The main issues in organizing salaries for judges in the Russian Empire (1801–1864)

About the author:

Sergey N. Podlesnykh, Cand. Sci. (Jur.), Associate Professor, Department of Social Sciences and Humanities, Voronezh State Forestry Engineering University named after G. F. Morozov, Voronezh, Russia; agera3@yandex.ru, https://orcid.org/0009-0001-2613-5777

Abstract:

This article, using previously unpublished archival sources, attempts to examine the key issues in the organization of judicial salaries in the Russian Empire between 1801 and 1864. Until now, issues in arranging judicial salaries in Russia during the pre-reform era have not been the subject of a separate, dedicated study. Historians have analyzed the financial support of the judiciary during this period in general works devoted to the history of the bureaucracy. This assertion applies both to the pre-revolutionary period, Soviet historiography, and the current stage of historical scholarship. Furthermore, an analysis of the issues in arranging judicial salaries allows for a deeper understanding of the specifics of judges’ work, as well as the place judges occupied within the Russian bureaucratic apparatus and the overall state of the domestic judiciary as the state approached the judicial reform of 1864. The author analyzes several key issues in the organization of judicial salaries in the Russian Empire during the pre-reform era. The problems analyzed reflected both formal circumstances (for example, the distinction between salaries and wages) and practical implementation of the law in the provinces (for example, the discrepancy between the amounts of the staff salary and the actual salary). The author concludes that the issues in organizing the financial support of judges in the Russian Empire from 1801 to 1864 were primarily subjective in nature.

References:

Abazov, A. Kh. (2024). Financial support for the activities of the Mozdok Upper Border Court in 1793–1822. Scientific Thought of Caucasus, 1(117), 39–44. [In Russian]

Belinsky, V. E. (1900). The small number of courts and judges and the insufficient material security of the latter. Sudebnaja gazeta, 4, 4–5. [In Russian]

Borshch, N. F. (1895). On the dire financial situation of members of district courts. Sudebnaja gazeta, 50, 4–6. [In Russian]

Vakilev, T. R. (2014). The provincial officialdom’s welfare of the 19th century first half by the example of Penza’s province. Science. Society. State, 3(7), 11–20. [In Russian]

Volsky, A. N. (1900). Additional salaries for members of (Siberian) district courts. Pravo, 8, 437–438. [In Russian]

Voropanov, V. A. (2022). Judges of provincial general jurisdiction courts in Western Siberia in the first half of the 19th century: Formal qualitative characteristics. Tomsk State University Journal, 480, 99–106. [In Russian]

Gorodysky, Ya. K. (1896). On the need to improve the material conditions of judicial officials. Zhurnal ministerstva justicii, 9, 48–57. [In Russian]

Eroshkin, N. P. (1981). The Serf Autocracy and Its Political Institutions. Mysl. [In Russian]

Zayonchkovsky, P. A. (1978). The Government Apparatus of Autocratic Russia. Mysl. [In Russian]

Zubov, V. E. (1998). The Structure and Size of the State Apparatus in Western Siberia in the First Half of the 19th Century. Bulletin of Chelyabinsk State University. Series 7. State and Municipal Administration, 1, 52–58. [In Russian]

Ivanov, V. A. (2012). Office suitability or Chief Personal Sympathies: Monetary maintenance of serving local official bodies in Russia in mid 19th century. RUDN Journal of Russian History, 1, 20–31. [In Russian]

Longinov, A. V. (1884). Desirable changes in the staffing of judicial establishments. Juridicheskii vestnik, 2, 310–316. [In Russian]

Melnikova, I. G. (2010). Provincial bureaucrats in the first quarter of the 19th century (based on materials of upper Volga region). RUDN Journal of Russian History, 4, 87–102. [In Russian]

Pashintseva, U. V. (2012). Payment and stimulation of work of civil servants of pre-revolutionary Russia. News of the Tula State University. Economic and Legal Sciences, 1–2, 336–344. [In Russian]

Pisarkova, L. F. (2004). Official in service in the late 17th – mid 19th. Otechestvennye zapiski: The Journal of Russian Thought, 2, 358–370. [In Russian]

Plekh, O. A. (2019). Property status of provincial officialdom in the first half of the 19th century (based on the materials from the European North of Russia). In T. I. Ryabova (Ed.), Proceedings of the 6th International Scientific and Practical Conference “Problems and Trends in the Development of the Socio-Cultural Space of Russia” (May 17–18, Bryansk) (pp. 203–211). Bryansk State University of Engineering and Technology. [In Russian]

Semenov, V. N. (1893). The urgent issue of improving the material conditions of judicial officials. Juridicheskaja gazeta, 27, 2. [In Russian]

Timanovskiy, A. T. (1886). Concerning the increase in salaries for members of district Courts. Juridicheskij vestnik, 2, 378–381. [In Russian]

Tercentenary of the House of Romanov. 1613–1913: Reprint of the 1913 Anniversary Edition. (1991). Sovremennik. [In Russian]

Troitsky, S. M. (1974). Russian Absolutism and the Nobility in the 18th Century: The Formation of the Bureaucracy. Nauka. [In Russian]

Wortman, R. S. (2004). Rulers and Judges: The Development of Legal Consciousness in Imperial Russia. New Literary Review. [In Russian]