CC BY
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УДК 94(47)«1850/1900»:316.343-057.3
A.E. Zhukova
The officers of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia in the second half of the 19th century: a personal story and general characteristics
Служащие Министерства иностранных дел России во второй половине XIX в.: личная история и общие характеристики
The article studies the formation of the MFA staff in Russia in the second half of the 19th century, explores the case of a merchant family member, D.I. Abrikosov, employment and analyzes the number of officers and general trends of HR policy of the MFA.
В статье изучается формирование личного состава МИД России во второй половине XIX в., рассматривается пример поступления на службу представителя купеческой семьи Д.И. Абрикосова. Проведен анализ
численного состава служащих и общих тенденций кадровой политики руководства МИД.
Key words: Russia, diplomacy, officials, HR policy, nobles, bourgeoisie, middle class.
Ключевые слова: Россия, дипломатия, чиновничество, кадровая политика, дворянство, буржуазия, средний класс.
It is believed that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Tsarist Russia was one of the most privileged departments and employed only the representatives of the upper class. Though there really was such tendency and it wasn’t easy to get hired by the MFA, in the end of the 19th century some talented people, not only aristocracy representatives, started working at the Ministry [14; 15].
The story of the Russian diplomat Dmitriy Abrikosov is an illustrative example of how people without a noble birth emerged among the employees of the Foreign Ministry. How did the member of a famous confectioners' dynasty get to one of the most privileged state institutions of Russia in the second half of the 19th century, why did he choose the diplomatic career, and was the MFA of prerevolutionary Russia ready for such changes?
Dmitriy Ivanovich Abrikosov was born on the 11th of April, 1876, in Moscow, in one of the richest merchant families of Russia. The
© Zhukova A.E., 2015
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Abrikosovs' confectionary manufacture, one of the first in Russia, was a small shop of a serf at the beginning and turned into to a famous chocolate empire throughout Russia finally1. However, despite wide popularity and fame in pre-revolutionary Russia, the Abrikosovs were a mere merchant family. The Abrikosovs were professionals in their field and were successful and talented entrepreneurs, but, nevertheless, they didn’t have any relation to the aristocrats, which were usually hired as diplomats by the the MFA. D.I. Abrikosov himself admitted that in the world of Russian aristocracy he was a “stranger” [1, p. 9-10], and, moreover, he was “considerably embarrassed by the fact that his colleagues associated his last name with caramel and candies, so he would rather have a more common last name” [9, p. 158].
Ironically, Dmitriy Abriksov's life was far from «sweet». At the age of 5 Dmitriy lost both of his parents and was fostered by his uncle - Nikolay Alekseevich Abrikosov, who, actually, was like a father for him. His uncle was strange to confectionary manufacture and wasn’t interested in it, but he used to attend the lectures at the Sorbonne and the Moscow State University in due time and so he was rather educated person. The circle of his contacts was relevant. It included people like, for example, A.F. Koni, a famous lawyer, and other well-known people of the second half of the 19th century.
After finishing the course in a public school, D.I. Abrikosov entered the Faculty of Sciences of Moscow State University. Before the beginning of the first academic year he went on a journey to England with his brother in 1894. P. E. Podalko, one of Abrikosov's biographers, believes that it was that time when “his love for England originated so that throughout his life Abrikosov seemed like a real england fan” [9, p. 141]. During this trip he developed the first interest to the diplomacy.
On the Faculty of Science Dmitriy Abrikosov didn’t find his place and soon decided to change the faculty and to start studying the science of law. At the same time annual trips to Europe after exams turned into the kind of tradition for him. While studying at university, D.I. Abrikosov visited almost all European countries, as well as Turkey, Palestine and The North Africa. It couldn’t but influenced the formation of his interests and development of his erudition and enlightenment.
D.I. Abrikosov got the first acquaintance with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in his fourth year at University. He needed to study some documents which were kept in the Archive of the MFA in Moscow to write
1 The founder of the future empire was the surf Stepan, who paid the quit rent (obrok) to his landowner and was set free to a town, where he opened his first little shop with sweets. Such well-known candies as “Gusinie lapki” and “Rakovaya sheika” were created in the Abrikosovs' factory. Also the Abrikosovs' factory was the first to produce fruit jellies and pastila. The factory, founded by the Abrikosovs dynasty, still exists now under the name “Babaevskaya” [9; 19; 20].
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a composition about Spinoza's legal treatises. There he met a number of the researchers and officials of the Archive and established friendly relations with some of them. One of the Abrikosov's friends, who believed that the road to the Ministry was closed for Dmitriy Ivanovich as he came from a merchant family, advised him to try to apply for a position in the Archive of the MFA to become a diplomat afterwards. By the end of the 19th century the most of the employees of the Ministry supposed that that diplomacy in Russia was no longer an exclusive prerogative of the aristocrats by birth.
After the graduation from the University, according to the Law on Military Service, Dmitiy Abrikosov joined the army, the artillery brigade located not far from Moscow, for a year. After finishing the military service, he got a job in the Moscow Archive of the MFA as a stepping stone for the further promotion a fortiori that that the Archive was headed by Duke P.A. Golitsyn, a friend of Abrikosov [1, p. 114-115].
Then on his way to the diplomacy career he passed an exam and moved to Saint Petersburg in order to work in the Ministry, in the Second (Asian) Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia. In his memories Dmitriy Ivanovich gave vivid description of some details of the exam procedure which he called a “comedy” intended “not to make certain that a person had special knowledge, but to evaluate general behavior, appearance and mental speed” [1, p. 116]. D.I. Abrikosov managed to impress the examination board, headed by the deputy minister, who had been impressed by the Abrikosov's aunt's manor in The Crimea. This represented financial prosperity and stability of the candidate's family. This factor contributed to his success, and Dmitrii Abrikosov was hired by the MFA. Abrikosov moved to Saint Petersburg, and when he had to decide where to live, he settled down at an English priest's place. He made such a choice on a number of reasons: he didn’t have any friends in the capital; it was boring to live on his own; if he rented a hotel room, he would have to live the high life, which he tried to avoid. Thus, passed the exam and moved to Saint Petersburg, D.I. Abrikosov started working at the Ministry.
Later, when the ambassador in Great Britain, Duke A.K. Benkendorf, needed an assistant, the administration chose D.I. Abrikosov not only because he was a responsible and assiduous employee, but also because he was financially secured enough, as long as the most of the newcomers were either one thing or another. This assignment shows that Ministry was open not only for nobles, but for talented people with not so high social standing as well. In the example above the combination of good education and intellect with financial well-being did the trick, demonstrating the flexibility of the MFA HR policy together with preserving its basic principles.
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The initial stage of work didn’t impress Dmitriy Ivanovich much. «It didn’t look like a brilliant life and there were no diplomatic secrets, which I imagined», mentioned Dmitriy Abrikosov in his memories. His words show discrepancy between the traditional image of work in the MFA as in a privileged Ministry, consisted of the members of the upper class only, and the reality. However, Abrikosov's promotion was quite fast comparing to his colleagues, who waited for this for years.
Abrikosov's diplomatic career itself started in London. Then, in 1911, he was appointed a second embassy secretary in Beijing and held this rank till 1912. in the period of the First World War, he was an officer of the Far East Department of the MFA, but soon he was invited to Tokyo by a new ambassador Vasiliy Nikolaevich Krupenskiy, his former coworker in China. When V.N. Krupenskiy left Japan, Abrikosov took his position. This was the peak of his diplomatic career. When the Soviet government was formed, D.I. Abrikosov stayed in Japan as a private citizen and spent more than 20 years as an emigrant (1925-1946). The life of Dmitriy Ivanovich and his work as a diplomat is studied by P.E. Podalko, M.U. Sorokina and other researchers [9; 16; 17; 18].
The story of Dmitriy Abrikosov is one of the 395 personal stories of the MFA officers of the second half of the 19th century. This number -395 people - is the result of the investigation of “Annuals of the MFA” [2; 4; 5] and a formation of the list of the officials, who have been working in the Ministry from 1868 (new staff of the MFA) [10; 11] to the beginning of the 20th century. For the in-focus period, the Ministry has never exceeded the limits of the number of employees, though the significant rise of the number of employees in the central departments can be traced starting from the early 1890s. Such changes can be explained by several reasons. First, such processes as sophistication of the regulation system of foreign affairs all in all, steady expansion of Russian contacts with different countries and, consequently, expansion of the MFA and its employees functions were of great importance. The second reason is based on the first one: the amount of received and processed information in the Ministry permanently increased and thus required more and more officials. The words of Sergei Dmitrievich Sazonov, one of the officers of the MFA, are an interesting confirmation of this fact. He described the situation in the MFA and the lack of employees in a letter to his friend: «... the work in the Ministry has is replete over the last days, but the there is few people» [13. D. 506]. At the same time the social base, from which people were hired to the MFA, started expanding. Thus, the possibility to become officials and diplomats of the MFA for not only nobles but for middle class as well is evident.
15,5% of the all Ministry officers were members of aristocracy: his highness the duke, 13 earls, 21 dukes and 27 barons. So, 62 out of 395 officers belonged to the Russian nobility. The privileged status of the
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MFA can be confirmed by the number of officers who reached the high rank of civil service. For the in-focus period in the central departments of the MFA accounted: 1 chancellor (1st class), 6 actual privy councilors (2nd class), 29 privy councilors and 55 actual state councilors (4th class). As soon as getting the rank of an actual state councilor meant the acquisition of hereditary nobility, there were at least 91 people (or 23% of all employees of the MFA) of hereditary nobles. 103 people were promoted to the ranks of 5-9 classes, which gave personal nobility. Thus, such employment seemed to be tempting. However, these figures don’t show the whole picture as social classes were not recorded in the Annuals of the MFA, which were the main source when studying the stuff of the MFA. That’s why it is possible to find out the non-nobiliary origin of the officers only from such private stories like Dmitriy Abrikosov's one. Most employed people initially belonged to the nobles but, nevertheless, a 100% aristocracy staff has never existed.
If we turn to the beginning of the career of the MFA officials, it is important to understand that about 40% of them started as supernumerary unpaid workers. Such situation shows the importance of not only blood but stable financial position as well, as it was the family who had to aliment their child, hired for a supernumerary unpaid job, which sometimes required financial investments. By the end of the 19th century middle class members were the ones who frequently met these demands.
References
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