table automatically granted a certain level of nobility. A civil servant promoted to the 14th grade gained personal nobility (''[[dvoryanstvo]]''), and holding an office in the 8th grade endowed the office holder with hereditary nobility. [[Nicholas I of Russia|Nicholas I]] raised this threshold to the 5th grade in 1845.<ref name="Hosking1997">{{cite book|author=Geoffrey A. Hosking|title=Russia: People and Empire, 1552-1917|url=https://archive.org/details/russiapeopleempi00hosk|url-access=registration|year=1997|publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=978-0-674-78119-1|page=[https://archive.org/details/russiapeopleempi00hosk/page/155 155]}}</ref> In 1856 the grades required for hereditary nobility were changed to the 4th grade for the civil service and to the 6th grade for military service. The father of [[Vladimir Lenin]] progressed in the management of education, reaching the 4th rank and becoming an "active state councillor" (действительный статский советник), which gave him the privilege of hereditary nobility.<ref name="Fischer2001">{{cite book|author=Louis Fischer|title=The Life of Lenin|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6QXgPAAACAAJ|year=2001|publisher=Phoenix|isbn=978-1-84212-230-3|page=6}}</ref>

In practice, non-noble civil servants were frequently passed over from promotion to the eighth grade, creating a class of "eternal titular councillors" ({{langx|ru|вечный титулярный советник|vechny titulyarny sovetnik}}) who remained in this position for life. They were the subject of derision due to a supposed dullness and lack of creativity, and were satirized by authors such as [[Nikolai Gogol]] and [[Fyodor Dostoevsky]].<ref>{{cite thesis |last=Motov |first=Sergey |date=2007 |title=''Why Titular Councilors? A History of Russia's Most Stubborn Literary Type''|url=https://scholar.colorado.edu/downloads/vd66w119j |degree=MA|chapter= |publisher=University of Colorado |docket= |oclc= |access-date=2023-11-04}}</ref>

With occasional revisions, the Table of Ranks remained in effect until the [[Russian Revolution of 1917]].