The senior officials of Taurida province in the perception of foreign travelers in the first half of the nineteenth century

Travelers notes about Crimea hold one of the key positions among other sources on the history of the peninsula in the late 18th and the first half of the 19th centuries. With Crimea becoming part of the Russian Empire in 1783, public interest toward the peninsular rose sharply. Following Empress Catherine II’s visit to Crimea a whole host of foreign travelers started to the same destination. As a rule, they were extremely impressed by what was common and, otherwise, unremarkable for the local population. The foreign travelers paid attention to the most significant, “eye-catching” situations, processes and problems of the peninsular, focusing on the achievements and failures of the Russian administration. They fearlessly criticized the work of province administration, citing various cases of corruption and power abuse by local officials. Senior officials of Novorossiysk Krai and Taurida Province were also described as the travelers were usually received as guests at their houses and had personal contacts with them. As a result, these travelogues reflect the foreigners’ perception of both personal traits and administrative methods and capacities of the top officials of the Taurida Province. The majority of the foreigners’ accounts dated by the first half of 19th century were complimentary and laudatory as far as the top officials of the Taurida Province were concerned, and fairly critical in case of the Russian bureaucracy at large. Thus, the rankand-file government official is depicted in the travelogues as a trivial saboteur bureaucrat whereas the high ranking officials are viewed by the foreign travelers as the ones who are behind all that was achieved by the Russian authorities in Crimea and as the engine of progress, with the rank-and-file corrupt bureaucrat depicted as standing in the way of Russia’s advance to progress.