Russia under the Old regime

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conclusion that sooner or later he would try to eliminate aristocratic privileges.

In 1722, after thorough study of western bureaucracies, Peter introduced one of the most important pieces of legislation in the history of imperial Russia, the so-called Table of Ranks (TabeV 0 rangakh). The ukaz set aside the traditional Muscovite hierarchy of titles and ranks, replacing it with an entirely new one based on western models. The Table was a chart listing in parallel columns positions in the three branches of state service (armed services, civil service, and court), each arranged in fourteen categories, one being the highest and fourteen the lowest. The military and civil services were formally separated for the first time, being assigned their own nomenclature and ladder of promotion. The holder of a position listed on the Table was entitled to a rank or chin corresponding to it, much as in a modern army, for example, the commander of a company normally holds the rank of captain. It was Peter's intention that every dvorianin, regardless of social background, should begin service at the bottom, and work his way up as high - and only as high - as his talents and accomplishments would carry him. In the army he was to start as an ordinary soldier. The richer and physically stronger dvoriane were permitted to begin in one of the two Guard Regiments (Preobrazhenskii or Semenovskii) where, after a few years of schooling they were commissioned and either left to serve or else transferred to a regular field regiment; the others began as soldiers in regular regiments but promptly received their commissions. In the civil service, dvoriane began in the lowest position carrying chin. Common scribes, like soldiers and non-commissioned officers, had no ranking and therefore were not considered to belong to the dvorianstvo.

Peter was not content to establish a framework within which landowners were encouraged to better their performance. He also wished to give opportunities to commoners to join the service, and to this end he provided that soldiers, sailors and clerks who had distinguished themselves in their duties and qualified to hold positions listed on the Table of Ranks were to receive the appropriate chin. Such commoners at once joined the ranks of the dvorianstvo because in Petrine Russia all who had chin and they alone enjoyed the status of dvoriane. Once on the list, they competed with dvoriane by birth. According to the Table, commoners who attained the lowest officer rank in the military were automatically elevated to hereditary dvoriane, i.e. gained for their sons the right to enter state service at the fourteenth rank and all the other privileges of this estate. Commoners who made a career in the civil or court services had to reach the eighth rank before acquiring hereditary status; until then they were considered 'personal' (lichnye) dvoriane (the term came into existence later, under Catherine 11) and as such could neither own