Authors
- Knyazev Mark A. Candidate of Historical Sciences
Annotation
A relevant area of modern historiography is the study of the history of elites, including those that make up the “court society” (in the terminology of the German sociologist N. Elias) in states with a monarchical form of government. In Russian literature, this problem is actively studied using the example of the entourage of the last emperor Nicholas II, but the use of a large array of data results in a very average idea of the court elite at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. The purpose of this work is to eliminate this historiographical gap through a prosopographical study of a small court corporation using the example of the palace commandants (heads of the guard) of Nicholas II. The subject of the study is the origin, main stages of the career, as well as the relationship with the monarch of those appointed to this responsible
post. All palace commandants came from privileged classes (most often nobles), studied at an elite military educational institution — the Page Corps — and began their careers with military service. Future heads of the guard received not only sufficient theoretical training, but also practical experience of participation in wars with Turkey and Japan. Those appointed to the post of head of the tsar’s guard most often had experience of personal, including informal, communication with the monarch. Therefore, the main criterion for determining a candidate for the post of palace commandant for the tsar was not experience in security activities or a solid track record, but personal trust in the bodyguard. At the same time, all appointees were in the emperor’s retinue for a certain time, took office with the rank of no lower than major general and at a fairly mature age (on average, about 45–50 years). The unifying principle in the relationship between the tsar and his palace commandants was not only spiritual and religious, but also ideological unity, manifested in the confession of moderately liberal (conservative-liberal) views. The creation of a collective portrait of the leaders of the Tsar’s guard allows us to draw certain conclusions both about the personnel policy of Nicholas II and about the peculiarities of the formation of his immediate circle.
How to link insert
Knyazev, M. A. (2024). PALACE COMMANDANTS OF NICHOLAS II (1896–1917): AN EXPERIENCE IN PROSOPOGRAPHY OF THE SMALL COURT CORPORATION Bulletin of the Moscow City Pedagogical University. Series "Pedagogy and Psychology", № 4 (56), 74. https://doi.org/10.24412/2076-9105-2024-456-74-88
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