The Orenburg vice-governors in the first half of the 19th century: functions, authority, personal information, and career factors

The analysis of government personnel of different levels is of special importance for understanding the operation of the system of governance in the Russian Empire. The senior provincial bureaucracy did not only implement all the decisions of supreme and central authorities, but also were part of the entire government system of the Russian Empire which was directly involved in the mechanism of decision making. The effectiveness of implementing government decisions was largely determined by provincial officialdom. The Russian Empire was a huge heterogeneous system combining different governance models. The senior provincial government, particularly, on the periphery, acted as a retranslator of the major ideas from the centre thus providing for the Empire’s unity. This article examines the functions, personal data and key career stages of vice-governors of Orenburg Province in the first half of the 19th century. The authors used new archival documents from central and local Russian archives. The focus is made on the particularities of the official status and governance of Vice-Governors as provincial officers first in the Ministry of Finance (the first third of the 19th century), and then in the Ministry of Internal Affairs (starting from the 1830s). It is concluded that vice-governors of Orenburg Province in the first half of the 19th century were capable to and in fact did successfully fulfill the tasks set by the supreme authority and central ministries. Even though their administrative work did not always comply with principles of rationality which were being established in the system of Russian local government they accounted for fairly efficient governance system in the Russian Empire.