The Salaries of Officials and Officers in the Russian Empire

Abstract

This article analyzes changes in both the nominal and real salaries of Russian officials and officers. The study draws upon data concerning provincial administrations, which employed a significant portion of officials, and the infantry, in which most of the officer corps served, from the introduction of monetary salaries in 1763 (for officials) and in 1711 (for officers) to 1913. A table of the changes in nominal salaries was compiled from legislative and regulatory documents, and, with the use of a consumer price index constructed by the author, time series of the real salaries of officials and officers of various ranks were obtained by decades over 150 years.