Administrative Rotations of the Provinces of European Russia (1864–1914): Network Analysis

The object of the study is the higher provincial administration of the Russian Empire. The subject of the research is the influence of the prestige of the province for the administrative service on the personnel policy of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the dynamics of appointments of governors and vice-governors of European Russia from the beginning of the zemstvo reform in 1864 to the beginning of World War I in 1914. Based on the analysis of memoirs of provincial administrators and administrative documentation from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, criteria for the prestige of provinces in the administrative service were identified: population density, climate, distance from Saint Petersburg, functioning within the governorate general, presence of zemstvo and noble self-government, and the presence of military, judicial, or educational district centers. A graph of rotations of governors and vice-governors was created and analyzed. A total of 395 administrative rotations were analyzed, in which both the starting and ending points of the rotation were provinces of European Russia. Using network analysis, the significance of the provinces of European Russia for the system of administrative rotations in this region was identified. The most important parameters for prestige were the presence of administrative district centers, population density, and distance from Saint Petersburg. It was established that vice-governor appointments were more chaotic and situational than governor appointments. It was concluded that the significance of prestige had a serious impact on the system of gubernatorial rotations. A correlation was found between the number of outgoing gubernatorial rotations and the prestige of the provinces; the less prestigious the province, the more outgoing connections it had, as officials sought to serve in more prestigious provinces. In this regard, the personnel policy took into account the criterion of prestige, which significantly organized personnel processes, giving them a systematic character. The novelty of the research lies in the classification of the prestige of provinces, as well as the establishment of the significance of each province in the system of administrative rotations in European Russia using network analysis.