ABSTRACT
Autocracy in Russia remained strong and rigidly conservative throughout the nineteenth century because there was no true bureaucracy. Peter created the modern Russian state. In this respect he did only what Louis XIV, the Great Elector, or Elizabeth I had done earlier in their own countries. In Russia, however, the situation was different, Peter the Great and his successors set up many new political and administrative institutions. But they could not find the proper "labor force" to make them work. At the opening of the nineteenth century, the political framework erected by Peter the Great—and expanded by his successors—had become stabilized. It was to be expected in an autocracy that the sovereign would often appoint his personal favorites and friends to die highest administrative functions.
