Pre-revolutionary bureaucracy of the Russian Empire and the Southern Urals: basic trends and prospects for study

The article critically analyzes the main findings of scholars’ works and identifies the most promising areas for research related to the history of Russian bureaucracy. It outlines the key stages in the development of domestic historiography on bureaucratic history and analyzes the major approaches to studying bureaucracy in the Southern Urals during the second half of the 19th and early 20th centuries. The article identifies monographs, research papers, and dissertations focusing on bureaucracy in the Russian Empire and the Southern Urals. The historicalcomparative method is used to compare the approaches employed by historians to study prerevolutionary bureaucracy during the pre-revolutionary, Soviet, and modern periods of Russian history. The analysis allows revealing aspects of the officials’ life in the Southern Urals in the second half of the 19th and early 20th centuries that have not been adequately explored. The article outlines several problems related to the history of the pre-revolutionary Russian bureaucracy. First of all, this is the history of provincial officials, who took an active part in implementing decisions made by central authorities at the local level. The majority of the empire’s population lived in provinces characterized by essential socio-economic and political processes. The Southern Urals is one of these regions. The article identifies promising areas for research, including the sources of formation and social practices of South Ural officials, as well as the interaction between civilians and officials of the mining administration and central authorities.