Graduates of the Faculty of Oriental Languages of the Imperial St. Petersburg University in the service of foreign administrations of the late XIX - early XX century

Scientific article

doi 10.28995/2073-0101-2024-2-341-357

For citation

Lidzhieva, Irina V. (2024), “Graduates of the Faculty of Oriental Languages of the Imperial St. Petersburg University in the service of foreign administrations of the late XIX - early XX century”, Herald of an Archivist, no. 2, pp. 341-357. doi 10.28995/2073-0101-2024-2-341-357

Lidzhieva, Irina V., Southern Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Rostov-on-Don, Russia

Graduates of the Faculty of Oriental Languages of the Imperial St. Petersburg University in the service of foreign administrations of the late XIX - early XX century

Abstract

The Russian Empire during the XIX - early XX century maintained a complex administrative-territorial structure, including territories, including those inhabited by nomadic aliens, who retained a special status not only in the social structure of society, but also some traditional elements in the system of governance. The purpose of this article is a historical and anthropological analysis of the all-subject report of the Minister of Internal Affairs V.K. Pleve, prepared on the problem of training personnel for the alien administrations, on the example of the Kalmyk steppe of the Astrakhan province. The document discovered in the fonds of the Russian State Historical Archive shows the acuteness of the problem faced by the imperial authorities throughout the late imperial period. The trusteeship system, which was established in the first half of the 19th century, as well as the previously existing institute of bailiffs, needed qualified personnel who could establish a communication channel with the autochthonous population and effectively incorporate them into the all-imperial space. In the course of the study, the career strategies of graduates of the Faculty of Oriental Languages of the Imperial St. Petersburg University who entered the service of the Administration of the Kalmyk people through the Zemsky Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs with temporary financial support allocated from the funds of the public Kalmyk capital were examined from the perspective of the prosopographical approach. Among the first four people who tested this innovation were: Dzhanturin S. S., Kozin S.A., Luchich K. V., G. I. Makhinin, but not all of them served in the Kalmyk steppe. In the future, several more scholarship graduates will follow this path. As a rule, getting an education and entering the civil service in the Ministry of Internal Affairs could provide a decent start in the further career of an official. The established trajectory of service in society initially moved graduates of prestigious educational institutions to the imperial fringes, who then sought to secure a more dignified position in the capital or the government offices closest to the capital. In the opinion of the authorities, the language skills they had acquired during their years of study would enable them to adapt in a foreign environment, which would increase the efficiency of the administrative process. The author concludes that only a few of the graduates of the Vostfakt remained to serve in the alien administration. But it was their activity that served for the benefit of the Kalmyk people, leaving a bright trace in their memory.

Keywords

Alien administration, Kalmyk steppe, Astrakhan province, Stavropol province, personnel training, S. A. Kozin, S. S. Dzhanturin, K. V. Luchich, G. I. Makhnin.

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About the authors

Irina V. Lidzhieva, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Southern Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Laboratory of History and Ethnography, Leading Researcher, Rostov-on-Don, Russia, 8-961-546-97-77, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Grant information

The publication was prepared under the State Assignment of the Federal Research Center of the Southern Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Project No. gr. 122020100347-2.

The article was received in the editorial office on 13.01.2024, recommended for publication on 20.03.2024.