Naval officers — graduates of Russia’s naval educational institutions of the second third of the 18th century
Abstract
This article deals with a collective portrait of graduates of naval military and educational institutions of Russia in the 18th century. It is based on the analysis of biographical data collected during preparation of a dictionary devoted to naval offi cers that contains the dates of birth and death, places of birth and death, time of study in military and educational institutions, number of people in possession, brief data on the service as well as indications of sources. In order to compile this reference book, a large layer of documents has been used, i.e. service records and offi cial lists, offi ce materials, lists of offi cers, information from periodicals and reference books on the genealogy of the nobility. Unpublished documents on this topic have been preserved in St Peterburg’s Russian Naval Archive and Russian State Historical Archive, as well as in Moscow’s Russian State Archive of Ancient Acts and Russian State Military Historical Archive. The object of the analysis is prosopographic data on naval offi cers of Russia who were in the navy in the 18th century, though not on everybody. Primarily, these are persons who obtained education in Russian military naval educational institutions (Moscow Navigation School, St Petersburg Naval Academy, Naval Cadet Corps) and continued service in the navy, excluding military artillerists. Small number of wealthy landowners and prevalence of petty servicemen demonstrate that naval service was not prestigious with Russian nobility. Quite a high proportion of those who obtained the rank of the general demonstrates the same, however strange it may seem.
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